How we are governed

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

Our newly appointed Executive Group, elected by the membership, began their two-year term on 1 October 2024. This leadership team will guide the organisation’s development, shaping its direction and supporting key initiatives that address critical societal challenges.

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. We now have 99 members in total.

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 Executive Group of the UK Young Academy is comprised of peer-elected representatives from the membership. Following the completion of the Interim Executive Group’s term, seven new members have been appointed to serve a two-year term, beginning on 1 October 2024. This leadership group will guide the organisation’s development in its early years, shaping its direction and supporting initiatives that address critical societal challenges, both in the UK and beyond.

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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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Michael Ashfold (Chair)

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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Doreen Cantrell

Professor of Cellular Immunology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. Her research interests are the molecular mechanisms that control the function of T lymphocytes, key cells of the adaptive immune response. Between 1987-2002 Doreen led an immunology research group at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute. In 2002 she moved to the University of Dundee as a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. She was Head of the College of Life Sciences and Vice Principal of the University of Dundee from 2010 to 2016. She is currently a member of Council for the Royal Society and a Trustee of Cancer Research UK.
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Claire Connolly

Professor of Modern English at University College Cork and a member of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy. She has written extensively on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish literature and has interests in cultural history and the environmental and plant humanities. Claire has been O’Brien Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, Parnell Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge and is currently Burns Scholar at Boston College, 2023-24.
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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.

Membership Selection Committee

The Membership Selection Committee is comprised of 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. Their role is to oversee the application process and asses possible candidates for membership.

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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 operates independently, it is overseen by the Governance Committee and continues 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 50 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 launched the Young Academy Ireland in 2022. 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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