On 5 July 2021, the newly constituted working group met for the first time to take up its function within the ALLEA project ‘Climate Sustainability in the Academic System’. 

Led by its member Die Junge Akademie (German Young Academy), the project aims to develop a proposal for a sustainable transformation of academia that is deliberated, balanced and accounts for all relevant perspectives such as to meet the challenge of a climate sustainable academia without compromising excellence in research and without diminishing international exchange and collaboration in academia.  

The members of the working group – which represent a variety of disciplines and, to a large extent, member academies of ALLEA – discussed the scope of the project and a preliminary timeline. In addition, the group has started to review existing data on the climate impact of academia and to take stock of pertinent best-practice examples set in motion in similar contexts. As such, the group intends to elaborate on considerations relative to climate sustainable academia and present these early next year. 

Members of the Working Group 

• Carlo Barbante – National Academy of the Lincei, Italy 
• Magnus Breitholtz – Stockholm University, Sweden 
• Valerie Domcke – Die Junge Akademie, Germany 
• Astrid Eichhorn – Die Junge Akademie, Germany  
• Antonin Fejfar – Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic 
• Raphael Heffron – Young Academy of Scotland/Royal Society of Edinburgh, United Kingdom 
• Jan Hladky – Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic 
• Debbie Hopkins – University of Oxford, United Kingdom 
• Agnes Kreil – ETH Zurich, Switzerland 
• Ambreena Manji – Learned Society of Wales, United Kingdom 
• Mykolas Poškus – Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Lithuania 
• Jana Prodanova – Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Macedonia 
• Sverker Sörlin – KTH Stockholm, Sweden 
• Diarmuid Torney – Royal Irish Academy, Ireland 
• Bart Vermang – Young Academy of Belgium/Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Belgium