On the 29th of June 2026, INGSA-Europe and the Global Young Academy (GYA) co-hosted an interactive workshop on science advice in challenging settings for early and mid-career researchers, held at Constructor University in Bremen. The session took place ahead of the GYA Annual Conference and AGM and brought together two key strands of INGSA-Europe’s current work: capacity building for early and mid-career researchers, and its ongoing focus on science advice in challenging settings, including a blog series developed with Frontiers Policy Labs.

Drawing on one of INGSA’s sufficiency of evidence case-based simulations, workshop participants stepped into different roles within science policy ecosystems and grappled with real-world constraints such as politicisation, uncertainty, time pressure and institutional limits.

The workshop also featured reflections from science-for-policy practitioners Dr. Natisha Dukhi, Human Sciences Research Council, former Co-Chair South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) and GYA Executive Committee Member and Matthias Johannsen, Senior Policy and Strategy Officer, All European Academies (ALLEA) who shared insights into pathways into policy-facing work, the trade-offs involved, and the skills that are often required but not always made explicit.

The session was chaired by Dr. Claire Craig, INGSA VP (Evidence) and INGSA-Europe Chair alongside Dr. Flavia Schlegel, INGSA-Europe board member and Founder and CEO of Science Governance Partnership and co-ordinated by Rokia Ballo, Regional Programme Officer INGSA-Europe in collaboration with GYA colleagues Dr. Carina Geldhauser and Anna-Maria Gramatte. We were also joined by Prof. Sir Konstantin Novoselov, Nobel Laureate and President of Constructor University who welcomed us all to the beautiful Constructor University and the GYA conference.

The workshop highlighted the value that multidisciplinary and early career perspectives bring to high-stakes decision-making and demonstrated the strength of collaboration between INGSA-Europe and the GYA in creating reflective, practice-oriented spaces for learning and exchange.

Thanks to Frontiers Policy Labs for sponsoring the session and to all our session speakers, facilitators and participants who brought such great energy, openness, and depth of engagement to make the session a success. INGSA-Europe now looks forward to building on this momentum to develop a further programme of chapter activities in the lead-up to INGSA’s next Global Conference, which will take place in Malaysia in late 2027.