!!!President's page
[{Image src='Cloetingh_Sierd2018.jpg' caption='' height='200' alt='Sierd Cloetingh' class='image_left'}]
!!Letter to AE and YAE members and guests from the President Sierd Cloetingh
!January 2019
!Dear AE member, member of the Young Academy and guest readers,

To all members, a healthy and a productive 2019 and for those who were not able to come to the 30th anniversary conference in Barcelona in November, please put the __2019 conference dates into your diaries now: October 23-25th__. The event will again take place in Barcelona. 
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In fact, already on February 5th, our member [Professor Laszlo Lovasz|Member/Lovász_László] MAE - Mathematics (the current President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) will be presented with the first ever [AE-Barcelona city HYPATIA prize|http://barcelona.acadeuro.org/first-edition-2018], at a dedicated ceremony to be hosted by the Mayor of Barcelona. The prize forms a part of the city strategy to be a recognised centre of international science excellence. This prize has been established and linked to the AE, following extensive negotiation by our Hub Director Ricard Guerrero and our local members. The prize is for significant scholarly achievement over a long and sustained period, and carries with it a substantial monetary element  and so contributes substantially to the further development of the AE’s international profile.
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The members who attended our November AGM elected two new key officers of the Academia who are also members of the Board of Trustees: __Genoveva Marti MAE__, Barcelona (Chair of our Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies section) was elected as Vice President, whilst __Professor Veljko Milutinovic MAE__, Belgrade (Informatics), was elected as our Treasurer. He will soon be in contact with you, firstly to ask for your 2019 annual member payments and subsequently, to seek your inputs into a new finance and sponsorship development plan.
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I am also pleased to report that the Young Academy  of Europe (YAE) have also elected __Mangala Srinivas__ as their new Chair for 2019.
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Our Vice President Ole Petersen MAE, will remain on the Board as deputy treasurer and as Academic Director of the [Cardiff Hub|http://aecardiffknowledgehub.wales] and lynchpin of our successful involvement in the SAPEA consortium.  
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On a personal note: late in 2018, I took up the baton of the rotating Chair of the [SAPEA|Acad_Main/Activities/SAPEA] Board for 2019. 
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This year, 2019, we will see some major developments here in the AE. 
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__Firstly__, our draft five-year strategic plan will be put out to member consultation in the next few weeks.
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__Secondly__, __the call for nominations for candidates for election to membership is now open.__ This year we have compressed the cycle, to allow us to invite the 2019 cohort of new members to come to Barcelona in October to be welcomed. So all members should act now and nominate suitable candidates. Remember that you can nominate candidates for any section – not just your own. The Board this year wish to especially encourage members to also nominate candidates from ‘less research intensive’ countries across Europe and the Classes have specific instructions to look carefully at all candidates’ achievements, especially taking into account the overall conditions under which they are working and the opportunities available to scholars in diverse countries. __The closing date for electronic submission of candidates is 31 March.__ There is no limit to the number of candidates that any individual member can nominate, or support - but please do make an effort to nominate at least one. [Full information|Acad_Main/Nominations].
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Please also remember that AE members can nominate young researchers for election to the [Young Academy of Europe|http://yacadeuro.org] (via their [website|http://yacadeuro.org/join-us]).
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__Thirdly__, a call will be published inviting nomination of candidates for the next Presidency of the Academia Europaea (from 2020 onwards). Full details of the criteria and process will be made available to members in due course.
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__Fourthly__, I am pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the establishing of a __fifth Academia Europaea Regional Knowledge Hub__, to be based at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University in Georgia. The Hub has the full support of the University (our member - Rector George Sharvashidze MAE) and the government of the republic.  A launch event is currently planned for late April and a life sciences symposium (organised by Alex Verkhratsky MAE, Chair of Class C) is planned for September.
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Fifthly, I want to congratulate [Professor Aleida Assmann|Member/Assmann_Aleida] MAE (Comparative Literature – University of Konstanz) MAE and [Professor Sonia Livingstone|Member/Livingstone_Sonia] MAE (Media and Communications – London School of Economics) – who have been selected to receive an [Erasmus Medal of the Academia Europaea|Acad_Main/Activities/Awards_and_Prizes/Erasmus_Medal/Erasmus_Award] for their sustained contributions to their fields. Their awards will be presented at the 2019 annual conference in October in Barcelona, where they will each deliver an Erasmus lecture as part of the programme. 
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Finally, a general reminder to all members: please look at the [http://www.ae-info.org] website, where all of our upcoming events are announced. Please remember that all AE members can also access for free the online issues of [The European Review|Acad_Main/Publications/European_Review]. Simply log in into the member pages via your account. You can also find links to our Regional Knowledge Hubs and their programmes of events and a lot of other AE related information, including your own personal profile pages, which you can update and expand as you wish.
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__Here are just a few or the expanding list of 2019 events:__
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*__February__, Paris: APPEC-Geo.8- workshop on Observatory Synergies for Astroparticle Physics and Geoscience.

*__April__,Budapest: "Consensus Workshop on Definitions in Translational Medicine".

*__April__: Launch programme for the Tbilisi Hub.

*__May__: Stockholm Wenner Gren-Academia Europaea HERCULES group symposium: “Mind the Gap: Bridging Secondary and Higher Education”.

*__June__, Krakow: Annual RNA Society Meeting, RNA 2019.

*__June__, Oslo: 25th International Conference on Types for Proofs and Programs.

*__October, Barcelona: 31st annual conference of the Academia Europaea.__

*__November__, Hangzhou, PRC: “The Ethico-Political Turn in Literary Studies: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives”.
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__Sierd Cloetingh__\\
Utrecht, January 2019
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!Past newsletters and statements

*[Newsletter June 2018|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_June_2018]
*[Newsletter March 2018|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_March_2018]
*[Newletter December 2017|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_December_2017]
*[Newletter October 2017|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_October_2017]
*[Newsletter September 2017|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_September_2017]
*[Newsletter May 2017|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_May_2017]
*[Newsletter February 2017|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_February_2017]
*[Newsletter December 2016|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_December_2016]
*[Newsletter September 2016|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_September_2016]
*[Newsletter July 2016|Acad_Main/About us/President's Page/Newsletter_July_2016]
*[Newsletter April 2016|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_April_2016]
*[Newsletter January 2016|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_January_2016]
*[Newsletter November 2015|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_November_2015]
*[Newsletter July 2015|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_July_2015]
*[Newsletter March 2015|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_March_2015]
*[Newsletter December 2014|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Newsletter_December_2014]
*[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 awarded to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014], October 2014
*[Post election statement|Acad_Main/About_us/President's Page/Post election statement], August 2014
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