I. How to apply & questions about eligibility
The process is to fill out an online application form. You can find access to that form – as well as information about who can apply etc. on this page: Call for New Members – Global Young Academy. If you have further questions, please contact us at applications@globalyoungacademy.net
We cannot extend the deadline. The next round will be open July to September 2026! By mid-July every year you will find the next membership call posted on our website with all the required information.
Yes, you are eligible for GYA membership – as long as you hold a holding a PhD or an equivalent degree. We recognize that many valuable contributions to the scientific community come from individuals who work in industry or research support roles. Our aim is to include a diverse range of experiences and perspectives within the GYA.
A PhD or an equivalent degree is mandatory for a membership application.
Equivalent to a PhD means that you have obtained 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 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 that you have already defended your thesis, then you are eligible to apply.
On the other hand, someone who holds a magister degree is not eligible to apply because this is not the highest possible degree.
Holding a PhD (or an equivalent degree – see below) is a precondition for all applicants. So, please apply for a GYA membership only after you have obtained your PhD. We are looking for new members every year between 15 July and 15 September. You can find more information about our annual call for members on our dedicated website: Call for New Members – Global Young Academy
The GYA is looking for members who are in the first years of their independent careers. This means that an individual goes beyond relying on a PhD supervisor or their network, builds their own network of collaborators, or follows research lines that they have defined. For example, fellowships provide evidence of this.
No, you do not need to be a Principal Investigator (PI) or Associate Professor to apply to the GYA. The GYA values diverse experiences and backgrounds, including those from different career stages and sectors.
The GYA values diversity – including the unique perspectives brought by people from refugee backgrounds. Therefore, please consider applying if you fulfil the eligibility requirements regarding research excellence (note the age limit is somewhat flexible if there have been career interruptions, you just need to explain your case in the application form). Primarily, you need to be able to demonstrate excellence in your field of research and also commitment to using your research for societal good; there is a section to outline any additional challenges you have overcome, and we do take this into consideration in our selection process. Nevertheless, please be aware that selection is extremely competitive each year, and so it may be difficult to get selected.
We work with a number of international partner organisations who support refugee and at-risk scholars – are you in contact with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Alexander von Humboldt Philipp Schwartz Initiative, the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, Scholars At Risk, or the Council for At-Risk Academics (cara)? We have a GYA mentoring programme for at-risk scholars who have been supported by these organisations. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to take other scholars from refugee backgrounds into our mentoring programme without working closely with our international partners, so we encourage you to explore those options if you have not done so already.
II. About the GYA and the GYA membership
Our Selection Committee will evaluate and select the candidates from October till February through three selection rounds. No earlier than March 2026 all applicants will receive corresponding information. Please understand that a thorough evaluation of over 400 applicants by the voluntary members of our selection committee is a great challenge for the GYA every year.
The GYA is a global organisation that places a high value on its diversity. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates. All applicants receive consideration and will not be discriminated against regarding race, colour, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disabilities, or other factors. Applications from women, minority groups, researchers in the social sciences, arts and humanities, and scholars working in government, industry, and non-governmental sectors are particularly welcome.
Please note that the GYA does not give stipends to members. Depending on the funds available to the GYA, we aim to financially support members with travel co-funding for the Annual General Meetings and providing some seed funding for GYA-internal projects in our four thematic areas (see the Activities tab on our homepage).
No, GYA membership does not come with a monetary prize or personal budget. GYA is a non-profit, member-led organization and does not request membership fees. Our focus is on fostering collaboration and advancing the goals of the global young scientist community.
You can find information about the current activities of the GYA on our website, specifically on the Activities Groups pages, and the news pages. They provide detailed descriptions of our ongoing projects and initiatives and recent accomplishments and collaborations.
The GYA aims to empower young scientists, promote interdisciplinary research, and influence global policy with scientific evidence. Our strategic goals include fostering collaboration, supporting early-career researchers, and promoting science education and outreach. For more detailed information about our strategic goals and vision, please refer to our Strategic Plan: GYA Strategic Plan 2024-2027 – Global Young Academy
III. More about the assessment questions
A. Scientific Excellence
A1: Describe your area of expertise and its significance inside and outside your field(s). Include the description of (one of) your current projects and a potential output and/or outcome. (2200 characters)
A2. Describe your journey towards becoming an independent scholar or professional.
What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them? How is your “independence” as a researcher or professional demonstrated? (2200 characters)
A3: What are your distinctive skills as a researcher or professional, and how did you acquire them? (2200 characters)
A4: What are your major achievements? What did you find, what difference did it make, and why is this relevant? Please explicitly include your three (3) most significant outputs. Please do not just list your major publications, awards, and grants. Focus on the content of your work and explain in your own words why it is significant for science or society. (2200 characters)
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. (2200 characters)
B. Demonstrated commitment to society
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. (1550 characters)
B2. What difference did your engagement make? (1550 characters)
B3. Drawing on your current skills and experience, what specific societal issue(s) are you working to address? How do you plan to positively contribute to these issues — through your ongoing work, and potentially through your involvement in the GYA and beyond? Please be as concrete as possible. (1550 characters)
C. GYA Engagement
C1. Why do you want to join the GYA? (1550 characters)
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? (1550 characters)
C3. What contributions do you envisage making to the GYA? Do we have an ongoing project you would like to be part of? 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? (1550 characters)
C4: 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. (2200 characters)
Your application will be evaluated by one (in the case of interdisciplinary fields, two) of the following four panels: Panel of Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, Panel of Natural Sciences, Panel of Applied Sciences and Health, and Panel of Formal Sciences and Engineering. Please describe your area of expertise in such a way that a panel member who does not work in your narrow area of expertise would be able to understand it. We are not looking for a generic introduction to your field (e.g., “Natural language syntax is the study of word order within phrases and sentences”). Instead, we would like to know what your work specifically focuses on within that field (e.g., “My work focuses on word order in Southeast Asian languages. I am especially interested in the structure of questions, which I have investigated using the framework of linguistic typology.”).
