Young Academy Leiden reflects on current science and education policies at Leiden University and beyond its walls. We provide advice and input on matters important to academia.

We discuss the major questions that bear on current and future policy decisions, with particular regard to how they affect the new generation of academics. Examples include the internationalisation of students and staff, increasing work pressure, avenues for younger researchers to develop their careers, funding of higher education, including the effects of budget cuts and the system of research funding, and the integration of research and teaching.

As young researchers invested in the everyday practice of scientific research and hailing from a wide range of disciplines, we draw on a varied palette of experiences and priorities. Our aim in these policy matters is to be a constructive, independent voice, and to be sensitive to both current trends and long-term prospects. We will issue position papers and statements that express our general views on policy matters and the values that ought to inform them. In addition, we will organise meetings with different interest groups as well as policy makers, at the university and beyond, both to listen and learn from them and to communicate our positions.

Coordinators: Martin Lipman & Joris Larik