European Molecular Biology Organization

EMBO organises over 90 meetings attracting more than 11,000 participants every year.[3]

EMBO publishes five peer-reviewed scientific journals: The EMBO Journal,[8] EMBO Reports,[9] Molecular Systems Biology,[10] EMBO Molecular Medicine,[11] and Life Science Alliance.[12]

EMBO confers several awards and prizes including:

• EMBO Membership is a prestigious award; there are now 1800 Members. [13][14][15]
• The EMBO Gold Medal is awarded annually in recognition of significant contributions of European researchers to the advancement of science.
• EMBO also awards grants to scientists. These include post-doctoral fellowships (over 2500 fellowships awarded since 2001), young investigator grants (over 300 group leader grants awarded since 2001) and travel grants.[3][16]
• The FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award highlights major contributions by female scientists to life sciences research. Winners of the award are inspiring role models for future generations of women in science. The award is a joint initiative of EMBO and the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). The winner receives 10,000 euro, a bronze statue (by Dutch artist Marloes Eerden[17]) and the opportunity to give a plenary lecture at the FEBS Congress.[18]

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) was officially launched in July 1964 after a group of European biologists had discussed the idea earlier at a meeting Ravello.[4][19] In that meeting, the initial goals of EMBO were set, which consisted of creating a central European laboratory for life sciences and increase scientific interactions between researchers in Europe.[19] At the Ravello meeting, Max Perutz was elected as the first EMBO Chairman and John Kendrew as Secretary General.[19]

Initially, 140 biologists were elected EMBO members and in 1969, the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC)[20] was set up as a political body with 14 countries as initial members.[19] Since 1964,[21] scientists have been elected annually as members of EMBO[22] based on excellence in research. There are currently more than 1800 Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization, 88 of whom have received the Nobel Prize.[23] As of 2018, the EMBC has 30 member states, two associate member states (India, Singapore) and two co-operation partners (Chile (CONICYT), Taiwan (MOST and Academia Sinica)).[24]

In 1982, the EMBO Journal was launched, in 1986, the EMBO Gold Medal was established, an annual award for young scientists. The "Young Investigator Program" which awards grants to young professors was established in 2000 and three additional journals were launched in 2000 (EMBO Reports), 2005 (Molecular Systems Biology) and 2008 (EMBO Molecular Medicine). In 2009, Maria Leptin was appointed fifth Director of EMBO.[25]

In 2011, EMBO established the "Science Policy Programme" which interacts with policy makers and provides analysis of concerns emerging from advances in scientific research.[4]

Closely affiliated organisations to EMBO include the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) which like EMBO, primarily operate in the European Research Area (ERA).