Testimonial: Vincent Yzerbyt (2002-2005)

Quoting his presidential address at the end of his term in 2008:

With the other members of the Executive Committee, I think that we have to identify more precisely what the specific needs of the Association’s members may be and we ought to try to come up with tools and instruments that concretely address these needs. The goal is of course one of helping and promoting activities of which the members are ultimately in charge. We remain convinced that in certain countries many social psychologists, at least at the postgraduate level, remain ignorant of our Association. A challenge for the future will be to ensure that all social psychologists on this continent are made aware that our Association is a resource.

We have seen in the past that as the number of our activities increases so too are the costs bound to go up. One way to secure more sustained funding is partly via internal means and partly via our access to European funding. This second aspect means that we will need to move to more professional ways to gain access to funding. European funding is currently difficult to obtain, especially for basic research, but this is not a sufficient reason not to try. As an example, we should develop better awareness for the opportunities afforded by the European Science Foundation. Our constructive presence in the various debates surrounding the issue of European funding is absolutely crucial so that the future funding schemes take into account the viewpoint and the interests of our discipline. In line with this concern, our Association has been careful to follow and contribute at its own level to various initiatives leading to the creation of the European Research Council.