GYA Application Form 2025

Please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions section to find answers to questions about the application form, the selection process, membership and the GYA as such: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

GYA Applications 2025

"*" indicates required fields

Step 1 of 12 - Introduction

Dear applicant, thank you very much for your interest in becoming part of our community. The Global Young Academy (GYA) is a non-for-profit, member-led organisation. The GYA provides a platform for socially engaged, outstanding researchers to collaborate towards advancing science and society. GYA members are driven by their passion to make a positive, lasting impact in their communities and the planet. Selected members do not receive any monetary prize or a personal budget; at the same time there are no fees involved in joining the GYA.

The assessment of your application will cover three major aspects:

Scientific excellence
Demonstrated commitment to society
Interests and perspectives on your engagement in the GYA

Each of these aspects will be evaluated and considered in the ranking of your application. Please answer each of the questions in a way that reflects your personal experience within your context. Please limit your input to the word count specified. Longer essays will not be reviewed.

Before the assessment of those three major aspects, we will first lead you through a pre-screening for eligibility to become a member and then a survey to gather the required personal data. We suggest that you prepare for the assessment by prepreparing your answers in advance. Find the assessment questions here: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The application should be completed personally by the applicant in English. Please read the instructions in this form carefully. An asterisk (*) indicates a required field.

Formatting note: Please ensure to use proper quotation marks within the fields of this form. Using two apostrophes to create a quotation mark will render your application impossible to read by our system. It causes an error which will not allow you to save your application’s progress.

The application must be submitted by 18 September 2024, 11:59 PM UTC.

Eligibility to become a GYA member

The following questions will predetermine whether you meet the basic criteria to become a GYA member. Meeting the criteria will take you one step further, not meeting them will abort the process. Should you have questions about why you are not progressing, please contact us at info@globalyoungacademy.net.

Do you have a PhD or an equivalent degree?*

A PhD (or equivalent) is mandatory for a membership application. A PhD or equivalent is the highest possibly attainable degree in a certain field. First professional degrees will not be considered in themselves as PhD-equivalent. A PhD is the highest degree a person can get in a broad range of fields from the liberal arts to the sciences. Here are some examples of the highest degrees in other fields: 

Doctor of Arts (DA) 
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) 
Doctor of Education (EdD) 
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) 
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

If you have not yet obtained your PhD diploma, but you can prove the finalization of your PhD – then you are eligible to apply. For example, a magister degree would be an example for non-eligibility, as this is not the highest possible degree within any given discipline.

Yes, I have a PhD.

I have an equivalent title.

I do not have a PhD (or equivalent) but can confirm that I have a minimum of 5 years of research experience which I can demonstrate by concrete research output.

No, I do not (yet) hold a PhD or equivalent, and neither can I provide 5 years of research experience.

PhD equivalent*

Please name the equivalent title you have.

Demonstration of 5 years experience*

You have noted that you do not have a PhD but qualify for GYA membership due to having a minimum of 5 years of successful research in your field.

In exceptional cases where PhDs are out of reach, we consider members with equivalent research experience. This is assessed based on the research experience, outputs, and outcomes reflected in your essays. Please provide a thorough explanation of why you do not hold a PhD, including any circumstances that have prevented you from obtaining one, and detail the experience you believe is comparable to a PhD.

Please use the textfield below to explain your situation and note significant career milestones that prove that your experience indeed qualifies as a PhD equivalent.

You have no PhD or equivalent title.
This means, you are at this point not eligible to become a GYA member.

You can close this window / this tab now.

Personal data
Please note that your data entries concerning eligibility will be checked by our Membership Selection Committee once the review phase begins. Answering all questions in the affirmative does not automatically mean you are eligible. Due to the often very individual nature of a young scientist, we need to asses eligibility on an individual level just the same.

For now, we kindly ask you to proceed with entering your personal data that we need to further process your application to become a GYA member.
Title*
For example: Dr, Professor, Attorney

Name*
First name Middle name or equivalent Last Name/Surname/Family name:
Full Name:*
Please indicate your full name, with names in the order that you would usually write them. Show your family or surname(s) using capital letters.
For example: Jane SMITH, Gabriel GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ or ZHU Liang.

