[{Image src='Marja_029_small.jpg' caption='Marja Makarow, President of Academia Europaea' height='280' alt='Marja Makarow' class='image_left'}]
!!Letter from the President

__The call for nominations for new Academia Europaea (AE) members has opened on October 10%%sup th/%, 2023 and will close on 31%%sup st/% January 2024.
\\ \\
Please be aware that the criteria for the assessment of the nominees have been up-dated! __
\\ \\
One of my priorities of my Presidency of __Academia Europaea__ is diversification of our membership. The percentage of members working in Widening countries does not correspond to the talent pool available, and neither does the share of female MAEs. The last call in 2022/2023 brought the share of scholars working in countries with less developed national research & innovation systems to 10,9% from last year’s 10,3%. The percentage of women scholars in the founding membership of Academia Europaea 35 years ago was 18%, now it has reached 18,8%.  Moreover, we would benefit of more representatives of the younger generation of principle investigators.
\\ \\
Meanwhile, the [Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment|https://coara.eu/agreement/the-commitments] (CoARA) has emerged in Europe. CoARA’s main principle is to base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation for which peer review is central, supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators. The CV can be complemented with a narrative that focuses on the substance of the accomplishments of the researcher, and allows to highlight merits of eventual un-traditional career paths. 
\\ \\
__Academia Europaea__ signed the [CoARA Agreement|https://coara.eu/agreement/the-agreement-full-text], together with over 500 universities, research councils and academies. This called for re-visiting our criteria for new MAEs, to be aligned with the CoARA principles.  Our Board of trustees translated the relevant CoARA principles into a renewed guidance document and nomination form, available on our web-site as of today.
\\ \\
Our Section Committee members will adopt the renewed criteria when assessing the up-coming MAE candidates.
\\ \\
[Marja Makarow|Member/Makarow_Marja]\\
President of Academia Europaea
\\
----
\\
Go to the [nomination page|Acad_Main/Nominations].