EMBO

Application

About

EMBO Practical Courses are designed to promote the transfer of new methods and emerging techniques to a broad number of laboratories. The primary objective is to enable participating students to implement newly learned techniques in their home laboratories. Approximately 20 participants (generally early stage postdoctoral researchers and advanced PhD students) should be accepted. Priority is given to EMBO Practical Courses taking place in EMBC Member States or South Africa, although organizers can be based anywhere.

Funding

The maximum funding provided by EMBO for a practical course is €30,000*. 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. EMBO funds can not be used to cover per diem expenses, poster prizes or other gifts.

EMBO funds should cover:

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

How to apply

Priority is given to EMBO Practical Courses taking place in EMBC Member States or South Africa. The application process is handled via the online application system.

Each application is reviewed by two members of the EMBO Course Committee and the final decision is made by the committee when they meet to discuss all applications. Applicants are informed of the decision in May and October for 1 March and 1 August calls, respectively.

Both the 1 March and 1 August application deadlines are for funding of courses taking place in the following year. However, organizers are encouraged to apply at least twelve months before the course takes place, to ensure enough time for the proper advertising and promotion of their course, in the case of acceptance.

All applications are treated in confidence and only publicized 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.

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

* The maximum amount of funding available for courses 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

Planning

When planning the course, organizers are advised to:

• encourage students to bring their own samples/data (where appropriate);
• provide students with theoretical background material with selected references, in addition to the programme, well in advance of the course;
• ensure that instructors give a briefing at the beginning of each day;
• ensure that instructors and speakers stay for the entire duration of the course;
• ensure that accommodation for instructors and students is in the same facility;
• include round table discussions in the course programme;
• include poster sessions and/or student presentations in the programme;
• have practical sessions comprise at least 40 % of the programme.

Registration fees

The registration fee should not exceed €400 for practical courses five days or more in length, or €250 for practical courses less than five days in length. Most EMBO Practical Courses charge a registration fee (including accommodation) of approximately €200. At the organizer's discretion, the registration fee may be waived for selected students. A fee of €1,000 should be charged to participants from industry. This should be paid directly to the organizer and included as income in the final financial statement.

Instructors & Participants

When selecting instructors and participants, organizers are requested to ensure a wide geographical representation of scientists. EMBO requests that organizers ensure a good gender balance. Organizers are strongly encouraged to aim for a minimum of 30 % female representation when selecting speakers/instructors (justification for lower numbers must be provided).

There should be no substantial bias towards the host country with no more than 18 % local participants. 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.

Lectures

Course instructors will normally give lectures on the theoretical basis and applications of the techniques being taught. These lectures are strictly for the course participants. It may, however, be appropriate to invite instructors to deliver additional research seminars to the wider local research community. These seminars should be completely separate from the practical course, which should be a coherent, full-time programme of activities reserved solely for the participants.

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 at the end of the day;
• sufficient and dedicated time is provided for poster viewing;
• a brief oral presentation is given by participants (where possible).

Travel grants

EMBO provides additional funding to enable organizers to offer travel grants to selected participants coming from labs in countries in need of scientific strengthening (within Europe or internationally).

A maximum of €500 per travel grant can be awarded (at the organizer's discretion, the amount can be lowered to include more participants). Organizers must supply details of the grants awarded to EMBO after the course (along with the final documentation) in order to be reimbursed.

Participants must apply directly to the meeting organizer for a travel grant.

Organizers can select travel grant recipients at their discretion, as long as they come from labs in countries in need of scientific strengthening (within Europe or internationally).

Priority must be given to participants working in labs in: Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Please note that participants working in the following countries are not eligible: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

Promotion & Payment

Advertising & co-funding

All EMBO-funded practical courses 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 practical course is an EMBO Practical Course and must include the EMBO logo with suitable prominence (co-sponsorship may be acknowledged). EMBO does not consider co-funding courses when the other funder insists on the proceedings being published as a book.

Poster and website assistance

The EMBO logo and EMBO Practical Course 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 (80 % of the allocated funding) will be transferred to organizers approximately four months prior to the start of the course. EMBO must be notified of any significant changes to the course 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 course (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 practical course. (Please note that receipts, including those of travel grant awardees, must be retained by the organizer for five years after the practical course, for possible auditing);
• Statistics (total number of applicants, and number gender, nationality and country of residence of participants (academic/industry) and instructors/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);
• List of travel grant awardees (including name, institute, country and amount awarded). Travel receipts from the awardees must also be submitted.

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