Gender:*
I identify as...

Woman

Man

non binary

Prefer not to say
Date of Birth*
Format: YYYY/MM/DD,
For example: 1984/01/28 for 28 January 1984. Previously, entering your year of birth, allowed us to check for eligibility. At this point we kindly ask you to enter the full date for the personal data we store.

Email address*

Addresses and contact data
In this section, you will be asked to provide your your addresses, country of residence and so forth.
Country in which you are ordinarily resident:*
This is the country where you mainly lived and worked in the past 12 month.
If applicable, please list other countries where you regularly work and visit, or maintain strong links with scientific, academic, governmental, or business communities. In addition, please indicate the type of connection for each country.
Other countries (1):
Type of connection (e.g., scientific, academic, governmental, business, or other) (1):

Other countries (2):
Type of connection (e.g., scientific, academic, governmental, business, or other) (2):

Other countries (3):
Type of connection (e.g., scientific, academic, governmental, business, or other) (3):

Country of primary nationality*
More than one nationality
If you hold more than one nationality, please list them here.

Mother tongue:*
(First language)

Other languages:

Institutional postal (mail) address:*
If any of the fields are not applicable to the address you wish to enter please fill the field with "NA".
In the first line, please remember to also state your Faculty, Department and such additionally to your university.

University; Faculty; Department OR Company/Organisation; Department Street City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Private postal (mail) address:
If any of the fields are not applicable to the address you wish to enter please fill the field with "NA".

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

Telephone number:*
Please include your country code.
(For example: +49222222222)
Link to professional webpage:
Leave empty if not applicable.

Link to further professional webpages:
Leave empty if not applicable.

X / Twitter handle.
For example: @GlobalYAcademy

Academic data
Field of research*
This is a free text field. Please enter the research field as you would describe it with your own words.

Research discipline

The discipline field which the GYA uses to gather statistical data, is a field that is split into 4 sub fields. Basic directions of research allow you to mix and match what exactly you do - so any multidisciplinary studies field can be described with this system. Picking the right disciplines, that when put together best represent your work in your field, is crucial for reviewer selection in subsequent steps of the membership selection process.

For basic or non-interdisciplinary fields like Chemistry or Biology, select the discipline as Research discipline 1.
For interdisciplinary fields you select 2 or more disciplines. For example for Biochemistry: Chemistry can be Research discipline 1 and Biology is then Research discipline 2.
For fields like Biotech Engineering, which merge multiple disciplines, you can select a maximum of 4 disciplines, for example: Engineering as Research discipline 1, Medicine and Health (or Biology) as Research discipline 2, and Technology for the third discipline field.

Whichever field you are describing, please indicate in descending order (from 1 being "most important" to 4 being "least important" or "influential but not at the core") the influence of each discipline or your field of study. For further information, you can read up on how different disciplines are organised and thus differ from one another here: Outline of academic disciplines - Wikipedia.
Research discipline 1:*
Research discipline 2:
Research discipline 3:
Research discipline 4:
Discipline Keywords*
Provide up to 5 Keywords that describe your research discipline or area of professional expertise.
Please note that if you enter more than 5, the excess ones will be disregarded.
For example: physics, environmental law, or applied mathematics.

Name of University (and country) you obtained your PhD from*

Please indicate in which sector your primary work is*

Academia

Industry

Non-Governmental Organisations

Government

Military

International

Other

Additional information
How did you hear about the Global Young Academy?*

from a Global Young Academy member or alumni

from another academy or science organisation

mailing list

Twitter / X

Facebook

the Global Young Academy website

from an advertisement

Humboldt-Live

GYA Newsletter

Other

From which academy or science organisation did you hear about us?*

From which mailing list did you hear about us?*

Where did you find the advertisement from which you heard about us?*

Membership in another young academy
Are you a member of a national young academy in your country (e.g. Young Academy of Japan), or are you involved with an initiative to establish such a young academy in your country? Or are you a member of a regional young academy, like the Young Academy of Europe or the TWAS-TYAN network? Are you a member of a young affiliates programme of a senior national science academy (e.g. Young Affiliates of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences)? Please list every academy, initiative or young affiliates programme applicable to you. Separate each entry with a comma (,).
Please note that there is no requirement to have these affiliations, it is just useful for the GYA’s work with its partners to be aware of such cross-connections.

