About us
The Young Academy Leiden (YAL) is a select group of young academics at Leiden University. Founded in early 2019, it serves as a platform to bring young, enthusiastic and driven early career (post-PhD) academics together.
About Young Academy Leiden
Young academics are the future of universities; YAL gives them a voice. The Young Academy Leiden breaks out of disciplinary and institutional boundaries to create a community of early career scholars that is a driving force for fresh ideas within and beyond the university.
The members of YAL represent a variety of academic and scholarly disciplines.
Our motto is shaping the future of academia.
Our mission
The mission of the Young Academy Leiden centers around different pillars. We advocate for innovation in the areas these pillars represent:
Interdisciplinarity: YAL stimulates interdisciplinary collaboration
Science and education policy: YAL raises its voice on policy matters
Outreach: YAL connects academics to society
Community & communication serves as an umbrella that – in addition to its own activities – works with all three workgroups on the community and communication related aspects of their activities.
YAL members form a diverse group of scholars that pursue interfaculty collaborations and stimulate interdisciplinary research and education within Leiden University. YAL also critically reflects on science and education policy, in particular those issues that concern early career academics, and takes part in public debates. Lastly, YAL wants to connect researchers to society, to let the general public learn about science and inspire future generations.
What do we do?
The Young Academy Leiden serves as a platform for young and early career academics. We help them to get in contact with each other, both within and beyond their own research fields, to build strong networks, and to learn how to navigate hierarchical university structures.
The Young Academy Leiden aims to build a network within Leiden University, with other universities and with parties outside the university in Leiden and The Hague. We connect young academics both across university disciplines and with society. This way, we enable young academics to shape the future of this university.
The three pillars of the Young Academy Leiden each have their own workgroup: there is an interdisciplinarity workgroup, a science and education policy workgroup, and an outreach workgroup. YAL members actively participate in at least one of these three workgroups.