Nomination and Election Process#
Invitation to membership of the Academia is by invitation only and follows a rigorous peer review selection process by each relevant section.
- The nomination process follows an annual cycle.
- The system is designed to prevent nominations where all parties to the nomination originate from a single country.
- Only existing members may propose new candidates for membership.
Nominations are made in two ways: #
1. Standard methods for nomination
Electronic submission. Detailed procedures regarding the electronic submission can be found here.
2. The Board List
Nominations to the Board List are meant to capture those eminent scholars who, for whatever reason, may have been overlooked in the past, or for candidates who do not easily fit the normal criteria for membership. See also detailed criteria. The ‘Board list’ candidates also pass through Section committees and Classes, for their opinion and advice. The final election of Board list candidates is a matter for the Board of Trustees, following receipt of Class chairs’ recommendations.
Evaluation of candidates (synopsis) #
The AE Academic Sections are aggregated into Classes:
- Class A1 – Humanities (Sections A1, A2, A3, A4, A6 and A7)
- Class A2 – Social and Related Sciences (Sections A8, A9, A10, A11, A12 and A13)
- Class B – Exact Sciences (Sections B1, B2, B3, B4 and B5)
- Class C – Life Sciences (Sections C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5)
Each Class has a Class chair who is also a member of the Board of trustees.
After the closing date for applications, each Section committee evaluates their own candidate lists and make recommendations on a candidates’ suitability for election. Each Section committee evaluates against the published criteria and uses a common scoring system (agreed at individual Class level). The Class chairs each convene a plenary meeting where all of the Section chairs are present to discuss their recommended lists and undertake a comparative quality audit to ensure assessment consistency. The Class meetings agree a single consolidated class list for each Class.
These are formal hearings, where the individual Section lists are compared, discussed and moderated. An agreed and consolidated Class list is then submitted by the Class chairs on behalf of the Section committees the Board of trustees. The Board carries out a final check and then elects the new members.
All newly elected members receive a formal invitation from the President, inviting them to accept membership and an invitation to participate in the induction ceremony at the next annual member conference.
Membership election procedure#
Revised September 2007; April 2008; May 2009; January 2011; January 2015, January 2017, October 2020, March 2024.
A.) Criteria for membership#
The Academia Europaea, wishes to elect into membership scientists and scholars of demonstrated international distinction, irrespective of nationality, citizenship, gender, location or discipline. The primary criterion for membership is “sustained academic excellence in the candidate’s field” (2019 Regulations, Section 2). Candidature of scholars working at the interface of disciplines, or in non-traditional fields are especially welcome.
The Board of trustees is also willing to consider candidates who have made distinguished intellectual contributions in the past, but who are now making an important contribution to the management of European science and scholarship, development of the research environments and science policy.
Scholars resident and working in Europe (for at least six months in a year) and who hold substantive positions in a European institution, may be elected as Ordinary Members. Scholars that are “not normally resident in Europe, but possessing in outstanding measure the qualities and attributes necessary for Ordinary membership” (Section 2) may be elected as Foreign Members. Such candidates must also demonstrate an active and sustained collaboration with European institutions. Please note that Turkey, Russia and the former Soviet republics west of the Urals, and Israel are regarded as part of Europe for the purpose of nomination and assessment. An individual’s nationality or citizenship plays no part in the assessment of suitability for membership of the Academia Europaea.
B.) Age of candidates#
There is no age restriction. All candidates will be considered. Evidence must be provided to show that a candidate is still active in either scholarship and/or other academically relevant activity, or, where their past individual international distinction merits particular consideration. Nominators must provide evidence of the year that the candidate became research active (or ended if appropriate) and include in the evidence, references to publications produced in the immediate past period of five years.
C.) The General Nomination process#
Only ORDINARY members can nominate candidates for membership to any section and in any field. All nominations for membership must be made by two members of the Academia. One of the two must be resident in Europe and one nominator must be resident in a different country from that of the candidate. It is important that both nominators have personal and professional knowledge of the distinction of the candidate.
Wherever possible, candidates should have been approached by the proposers, and should have given their permission to have a nomination submitted, on a clear understanding that any nomination is without guarantee or prejudice. Nominators can ask the candidate to complete relevant parts of the form. The nominators MUST however complete the case for election section.
Nominations are made on the electronic form only. PLEASE NOTE: The form must be fully completed and has to be submitted as described. Nominations must follow the rules described. Additional information (a full curriculum vitae, publications lists, etc.) may be provided, BUT, may not be considered by the Section Committees.
It is the responsibility of the lead nominator, to ensure that the “case for election” is fully and correctly completed. Both of the nominators must authorise the nomination. The completed dossier should be submitted using the procedures described.
The Board of trustees is able to make nominations. These will be examined by the appropriate Section Committee, in the usual way.
