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!!Press release
!5 June 2018
!!ACADEMIA EUROPAEA ANNOUNCES THE AWARD OF A GOLD MEDAL TO ROBERT-JAN SMITS

The Board of Trustees of the Academia Europaea are pleased to announce that the Gold Medal will be awarded to __Robert-Jan Smits__, former Director-General for research and innovation of the European Commission.
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__Citation:__  This award is only rarely given, and is made “… ''to those members and non-members of the Academia and to organisations, in recognition of the contribution made to European science through inspiration, public support, management expertise or by financial means''. “
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The Board of trustees of the Academia Europaea are pleased to recognise the substantial and sustained contribution that Robert-Jan Smits has made to European Research and Innovation policy, notably through the development of the European Research Area and through the design and implementation of HORIZON 2020, the EU multi-billion science and innovation programme, aimed at supporting collaborative research between researchers from Europe and at global level. 
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[{Image src='gold_medal.jpg' caption='' height='200' alt='' class='image_left'}]Robert-Jan Smits will deliver his Gold Medal address on the occasion of the Academia Europaea 30th anniversary event, to be held courtesy of the Royal Society, in London in September, 2018.
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The laudation will be given by Professor Eva Kondorosi MAE, a trustee of the Academia Europaea and a Vice-president of the European Research Council.
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!Background

The Academia Europaea (formed in 1988) is the pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with a membership of over 3600 eminent scholars, drawn from all countries of Europe, and all disciplines, nationalities and geographical locations.
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Full information on the Academia Europaea, its regional knowledge hubs and the Young Academy of Europe, together with information about all individual AE members, AE events and activity can be found via the website at: www.ae-info.org 
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More information about [Robert-Jan Smits|https://ec.europa.eu/epsc/team/robert-jan-smits_en]
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Download the [press release|Gold Medal press release May 2018 (FIN).pdf]
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