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 Knowledge 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.
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.