The Young Academy is a dynamic and innovative group of top young scientists and scholars with outspoken views about science and scholarship and the related policy. The Young Academy organises inspiring activities for various target groups focusing on interdisciplinarity, science policy, and the interface between science and society.

The Young Academy has fifty members. All are between 25 and 45 years of age and received their doctorates less than ten years before their appointment to the Academy. They represent a broad spectrum of scientific and scholarly disciplines and work at Dutch universities and a wide range of research institutes.

Background

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences decided to set up the Young Academy in 2005. The Young Academy operates independently within the Royal Academy. It has its own working plan, organises its own events and is responsible for its own viewpoints. The Young Academy and the Royal Academy cooperate mainly on projects and advisory matters.

Objectives 

• The Young Academy actively brings researchers into contact with disciplines outside their own area of specialisation and in doing so encourages interdisciplinary research.
• The Young Academy asks its members to make an active contribution to the future of their own and ancillary disciplines and to formulate their views on science policy.
• The Young Academy consults with scientific organisations and ministries and advises them on science policy.
• The Young Academy conveys its fascination with science and scientific insights to the public and pupils and students, and considers the matter of valorisation in the broadest sense of the word.