Call for Nominations: Election of a President of Academia Europaea (AE) – closes on 31st March 2025#

Professor Marja Makarow stepped down from the AE Presidency on 31st December 2024.

The Board of trustees have issued the following call for nominations to any ORDINARY member who may wish to be considered as a candidate for election to the AE Presidency:

The Search Group#

The AE Board has established a search group, which will evaluate nominations and make recommendations to the Board. The composition of the search group is as follows:

Professor Éva Kondorosi MAE (Chair of class C), Poul Holm MAE (Chair of Class A1), Professor Paolo Papale MAE (Chair of Class B ), Professor Martin Kahanec MAE (Chair of Class A2) and Dr Robert-Jan Smits (Hon. MAE and member of the AE Independent Advisory Group).

The Academy’s current position#

The AE currently has some 5500 listed members who are located in all the countries of the continent of Europe and beyond. The Academy has established a new headquarters office and legal entity, which is based in Munich, whilst maintaining a support office in London (the original headquarters). This development has put into place the infrastructure to enable the AE to consolidate its position in Europe and to continue its trajectory of growth and impact. The development of the AE during the past few years has been stimulated through the six Regional Knowledge Hubs that are based in Barcelona, Bergen, Budapest, Cardiff, Tbilisi and Wroclaw, as well as the AE Data Centre in Graz. The Hubs each maintain an independent programme of activities whilst contributing to the overall profile and impact of the AE. The Hub community is expected to grow, adding further regional centres during the term of a new President. The AE has become a major contributor to the EU Science for Policy advice mechanism, working through the Horizon funded SAPEA projects and more recently has been the representative academy of the European Commission at the G-20. We expect these activities to grow alongside other expert advisory functions. In addition, the AE maintains working relationships with a number of special interest groups, such as EASAC, EASSH, UAI and UNESCO and is associated with the CoARA platform and a range of charitable foundations to name just a few.

Profile of the President#

The importance and visibility of AE has increased markedly in recent years. The Academy now wishes to build on the developments made under our previous presidents. The trustees therefore seek a new President who commands widespread respect across the European academic communities, who has achieved high levels of international recognition, has strong managerial expertise and therefore has the stature and ability to further strengthen the Academy’s position as a key player in Europe’s intellectual life. The President must be committed and able to engage and promote open and free dialogue across the traditional disciplinary boundaries. The President must represent all the many different communities in the Academy on equal terms. The President must also be committed to efforts to increase diversity in the Academy’s leadership, its committees and the membership.

With the growing activities and ambitions of the Academy, the workload of the AE President has been increasing and is demanding. It will increase further in the coming years. Currently it requires a commitment of - on average – one to two full working days per week. These are unremunerated. Candidates must enjoy robust health and nominees must be willing and able to travel frequently, to compose and deliver effective presentations in English to diverse audiences (including the general public and policy makers) across Europe and occasionally on other continents. In addition to a clear representational role, the President will chair meetings of the Board and other meetings as necessary. Some staff resource is available to assist, but the President must be willing to manage much of their workload themselves. The Trustees would prefer candidates to have familiarity with the working of the AE and its range of activities.

Nominations#

Nominations are now invited from Ordinary members of the Academy. Nomination of Ordinary members should be made as follows (freeform):

[1] A Principal Nominator (who must be an Ordinary member) should be responsible for compiling the dossier and for submission of the nomination. The principle nominator should summarize the achievements of the proposed candidate on no more than one page under the following three headlines: 1. Principal Scholarly/Scientific Achievements. 2. Positions of Trust held and 3. A synopsis of management experience. The nomination must be accompanied with the approval of the candidate.

[2] The candidate themselves should provide a personal, one-page statement, setting out his/her vision for the development of the Academy over the next 6 years.

[3] A short CV (two pages) of the candidate should be provided. A publications list is NOT required.

[4] Short, supporting statements (of no more than one page) are also required from two other members of the Academy, who reside in countries other than that of the principal nominator (in total, three nominators).

As the Academy is committed to increasing the diversity of all of its committees, nominations of members from underrepresented groups (with regard to, for example, gender, ethnicity and cultural background) are encouraged.

The nominee must be willing to have his/her nomination and supporting documents considered in a confidential manner by the search group and the Board, but neither the fact of the nomination nor the contents of the nomination documents will be disclosed to the wider membership of the Academy, without first having received the explicit permission of the nominee.

Submission of nominations and deadline#

All documents should be submitted electronically to the Executive Secretary, Dr David Coates (execsec@acadeuro.org) before noon (UK time) on 31st March 2025.

Post-submissions process#

1. The search group will scrutinise all nominations.

2. Candidates may be invited to an informal interview (via zoom or teams).

3. The search group will make recommendations to the Board of trustees who will then arrive at a shortlist.

4. ALL MEMBERS will be invited to cast a vote for their preferred candidate (the ballot will be online only and based on the list as presented by the Board of trustees).

5. The result of the ballot will be published and announced to all members.

6. The successful candidate will formally assume the Presidency from January 2026 for an initial term of three years (renewable once)

NOTE:#

The information provided by candidates will remain confidential except for those put forward to the ballot stage. All decisions and discussions taken by the search group and the Board of trustees will remain confidential.

Executive Secretary
London
February 2025

Academia Europaea London office: Room 251, Senate House, Malet Street. London WC1E 7HU, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 207 862 5786
https://www.ae-info.org