In the description of potential outputs or outcomes, we are, again, not so much interested in potential outcomes of your field in general. Instead, we would like to hear about potential outputs or outcomes of your specific work. When you describe these outputs or outcomes, please mention whether these are just theoretical/logical possibilities that you are not planning to follow through yourself, or if these are concrete outcomes already in development (or already realized.)
Impactful research output can take many forms, depending on the field and the nature of the work being done. While impactful output traditionally includes publications in peer-reviewed journals, this is not the only valid form. We also recognize contributions to policy development, the creation of innovative technologies, and activities that significantly advance scientific knowledge or societal well-being.
For applicants not currently in academia, it’s important to note that impact can be measured by real-world applications and by recognition from both the scientific community and broader society. However, it is also crucial to acknowledge that different disciplines have different norms for what constitutes impactful output.
For example, in the field of literature, particularly in subfields such as medieval or early enlightenment comparative text studies, monographs are often the most respected form of scholarly output. A researcher in this area might have few, if any, journal articles but several monographs, which are considered highly impactful within their field.
Similarly, in computer science, the most respected form of publication is often conference proceedings or open access code deposited in trusted repositories (e.g. GitHub) that is compliant with the FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship, rather than journal articles. This is due to the rapid pace at which the field evolves; by the time a journal article is published, its contents might already be outdated. While computer science is an applied field with potential real-world applications, other fundamental sciences, like certain areas of literature, may not have direct applications or the potential to produce new technologies, yet their contributions to the advancement of knowledge remain significant. FAIR = Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets.
In light of these considerations, impactful research output should be understood broadly and inclusively, taking into account the specific traditions and expectations of different fields. Whether the output is a peer-reviewed journal article, a monograph, a conference proceeding, or another form of scholarly work, its impact can be measured by its contribution to the advancement of knowledge, policy, technology, or societal well-being, and by the recognition it receives from relevant communities.
In part B of the application, we are looking for specific examples of engagement or impact. For instance, instead of the generic statement “I engaged with local communities and stakeholders”, you should provide a concrete example with there “where”, “with whom” and “how”, e.g., “I engaged with local schools in Nigeria, where I installed water filters to provide access to clean water, and I raised awareness about waterborne diseases and the potential for their prevention in these communities”. If you have been involved in policy for science or science for policy, then instead of the generic statement “my research informed policy”, you should provide a concrete example, e.g., “My research informed draught prevention policy in China, where I contributed to the drafting of the Food Security Directive of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs”.
There are a lot of complementary definitions of the concepts, but a proxy can be understood as follows:
Science policy is the set of decisions that set the level, distribution, and conditions for funding and organisation of research.
Science advice is the process, structures and institutions through which governments and politicians consider science, technology and innovation information in policy- and decision-making.
Science diplomacy is a global phenomenon and process by which nations, international organizations and non-state actors represent themselves and their interests in the international arena. It starts from the realisation that scientific exchanges and cross-border collaboration inform the shape of international relations.
Activities that qualify as these categories include participating in policy advisory boards, contributing to international scientific collaborations, engaging in policy development, and providing expert testimony to government bodies.
Please ensure that neither your entries in the application form nor the uploaded documents contain any reference to bibliometrics (e.g. citation counts or h-index), university ranking data, or monetary amounts from grants or patents. Do not provide a list of publications. We will ignore all documents containing such information.
Please provide at least one reference letter. There are two possible ways of submitting the reference letter. You can
- upload a PDF of the reference letter when filling in the application form or
- if the referee for reasons of confidentiality prefers to submit the letter himself/herself – we propose the following procedure: You submit your finished application (everything aside from the reference letter should be finalized). Once you submit the application, you will receive a receipt via email which includes a unique, numeric ID. Please forward this ID to the referee. The referee then sends the recommendation letter by email to applications@globalyoungacademy.net, giving your name and the numeric ID.
Please note that the reference letter MUST be submitted before the deadline of 15 September 2025, 18:00 PM UTC.
More information about reference letters is posted for you under the next question in these FAQs.
Please arrange for the submission of at least one letter of support for your application. 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, but 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 upload the correct files.
The GYA uses the CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) principles to evaluate applications. These principles emphasize the importance of responsible research assessment, including transparency, diversity of outputs, and the value of contributions to both science and society.
We aim to balance the evaluation across all components. This includes the candidate’s research achievements, their potential for future contributions, and their commitment to the values and goals of the GYA. Generally, each part is considered holistically to ensure a fair and comprehensive assessment.