Academia Europaea, an association of leading researchers, has elected Marja Makarow as its first female president, set to lead the association in its mission to advise EU policymaking through its role in the European Commission’s Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA).
Marja Makarow is a former professor and vice-president for research at the University of Helsinki and has held various high-ranking positions in Finland’s public research sector. She is also a board member of the European Innovation Council, the EU’s newest innovation fund.
Makarow has named five priorities for her new role: better opportunities for researchers in the EU’s Widening countries, promoting multi-disciplinary research collaboration, supporting young researchers, translating research findings into benefits for society, and fostering closer collaboration with the European Commission. Makarow highlightes the importance of supporting fundamental research in delivering on these goals.
The Academia Europaea was set up in 1988, in recogition that a greater sense of community between Europe’s scientists and scholars would enhance the effectiveness of its research. The object of Academia Europaea is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages. It has almost 5,000 members. Membership is by invitation.
More information: Academia Europaea