Our mission

The Young Academy Groningen works independently as an organization to create awareness about science and scholarship matters that are important to early career researchers (those who have obtained their PhD within the last 10 years and are pursuing an academic career such as postdocs, tenure-track and non tenure track faculty). Our missions as an organisation are:

1. to stimulate dialogue and collaboration between disciplines, within and outside of the University of Groningen;
2. to give a voice to early-career researchers at the University of Groningen to influence policy;
3. to promote investment in the professional development of early career researchers at the University of Groningen;
4. to explore new approaches for connecting academia and society, with particular focus on the Northern Netherlands.

The Young Academy Groningen started in 2016 and aims to have at least 30 members who are young talented researchers from diverse disciplines at the UG. As an intimate organization we are able to work together to exchange new ideas and design projects with the aim of improving academia for young scientists and scholars. Therefore as a group we aim to:

1. be an incubator for ideas, to the benefit of both research and policy; YAG promotes an open and creative exchange of ideas among its members, to 1) inspire research and 2) provide input for policy development.

2. celebrate the core values of academic freedom and integrity; Academic research is increasingly being evaluated in terms of short-term outcomes and economic profitability. YAG argues that this puts an undesirable and unproductive pressure on researchers and aims to counter this trend by furthering the appreciation of the wide variety of applied as well as fundamental research conducted at the University of Groningen.

3. represent and foster diversity in the academic community; YAG aims to create a welcoming and inclusive working environment at the University of Groningen. In coordination with existing programmes and efforts (e.g. Talent Development, the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship programme), YAG aims to provide a diversity of role models for young academics (graduate students; early-career researchers).

4. be a platform for the development of academic leadership. The YAG closely interacts with the University Executive Board, Deans, members of the Bureau and the University community to exchange ideas on University-related matters. The YAG also provides training opportunities to its members to help foster academic leadership and facilitate their roles as ambassadors for science and scholarship.