Professional Academies: The Duty to Lead
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Scientific academies are not prize clubs. They are public institutions with independence, expertise, and convening power. In a period of climate instability, widening inequality, and declining trust in science, these attributes carry a duty to lead. This is not leadership as authority or control, but as stewardship: setting standards, shaping policy with evidence, mobilising networks to deliver practical solutions, and assessing impact in the public interest. Academies exist because of public investment in their members; their obligation is to apply collective expertise to the most pressing and serious societal challenges of the time.
Source: Microbial Biotechnology
Institutions: Technische Universität Braunschweig, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Chimie Biologie Innovation, ESPCI Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Ecologie, Société, Evolution, University of Ljubljana, University of Rijeka, Harvard University, University of Warsaw, Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire Information Génomique et Structurale, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Technical University of Denmark, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Estación Experimental del Zaidín
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,260
OpenAlex ID: W7163873050