来源：《自然》
原文刊登日期：2021年6月23日
The new millennium coincided with the start of an important new movement in research. In June 2000, early-career researchers in Germany established the first in a wave of national Young Academies, organizations dedicated to looking after the needs — and advancing the aspirations — of researchers at the start of their careers. Twenty-one years later, there are Young Academies in 45 countries.
新千年恰逢一项重要的新研究运动的开始。2000年6月，德国的青年科研人员在一波国家青年学院浪潮中成立了第一个青年学院，青年学院致力于关注研究人员在职业生涯之初的需求和推进他们的抱负。21年后，45个国家有了青年学院。
Young Academies are a necessary development in international science, as the founders of Hungary’s Young Academy explain. Most early-career researchers are in a much more precarious position than were previous generations — a situation worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and a year of financial losses for universities. Funding agencies are not doing enough to support these scientists. By organizing and collaborating on a larger scale, young researchers are making themselves heard.
正如匈牙利青年学院的创始人所解释的那样，青年学院是国际科学的必然发展。大多数青年科研人员的处境比前几代人更不稳定——这种情况因新冠大流行和大学这一年的经济损失而恶化。资助机构在支持青年科学家方面做得不够。通过更大规模的组织和合作，年轻的研究者们正在让自己的诉求被听到。
One of the aims of the Hungarian academy’s founders is to encourage the formation of more Young Academies, and to show their peers how this can be achieved. It’s timely advice: there are still plenty of places where Young Academies do not exist, including England, the United States and most of the Middle East.
匈牙利青年学院创始人的目标之一是鼓励成立更多的年轻学院，并向同行展示如何实现这一目标。这是一个及时的建议：仍然有很多地方没有年轻学院，包括英国、美国和中东大部分国家。
There’s no one model for a Young Academy — their structure and funding will depend on national circumstances. Some are independent non-governmental organizations; others have a formal relationship with a country’s national science academy. Regardless of the model, it’s essential that they are a platform for researchers to have a voice on the issues that matter to their careers and to society.
青年学院没有单一的模式——他们的结构和资金来源将取决于各国的情况。有些是独立的非政府组织；还有一些与所在家的国家科学院有正式关系。无论哪种模式，它们都是研究人员在事关其职业生涯和社会问题上发声的平台，这一点至关重要。
Young Academies offer a range of activities. In the past year, they have run events and workshops on such diverse topics as working during the pandemic, grant-writing, responsible research, and supporting refugee. They also provide advice for decision-makers.
青年学院提供一系列的活动。在过去一年里，他们举办了各种活动和研讨会，主题包括在大流行期间开展工作、编写研究基金申请书、负责任的研究和支持难民。他们还为决策者提供建议。
The academies’ advice to decision-makers is often on the topics that are front and centre for young people — such as open science and open data, climate change and biodiversity loss. Last November, members of the Netherlands Young Academy published a study, Flying High But Flying Less, on how researchers could reduce carbon emissions from work-related air travel.
青年学院给决策者的建议往往是针对年轻人最前沿和最核心的话题，比如开放科学和开放数据、气候变化和生物多样性丧失。去年11月，荷兰青年学院的成员发表了一份名为《飞得高但飞得少》的研究报告，内容是研究人员如何减少与工作相关的空中旅行的碳排放。
It takes time for the seeds of new institutions to bear fruit, but the Young Academy movement is already having an impact on scientific advice, for example. Last month, the European Commission included representatives from the 14 European Young Academies in the latest meeting of its official Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. The group advises Europe’s leaders on science-policy questions, such as those related to cleaner energy or dealing with future pandemics. It’s a rare example of how younger people’s voices are being incorporated into official scientific advice — yet it shouldn’t be a rarity. More science-advice systems need to be doing the same. This message is now more important than ever. But even before the pandemic, younger people’s voices struggled to be heard in science’s established institutions — especially by the leadership of funding agencies, universities and national academies.
新机构的种子需要时间才能结出果实，但青年学院运动已经对科学建议产生了影响。上个月，欧盟委员会邀请了来自14个欧洲青年学院的代表参加了其官方首席科学顾问小组的最新会议。该小组就科学政策问题向欧洲领导人提供咨询，比如与清洁能源有关的问题或如何应对未来的流行病。这是一个年轻人的声音是如何被纳入官方科学建议的罕见例子，但这本不应该是罕见的。更多的科学咨询系统也需要这样做。这一要旨现在比以往任何时候都重要。但是，即使在大流行之前，年轻人的声音也很难在科学机构中被听到——特别是被资助机构、大学和国家研究院的领导层听到。
Science needs to hear — and act on — the voices of the next generation, as it did in earlier times. Remember that it was younger scientists — several in their thirties — who founded the Royal Society of London.
科学需要倾听下一代的声音并采取行动，就像它在早期所做的那样。请记住，是年轻的科学家——一些三十多岁的科学家——创立了伦敦皇家学会。