The following guidance on completion of the nomination form should also be noted:#
1. Case for election to the Academia (all categories)
This section of the nomination is critical. The Classes and Section Committees will base their decisions mainly on this account. It must express clearly and in detail the distinctions and scientific achievements which led to the candidate being proposed. The candidate’s personal contribution to original research is a particularly important component. Any major contribution to wider European collaboration or science policy should also be clearly stated. Assessment will follow the CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment
) commitments. Any metrics data may be used as an additional contribution to the assessment.
2. Foreign Membership (Additional criteria for Foreign Membership)
Eminent scholars from outside of Europe and who are invited into membership, enhance the status and reputation of the Academia. The Board of trustees have decided that election as a Foreign member is a particular distinction and honour and therefore any nominations to this category, will be subjected to an additional eligibility requirement. Thus, in addition to “possessing in outstanding measure the qualities and attributes necessary for Ordinary membership”: candidates for election as Foreign members should present clear evidence of a strong and sustained (ongoing) collaboration(s) and verifiable working links with European institutions and centres of scholarship. The award of honours by European institutions, substantive positions (such as professorships) and substantial periods of residence at European centres can provide the additional evidence of such links. Participation in ad hoc conferences, summer schools and short study visits are not of themselves evidence of sustained links.
3. Books and Major Publications
Not more than ten of the candidate’s most significant contributions should be listed. There should be a clear indication of authorship role (sole, principal, co-author or editor of any book). If relevant, citation figures and evidence of impact can be included. Any evidence of impacts on the wider scientific community and/or on the wider public flowing from the work of the candidate is welcome. For example, art and performance installations, citizen science initiatives and public interactions for education and outreach.
4. Honours and awards
These should be substantial national and international prizes, or other honours. For example; medals recognising sustained academia distinction; election to national Academies. The awarding of research grants and project funds are not in themselves of significant enough recognition. ERC grants should be included.
D.) Assessment#
After the closing date for submission, the nominations are made available to Section chairs and Section committee members. The chairs will arrange for the individual Section Committee members to assess the candidates. Each class may decide whether to use a suitable assessment/marking/ranking system which will then be applied across all Sections of the Class. Each Section committee will place the candidates in order of preference. The Section chair will hold a committee meeting to discuss individual assessments.
The outcome for each Section assessment will be a single list that recommends a candidate to be either:
- Should be elected
- Not elected
The Section chair is responsible for managing the individual committee assessments and will make sure that a separate summary sheet is available, that contains the following (as appropriate):
- the total number of candidates that were: (a) considered and (b) proposed;
- the number of Section Committee members who voted;
- the results of the vote, including both average marks and an indication of the “spread” of marks received by each candidate. The individual marking given by each committee member to each candidate is not needed.
- a clear description of the voting method (if any) used, so that the Class chair and Class as a whole is aware, for example, of the relative value of high and low marks.
- The Class chair will ensure that any marginal cases, or mis-allocated or problematic cases are resolved within the Class.
The Board of trustees is a signatory to the CoARA initiative. The Board have agreed to adopt the commitments of the initiative and to apply them where relevant to the nominations and assessment process for membership of this academy. You can find out more about the CoARA initiative at (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment
).
E.) Subsequent parts of the election #
The Section chairs submit their individual Section lists and reports to their respective Class chair. Each Class chair then convenes a meeting, where Section chairs of each class collectively discuss the individual Section lists and a moderated, consolidated single class list of candidates is recommended to the Board of trustees for election to the Academy. There is one list per class. The Class chairs carry out a due diligence and QA process check.
The Class chairs present their consolidated lists to a Board of trustees meeting where a further discussion and a formal election takes place.
Elected candidates receive an invitation from the President to join the Academia Europaea. If they respond positively to this invitation and pay an establishment fee, new members are placed into the publically visible membership list.
Candidates are free to choose which Section they wish to be listed under.
New members are invited to attend the next annual conference of members of the Academia, at which they will be personally recognised and welcomed.
The award of membership is considered to be an honour. Members should want to play an active part in the life of the Academy and therefore, scholars accepting the invitation into membership are expected [in normal circumstances] to make a regular annual payment after their first full year of membership. This contribution is to help the work of the Academy. However, the trustees recognise the variation in personal and national circumstances of members and any individual’s continued membership is not dependant on an ability to pay. Flexibility for individual circumstances is always available.
Candidates designated as “not elected” can be re-nominated, as new. Any re-submissions will be considered alongside all other candidates for that year, If there were any specific reasons for a rejection (for example a lack of information) the candidate should only be re-nominated when any such issues have been satisfactorily addressed.
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(Revised September 2007, Revised April 2008; Revised May 2009; Revised January 2011; Revised January 2015, Revised January 2017, Revised October 2020, Revised September 2023, Revised March 2024)CoARA initiative - Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment
