How we are governed

The UK Young Academy is governed by its members with the support of the seven senior partner academies.

Our interim executive group, elected in April 2023, have formed the Young Academy’s first leadership team and are working with our members to establish the direction and activites of the new organisation.

Our structure

The UK Young Academy is a not for profit organisation, established under the auspices of the Royal Society, a UK registered charity, in partnership with the six other senior national academies, operating across the UK and Ireland.

Launched in June 2022, the initial structure sees the Young Academy currently operating under the Royal Society in the first instance, and the UK Young Academy’s Governance Committee report to the Royal Society Council on its progress.

67 members were selected to form the initial membership cohort in January 2023.

An Executive Group, comprising elected representatives of the membership, forms the leadership team and is responsible for working with the members to develop the Young Academy’s strategy and initial work plan.

Members are selected through a competitive application process by a selection committee comprising members from the Young Academy, Fellows and Members from the seven partner academies and early-career and professional sector representatives covering different areas of knowledge, expertise and geography.

The UK Young Academy is funded by a grant to the Royal Society from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Executive Group

The newly elected Executive Group of the UK Young Academy is comprised of peer-elected representatives from the Young Academy’s membership. The seven individuals will serve as an interim leadership team for 18 months, and work with our first cohort of members to establish the foundations of the organisation, including it’s initial strategy and work programmes.

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Governance Committee

For its establishment, the UK Young Academy’s Governance Committee is responsible for overseeing the plan to set up the UK Young Academy, budget allocations and its operational requirements. Members include representatives from the Royal Society’s Council and staff, and the partner academies. 

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Richard Morris (Chair)

Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Science and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. Until recently he was Director of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems at the University of Edinburgh. He is still actively teaching at the University and his longstanding research interest is the neurobiology of cognition, particularly the role of neuronal plasticity in memory formation. Earlier in his career Richard helped to set up an exhibition at the Natural History Museum and worked on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. In 2007 he was appointed CBE.
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Sarah Curtis

Professor Emerita at Durham University and Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She remains actively engaged in research on health inequalities. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where she has contributed to consultations on health and healthcare issues for policy makers in government and NGOs, and offers advice to early-career researchers. She has also served as a member of the Young Academy of Scotland’s advisory group. Sarah is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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Michael Ashfold

Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol, and a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics. He served as a member of the Royal Society Council between 2019-2021. His research interests include molecular spectroscopy and photophysics (ranging from impacts on interstellar chemistry to the operation of sunscreen molecules), and diamond growth by chemical vapour deposition methods.
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Lesley Miles

Chief Officer – Programmes, Partnerships and Engagement – at the Royal Society, having joined in 2013 as the Chief Strategy Officer. Her role includes responsibility for major strands of work including grants, public, schools and industry engagement and the Royal Society’s focus on diversity and inclusion in STEM. She is the staff lead for the UK Young Academy at the Royal Society. Before joining the Royal Society, Lesley was the Marketing and Communications Director of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Most of her career was spent working in the private sector, including six years as Marketing Director of Waterstones Booksellers.
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Simon Swain

Vice president at the University of Warwick, where he has spent much of his career championing research and engagement in humanities and social sciences. He is a vice president at the British Academy, leading research funding strategy and HE policy including the Academy’s new Early Career Researcher Network for early-career researchers in Humanities and Social Sciences. He is the author of many studies on the scientific legacy of Greek antiquity in the Islamic Middle Ages and on Greek culture and politics of the Roman period.
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Veronica van Heyningen

Honorary Professor at the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Biology. She was previously head of medical genetics at the Medical Research Council’s Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh. She also was a founding member of the Human Genetics Commission, and president of both the European Society of Human Genetics and The Genetics Society. Despite now stepping away from research work, she still enjoys interacting with staff and students at UCL, and is a patron of the UK patient organisation, Aniridia Network.

Senior Partner Academies

The seven senior partner academies each work in their own ways to engage people at an early stage of their careers across the UK and Ireland, but there was a gap for a single UK-wide organisation to do this independently. In the first initiative of this scale, the seven partner academies are working together to establish a Young Academy covering all areas of the UK.

While the UK Young Academy will operate independently, it will be overseen by the Governance Committee and will continue to work closely with the partner academies on relevant programmes of work where appropriate.

Other Young Academies

We are part of a growing global network of Young Academies who share knowledge, support one another, and work on international projects. There are now over 40 other national young academies around the world and a further eight transnational young academies as part of the global Young Academies initiative. Within the UK, the Young Academy of Scotland was established by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011, while the Royal Irish Academy is launching a Young Academy in Ireland. Many early-career researchers and professionals from the UK have also been members of the European Young Academy and the Global Young Academy.

Learn more about the activities of other Young Academies from their members.

Need more help or have further questions?

Call us on : + 44 207 451 2500
(Lines open Mon-Fri, 9:00 – 17:00
Excludes bank holidays)
Email us: enquiries@ukyoungacademy.org

You can also write to us at this postal address:

UK Young Academy, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG

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