EMBO

Application

About

EMBO Conferences and EMBO Conference Series aim to support European scientific communities by enabling groups of scientists to regularly meet and discuss topics with leaders in the field. Organizers can apply for a one-off conference or a conference that they expect to be part of a series of conferences, held at two or three yearly intervals in EMBC Member States. These conferences should cover different and evolving aspects of a relatively broad subject area of major importance to the scientific community worldwide. They may alternate with corresponding meetings held outside of Europe, facilitating interactions between scientists based in Europe and beyond. EMBO Conferences will normally have at least 150 participants or more.

Funding

The maximum funding provided by EMBO is €30,000 per conference*. Decisions on the amount of funding are made on a case-by-case basis. Organizers are therefore required to justify all major costs in the budget section of the application form. It is expected that participants (other than the speakers) will pay for their travel, accommodation, subsistence and registration fee.

EMBO funds can be used to cover:

• travel (Apex / Economy), accommodation and subsistence costs of the speakers;
• reasonable administration costs**;
• room hire, audiovisual and IT facilities essential for the conference;
• grants to aid participants from countries in need of scientific strengthening;

How to apply

Priority is given to EMBO Conferences taking place in EMBC Member States or South Africa, although organizers can be based anywhere. The application process is handled via the online application system. Please note that EMBO aims to support a diverse range of conference series topics, thus overlapping topics are discouraged. A list of EMBO Conference Series is available.

Organizers must apply for funding to support each conference within the conference series. Thus a new application is required for each individual conference within the series and funding of each conference within the series will be evaluated competitively. Follow-on applications are generally successful in obtaining funding, provided that reviews of the previous conference are positive and that significant efforts are made to improve any areas that were considered suboptimal.

For all conferences in the series, organizers are strongly urged to:

• provide a convincing  scientific justification that the conference serves an active and evolving community;
• rotate the organizing committee;
• ensure diversity and gender balance in the list of speakers;
• ensures that no more than 50 % of the speakers have spoken at the previous conference in the series;
• include talks by both early stage and established investigators/group leaders.

Each application is reviewed by two members of the EMBO Course Committee and a final decision is made by the entire committee. Applicants are informed of the decision in May and October for the 1 March and 1 August calls, respectively. All applications are treated in confidence and only publicised following acceptance of the funding conditions by the organizer. All correspondence concerning applications should be conducted with the EMBO Courses & Workshops office (courses_workshops @ embo.org). Any attempts to influence the decision process by contacting individual members of the EMBO Course Committee will result in disqualification of the application.

Applying for follow-up conferences within a series

Subject to financial constraints, EMBO would like to encourage a dynamic continuation of successful EMBO Conferences by funding follow-up conferences in the series. To have an optimal chance of success, it is strongly advised that organizers base their application on the successful applications for previous events in the series, taking into account any feedback from previous rounds of review and attendee feedback. The EMBO Courses & Workshops office will be pleased to discuss the process and provide examples of successful applications if desired.

Given the necessity (imposed by funding constraints) to minimize the funding of overlapping conference series, it is important that the majority of members from each community get a fair chance to shape their conference series, and that conference series do not become dominated by a particular group or a limited point of view. For these reasons, EMBO requests that organizers include an open discussion about their research field and the series at each conference. The format of the discussion is left at the discretion of the organizers, but the following subjects must be discussed:

• whether a continuation is desirable, and if so, which adjustments should be made in order for the series to continue at the forefront as the science evolves;
• whether there are major groups of scientists in related fields who should be involved in future conferences;
• venue(s) and format of the next event(s);
• if a continuation is desirable, election of the people who are put in charge of submitting the next proposal to EMBO (i.e. chair and co-chairs). This election must include proposals from the floor. The chair must be different from that of the previous meetings. In addition, not more than a third of previous organizers can be carried over from the previous three conferences in the series.

EMBO further requests that organizers provide an accurate summary of the plenum discussion in their report on the conference, and that participants fill in the section of the questionnaire in which they will be asked to assess the conference series, and express their opinions about its continuation.

Annual application deadlines: 1 March and 1 August for conferences planned for the following year.

* The maximum amount of funding available for conferences in South Africa is €20,000.

** A maximum of €4,000 of the EMBO funding and registration fee income can be used to cover secretarial personnel costs.

Format

Programme details

Organizers should indicate an outline timetable, session titles with brief explanations of the subject matter covered and how they fit together, plus the names of confirmed speakers for each session and the reason for their selection. The EMBO Course Committee considers very seriously the efforts made to optimise the benefits for early stage researchers. These include (but are not limited to):

• ensuring that at least 50 % of the speakers are different to those who spoke at the previous EMBO Conference (if applicable);
• ensuring that the number of talks is not excessive, so that there will be time for participants to  discuss informally;
• inclusion of presentation slots for early-stage researchers;
• including poster sessions and ensuring that poster sessions are not solely relegated to late night slots;
• making other conscious attempts to promote interactions amongst attendees.

