On 9 May 2025, the Academia Europaea (AE, est. 1988) and the Romanian Academy (RA, est. 1866) have signed a collaboration agreement to establish the AE Bucharest Regional Hub. The Bucharest Hub joins a constellation that includes the AE Hubs of Barcelona, Bergen, Budapest, Cardiff, Tbilisi, Wrocław, the information center in Graz, as well as the offices in London and Munich. It is both located (hosted by the Romanian Academy) and extraterritorial (as it is part of transnational networks), building bridges with academics and academic institutions in Eastern Europe, its home (meso)region, in Europe in general, and beyond. While covering an encyclopedic agenda (just like the AE as a whole), the AE Bucharest Hub will develop a number of specific international activities based on existing strengths in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, and more.
We aim at a transnational, intercultural, interdisciplinary, global coverage. We foster research projects and networking in all fields. Our focus on the humanities and social sciences is crucial in a period of ideological, societal, and political crises of orientation and values.
We organize conferences, seminars, and lectures. They are streamed and archived on our homepage and YouTube channel. We run, in collaboration with the Bucharest City Museum, a series of public dialogues, Ideas in the Agora (initiated in 2017, over 110 editions, streamed and archived on YouTube, etc.).
Starting on 8-10 May 2026, we shall host major international academic events, the AE Bucharest Hub Days. On those occasions, the annual Cantemir Medal and Ioan Petru Culianu Prize will be awarded (in cooperation with the YAE).
We sponsor a book series with V&R unipress (a division of Brill), Reflections on (In)Humanity.
The Hub project was initiated by Sorin Antohi (MAE 2018) in 2019, supported by a team of Romanian MAEs – starting with Mircea Dumitru (Vice-President of the RA, MAE 2019), Ioan-Aurel Pop (President of the RA, MAE 2021), and Marius Andruh (Vice-President of the RA, MAE 2004). On behalf of the AE, former Presidents Sierd Cloetingh and Marja Makarow, assisted by the Executive Secretary, David Coates, have welcomed the initiative. The strategic plan was discussed and improved in a spirit of admirable collegiality, all the way to the 2024 Wroclaw AE Conference, when AE Vice-President Donald Dingwell, David Coates, Sorin Antohi, and Mircea Dumitru (with cordial encouragement from Péter Hegyi, Budapest Hub Academic Director, and Arkadiusz Wójs, Wrocław Hub Academic Director) have agreed to go to the next level. The AE Board has then decided to hold a session in Bucharest in order to complete the process.
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The Romanian Academy provides office and conference spaces and facilities, staff support, technical and logistical assistance, as well as some financial contributions. Public and private partners, donors, and sponsors cover most of the Hub’s financial needs.
All the financial services are provided by Fundația Patrimoniu of the Romanian Academy.
For any partnership, collaboration, donation, sponsorship, etc., please contact Sorin Antohi, the Executive Director of the Hub, at sorin.n.antohi@gmail.com, or use the contact form.