Essays: Excellence, societal engagement, GYA engangement
The Global Young Academy is an organisation of active members who work together to address topics of global importance. Our members are therefore expected to actively contribute to the organisation's projects and activities, and to lead international, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational dialogue with the goal to make global decision-making evidence-based and inclusive.

Please answer each of the following questions in your own words. Illustrate your answers with specific examples where possible. Please do not just repeat a list of the current activities of the Global Young Academy, but make sure to connect your work and experience to the GYA’s activities.
Part A: Scientific Excellence
We are looking for a clear and concise statement on your achievements that puts them in appropriate context, pointing out the relevance of your research findings for your field and beyond and the difference your engagement made at national, regional, or international level. Just referring to publications or citations is insufficient. Your achievements are also not measured in terms of research grants and funding. We are interested in the quality and rigour of your work, along with your ability to further advance knowledge and innovation. Do not provide any bibliometric indicators such as h-index.
The GYA is a strong supporter of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and is thus committed to avoiding inappropriate use of quantitative metrics. For more information of our principles to guide evaluation see here and in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Moreover, please describe the acquisition of skills and the mastery of encountered challenges and obstacles, as well as your journey towards an independent researcher and your contributions to supporting a research community.
A1: Describe your area of expertise and its significance inside and outside your field(s).*
Include the description (one of) your current projects and a potential output and/or outcome.
A2. Describe your journey towards becoming an independent scholar?*
What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them? How is your “independence” as a researcher demonstrated? [please refer to the FAQs for the definition of independent scholar – note this does not always imply you are the Principal Investigator].
A3: What are your distinctive skills as a researcher, and how did you acquire them?*
A4: What are your major achievements?*
What did you find, what difference did it make, and why is this relevant? Please explicitly include three (3) most significant outputs and outcomes (of any kind).
A5: What were your contributions in support of scholarly communities, mentorship, teaching and research culture?*
Please also include any engagement across disciplines or across national borders.
A6: In the GYA you will interact with fellows from many different cultures and research areas. Please tell us here about your previous international/cross-cultural experience.*

Part B: Demonstrated commitment to society
Members of the GYA are committed to making a difference in the world and in society. You should outline relevant contributions already made, as well as your future ambitions. Please describe not only what engagement or changes you would like to see, but also specifically the role that you are going to play.
B1. How did you engage for the benefit of wider society (beyond academia) in conjunction with your scholarly expertise, which communities did you engage with, and why?*
Please consider any form of engagement, including but not limited to social and community engagement, science communication, science policy, science diplomacy, science for policy or science advice? [Refer to FAQ for definitions of activities considered as science policy, diplomacy, advice].
B2. What difference did your engagement make?*
B3. What concrete issue(s) would you want to address, what future do you want to build, and what efforts do you plan to make for getting there?*

Part C: GYA engagement
This part is separated into three short essays. To compliment your submission you may create a 2-minute video in addition. The video must pertain to the topics / questions in part C. Submitting a video is optional. You may add it. Not submitting a video will not result in a negative impact on your application.
C1. Why do you want to join the GYA?*
C2. How do your future ambitions line up with the goals of the GYA? How can the GYA (and wider society) profit from your expertise and experience?*
C3. What contributions do you envisage making to the GYA? Is there any new initiative or potential project that the GYA should get involved in? What role can you play, or what commitments can you make?*
Your 2-minute video
This is where you can add your 2-minute video. It needs to pertain to the content of the questions as posed in (this) Section C of the selection form. Please provide a working link to your video. Make sure this link remains intact until at least March 2025.
Submitting a video is optional.

Supporting Documents
Note that deadline for submission for all additional documents is closing date of the membership call: 18 September 2024 23:59 UTC.

