Add author note in YAML header with link in pandoc

I have a markdown file with a line in the header

---
author: Author\thanks{Institute. Email [test](mailto:test@test.org).}
---

My problem is: the link is not correctly interpreted by pandoc, even though other links are correctly interpreted in the markdown file. Please let me know if I should provide a MWE. I guess the problem might be easy and I just do not see it.