EuChemS President Angela Agostiano, as well as Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj and Science Policy and Communications Officer Marton Kottmayer from the EuChemS Office joined the 2024 Delegate Assembly of the EuChemS Young Chemists’ (EYCN) at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in London 29-31 January 2024, as invited guests.

During the opening of this annual meeting Angela Agostiano presented some of EuChemS’ activities, inviting input from EYCN colleagues. On the following day, she led a discussion on inclusion and diversity, building on her own personal experiences and challenges she faced that led her to be, amongst others, the first female president of the Italian Chemical Society. In another session, Marton Kottmayer addressed how the upcoming European elections may affect science, and later, alongside Nineta Hrastelj, led a simulation exercise demonstrating the European policymaking process with a specific science policy example. The exercise sparked lively conversations and introduced young chemists to the challenges policymakers and scientist involved in science-policy activities face related to tight deadlines and difficult compromises.

The event, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), had no shortage of high-quality discussions within the EYCN’s teams, of which outcomes were presented to all attendees, in addition to other sessions, such as the one on science communication given by Fernando Gomollón Bel.

This superb meeting was crowned by a fascinating talk on the periodic table given by Sir Martyn Poliakoff, its history and his own life intertwined with it, also mentioning the EuChemS Periodic Table.

EuChemS thanks EYCN for the invitation and congratulates EYCN Chair Claudia Bonfio and Secretary Tomasz Swebocki for putting an excellent programme and event together, jointly with RSC colleagues on behalf of which Helen Pain, RSC CEO welcomed and hosted us in London.