EMBO Annual Report 04

aims
EMBO | EMBC | EMBL
EMBO
The European Molecular Biology Organization
(EMBO) promotes biosciences in
Europe. The organisation supports transnational
mobility, training and exchange at all
stages of the scientific career through a
number of programmes and initiatives.
EMBO’s activities fall into two different
categories: those that make up the General
Programme funded by the European Molecular
Biology Conference (EMBC) and those
that EMBO has initiated and developed independently.
The EMBC General Programme
includes well-known activities such as the
provision of fellowships for long-term and
short-term laboratory visits, the funding of
practical courses and workshops and activities
highlighting young independent researchers
of high quality.
The General Programme supported by
EMBC encompasses some newer actions
such as science and society activities, which
foster an open dialogue between scientists
and non-scientists and an electronic information
platform providing online searches
of scientific literature and general web presentation
of life sciences information. EMBO
supports the scientific community through
the publication of two scientific journals
and in March 2005 will launch a new elec-
www.embo.org
tronic, open-access publication, Molecular
Systems Biology.
EMBO elects new members annually on
the basis of proven excellence in research.
Today, EMBO has more than 1100 members
in Europe and over 60 associate members
worldwide – providing a dedicated focal
point for the vast network of molecular biology.
The EMBO membership includes some
of the leading researchers in Europe,
amongst them 38 Nobel Prize winners.
EMBO members provide valuable input to
EMBO in all of its activities via various committees.
EMBO activities are delivered by a dedicated
team of managers and administrators
based at the EMBO headquarters in
Heidelberg, Germany. The EMBO Council is
also intensely engaged in EMBO actions and
contributes decisively to the direction of
the organisation by providing input on scientific
standards and policy. The Council
regularly examines the range of EMBO activities,
monitoring their effectiveness and
making recommendations for changes.
In recent years, EMBO has also pursued
a strategy of analysing European science
and developing new activities to meet the
needs of the molecular biology community.
EMBO identifies and pilots these new
actions to determine the potential benefit
of adding them to the overall programme of
EMBC/EMBO activities. The funding of EMBO
activities outside the EMBC General Programme
comes predominantly from EMBO’s
scientific publications. Support is also procured
in the form of grants, particularly from
the European Union or occasionally through
collaborations with international organisations.
The full range of EMBO programmes and
activities is presented throughout the pages
of this annual report.
EMBC
The European Molecular Biology Conference
(EMBC) is an intergovernmental organisation
made up of 24 member states. The
EMBC was founded in 1969 to support and
finance the actions of EMBO and to give
member states more structured access to
the expertise of EMBO members. The organisation
was formally ratified in 1970. The
EMBC promotes a strong pan-European
approach to research. Member states include
most European Union (EU) countries
as well as some neighbouring countries.
Today, EMBC supports a wide range of
EMBO activities as part of its General Programme.
Fellowships, practical courses and
workshops constitute the main actions of
the EMBC. More recently, the Young Investigator
Progamme, the Electronic Information
Programme and the Science & Society Programme
have been added to the EMBC General
Programme.
EMBC and EMBO operate very much in
harmony and are driven by a common commitment
to quality research at the pan-
European level. The actions of both organisations
are characterised by selection on
the grounds of quality and a strong cooperation
with the scientific community.
EMBC has decision-making power over the
funding and development of all EMBO activities
associated with the EMBC General Programme,
while EMBO has full responsibility
for the delivery of these activities. The actions
of EMBO are monitored and the overall
programme is decided by the EMBC
member states when they meet annually in
conference.
EMBL
The creation of a central molecular biology
laboratory was one of the founding goals of
EMBO. Early efforts by the EMBO Council
and an EMBC special project resulted in the
establishment of the European Molecular
Biology Laboratory (EMBL). In 1974, the