Citation: The Young Academy of Europe Prize, first introduced in 2017, is awarded annually to early- to mid-career professionals in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions to key areas of the YAE. In 2019, the YAE Prize was renamed the ‘André Mischke YAE Prize for Science and Policy’ in honour of the YAE Founding Chair, André Mischke. The prize is awarded to support and promote: science, evidence-informed policymaking, science communication, as well as future-generation scientists and scholars in Europe.
Dr Gergely Toldi is a senior lecturer at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, working in neonatal medicine and innovative research in immunology and the field of flow cytometry. He is also co-chair of the ‘Widening European participation’ thematic mission of the Academia Europaea Budapest Knowledge Hub. For his successes in immunology, he has received numerous awards, prizes, fellowships, and grants, including the International Medis Award (Paediatrics) 2016. Dr Toldi has been involved in various organizations and activities, e.g., as a Board Member of the German Society for Cytometry, a Member of Global Young Academy, Executive Committee Member of the Hungarian Young Academy, and a Member of the COVID-19 Advisory Group of the InterAcademy Partnership. Within the ‘Widening European participation’ mission of AE, he plays an important role in increasing the competitiveness of early-career researchers (ECRs) from EU13 countries and improving their representation on the European level. He is also a founding delegate of the Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS), a new initiative to create a formal platform of European young academies for their involvement in European science advice through SAPEA. Through his clinical role, Dr Toldi developed evidence-based regional and international guidelines and led quality improvement projects shaping current clinical practice in several aspects of neonatal intensive care. He has been active in public dissemination of essential information related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the benefits of immunization, and he was involved in science communication during the World Science Forum (WSF) organized in Budapest in 2019. Dr Toldi helped set up both the Hungarian Young Academy (2019) and the United Kingdom Young Academy (2022), and coordinated large-scale surveys of early-career researchers in Hungary and the UK. These surveys helped implement several changes to improve ECRs’ opportunities and guide related science policy to date.
Gergely Toldi delivered his acceptance lecture on “Early-career academic clinicians at the intersection of medicine, research and policy – lessons learned from the COVID pandemic” during the Academia Europaea’s 33rd annual conference, which took place in Barcelona on 26–27 October 2022.
Gemma Modinos, outgoing Chair of the Young Academy of Europe, gave the laudation. She is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Reader in Neuroscience & Mental Health at King’s College London.