Please ensure that these documents do not contain any reference to bibliometrics (e.g. citation counts or h-index), university ranking data, or income from grants or patents. Do not provide a list of publications. We will ignore all documents containing such information.
1. Curriculum Vitae*
Maximum length of 4 pages, and in PDF format. The Selection Committee members are instructed to ignore any material over the 4-page limit. Your CV should contain a brief education and employment history and make your achievements clear to a general audience. For example, a few words summarising your most significant publications are more useful than a complete list of every paper that you have authored.

Please name the file as follows and in lower case letters only: cv_[surname]_[birthyear].pdf
For example: cv_smith_1985.pdf

Accepted file types: pdf

If you are using the Save and Continue function, you will have to upload the file again.
Accepted file types: pdf, Max. file size: 5 MB.
2. Letter(s) of Support
Please arrange for the submission of at least one letter of support for your application, but no more than three. Your referee(s) should be familiar with your research career and able to comment on your standing as one of your country’s leading academics. Individuals that you may contact for reference letters could be from one of your employers or a superior, your research institution, or another professional person familiar with your work. They may also come from a young academy (in case of you being an active member). Please send in at least one, ideally two, and no more than three reference letters. One may highlight your excellence in your academic field. Another may focus on your societal engagement. Aim to find a referee/referees that can provide a comprehensive picture of who you are and what you excel at in your career and additional engagements.

Letters should be written personally by your referee(s) in English and in their own words directed to the GYA, letters created for a different purpose cannot be accepted.

Instructions about the contents of these letters can be found here. Please supply a copy of this information to your referees.

Please name the file as follows and in lower case letters only: letter01_[lastname]_[birthyear].pdf
For example: letter01_smith_1985.pdf

Accepted file types: pdf

For technical reasons, these uploads will not appear on the preview of your submission, so please double check that you uploaded the correct files here.

Drop files here or

Accepted file types: pdf, Max. file size: 20 MB, Max. files: 5.

If personal or other circumstances (e.g., you are a refugee or at-risk scholar) make it impossible for you to provide a suitable reference letter, please explain this here
3. Declaration/GDPR*
Please print out and fill in the declaration/GDPR form as required. Then scan and upload the file below.

Download the Declaration/GDPR form here.

Please name the file as follows and in lower case letters only:
declaration_[surname]_[birthyear].pdf
For example: declaration_smith_1985.pdf
Accepted file types: pdf

If you are using the Save and Continue function, you will have to upload the file again.
Accepted file types: pdf, Max. file size: 5 MB.

You will be able to preview your entries on the next page.

Please review your entries before submitting.
Note that the uploaded files for "2. Letter(s) of support" will NOT show up on this page out of technical reasons, but will still be uploaded to us.

{all_fields}
Please accept the contents of GYA's constitution and Code of Professional Conduct*
Here you can read Global Young Academy's Code of Professional Conduct
and the constitution in detail: GYA Constitution.

I have taken note of GYA’s constitution and the Code of Professional Conduct and understand that I seek membership of a diverse community that is developing policies to remove obstacles to participation in science for under-represented groups, such as women, racial, ethnic, or sexual minorities. If I am selected for GYA membership, I will respect the membership diversity in GYA and its values on acceptance and inclusivity, and I will be committed to making an effort in retaining an inclusive, respectful and safe environment.
Please agree to GYA commitment*
I confirm that I am able to spend an average of 4 hours per month on GYA activities.
Please agree to GYA committment for future membership selection*
By submitting this application, I confirm that I am willing to actively contribute to the GYA by joining a working group or committee. Additionally, I understand that if I am appointed as a GYA member, I may be selected at random to serve as a reviewer for the selection committee. A role that I am committed to fulfil to ensure the growth and success of the organization.
Please review your entries for any mistakes*
If you need to make any corrections after submission, you will need to fill out the whole form again (so please keep a copy of your text submissions).

I declare to the best of my knowledge that the information in this application is accurate. I acknowledge that providing misleading or untrue information may lead to my application being rejected, or my membership of the Global Young Academy being revoked.

Applications

GYA Applications 2025

Eligibility to become a GYA member

Personal data

Addresses and contact data

Academic data

Additional information

Essays: Excellence, societal engagement, GYA engangement

Part A: Scientific Excellence

Part B: Demonstrated commitment to society

Part C: GYA engagement

Supporting Documents

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