Registration fees

Registration fees may be charged up to a maximum of €450 (excluding accommodation) per participant (up to €600 for participants from industry). This should be paid directly to the organizer and included as income in the final financial statement. The registration fee must be waived for one EMBO editor wishing to attend the conference. The registration fee may be waived for editorial staff from other scientific journals who attend the EMBO Conference and publish a report in their journal.

Speakers & Participants

When selecting speakers and participants, organizers are requested to ensure a wide geographical representation of scientists with no substantial bias towards the host country.

At least two-thirds of the participants should be based in EMBC Member States. In the case of South Africa, a greater representation of local scientists (from Africa) is encouraged.

Organizers must attempt to ensure a good gender balance. They are strongly encouraged to aim for a minimum of 30 % female representation when selecting speakers (convincing justification for lower numbers must be provided). Applications with an excessive gender imbalance are generally not successful.

Poster sessions

When planning poster sessions, organizers should ensure that:

• these are in close proximity to where lectures are being held;
• the display room is spacious and bright enough;
• these sessions are not held solely at the end of the day or at the end of the meeting;
• sufficient and dedicated time is provided for poster viewing;
• a brief oral presentation is given by selected participants (where possible).

Other Funds

EMBO Young Investigator Lectures

The EMBO Young Investigator Programme offers conference organizers the opportunity to apply for support of a lecture to be given by one of the EMBO Young Investigators.

Eligibility: Only current EMBO Young Investigators are eligible. A list can be found on the EMBO website.
Maximum funding: €800 and €1,200 (for overseas speakers).

Please complete the application form and send it to the EMBO Young Investigator office (yip @ embo.org).

EMBO Science Policy Lectures

The EMBO Science Policy Programme offers conference organizers the opportunity to include a non-scientific talk from a scientist, sociologist, ethicist or journalist.

Eligibility: The lecturer must hold a presentation on 'Science Policy’ issues.
Maximum funding: €1,000 and €2,000 (for overseas speakers),

Please complete the application form and send it to the EMBO Science Policy  office (policy @ embo.org).

EMBO Women in Science Lectures

EMBO Women in Science offers conference organizers the opportunity to include a talk from a scientist to address issues related to women in science.

Eligibility: The lecturer must hold a presentation on 'Women in Science' issues.
Maximum funding: €800 and €1200 (for overseas speakers),

Please complete the application form and send it to the EMBO Women in Science office (women @ embo.org).

Promotion & Payment

Advertising & co-funding

All EMBO-funded conferences will be advertised on the EMBO events poster, EMBO website and social media channels as well as well as to the European life science community.

Additional advertising is left at the organizer's discretion. It is a strict condition of EMBO support that any additional publicity, as well as the programme and abstract book, should clearly indicate the conference as an EMBO Conference and must include the EMBO logo with suitable prominence (co-sponsorship may be acknowledged). EMBO does not consider co-funding conferences when the other funder insists on the proceedings being published as a book.

Poster and website assistance

The EMBO logo and EMBO Conference stamp must be included on the website and poster.
EMBO offers to create a website (including online registration) and design a poster, at no additional charge. Full details will be supplied to organizers shortly after funding has been confirmed.

Payment of the grant

The first payment (50 % of the allocated funding) will be transferred to organizers approximately four months prior to the start of the conference. EMBO must be notified of any significant changes to the conference budget and/or scientific programme. Payment of the remaining funds will only be transferred to the organizers once the following documentation has been submitted to and approved by EMBO:

Final documentation

• Short report (1-2 pages) about the conference (scientific and general - this should include a short scientific overview, the reaction of the participants to the location and organization, and any other relevant comments).
• Final financial statement, which should include all income and expenditure for the conference. (Please note that the organizer must retain receipts for five years after the conference, for possible auditing).
• Statistics (total number of applicants, and number gender, nationality and country of residence of participants (academic/industry) and speakers).
• Programme and/or abstract book (in print form or CD).
• Participants’ questionnaires (feedback from participants is to be submitted online, using the EMBO system and will be subsequently shared anonymously with organizers).

All above documentation must be submitted to EMBO within six months following the end date of the conference. Failure to do so will result in the final payment being forfeited.

Awards & Publications

EMBO reports

The organizers of EMBO Conferences are invited to consider the commissioning of a report about the conference for EMBO reports. If interested, organizers must contact the editorial staff of EMBO reports (emboreports @ embo.org) well before the conference takes place to ensure that there is space available in an appropriate issue. Please note that the report should not be written by the organizers but by one or more of the speakers. However, organizers are encouraged to provide input regarding the selection of authors from among the conference participants. More information can be found in the relevant sections of the EMBO reports Guide for Authors.

It is stressed that the commissioning of such a report is an option and not an obligation.