FEBS Press Special Session
Key skills for ethical and impactful scientific publishing
Sunday 5 July 2026, 16:45 – 18:30, Auditorium 1
Publishing is a vital part of the scientific process. It enables researchers to share new findings with the scientific community, supports scientific progress, and helps advance individual careers. Yet early-career researchers often receive insufficient training in this area. In this session, following a brief introduction to the FEBS Press journals by the Editors-in-Chief, FEBS Press will offer three lectures focusing on publication ethics and best practices in scientific publishing. After the lectures, attendees will be invited to meet with FEBS Press Editors for informal discussions on these topics.
The European Research Council (ERC)
Funding schemes & tips for writing a successful proposal
Monday 6 July 2026, 14:15 – 14:45, 0.04 Brussels + 0.05 Paris
The European Research Council (ERC), set up by the European Union in 2007, is a European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe or in countries associated to the framework programme, in any field of research. With a budget of ca. €16 billion for 2021-2027, the ERC offers 5 core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, Synergy Grants and ERC Plus Grants (new in 2026). Proof of Concept grants enable ERC grantees to explore the innovation potential of their ideas or research results. To date, the ERC has funded ca. 18,000 research projects and evaluated some 140,000 research proposals. During this session, the ERC Panel Coordinator of the LS2 panel (Integrative Biology: From Genes and Genomes to Systems) will present the ERC’s funding schemes, recent changes in the ERC Work Programme and give tips for writing a successful proposal. Dr. Eugene Kim will then share her experience of successfully applying for an ERC grant. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.
FEBS-KSBMB Special Session
Cutting-edge techniques in biochemistry: past, present and future
Monday 6 July 2026, 16:45 – 18:30, Auditorium 1
Since the first FEBS Congress in the early 1960s, a succession of techniques and their refinements – from X-ray crystallography, through DNA sequencing to CRISPR – have driven ground-breaking advances in understanding the molecular basis of life. In this special session organized jointly for the 50th FEBS Congress by FEBS and the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, mid-career scientists (two from S. Korea and two FEBS Excellence Awardees) will introduce four different current impactful techniques, give a perspective on their past and possible future development, and show the biological questions that they are now addressing in their own research by applying these methodologies.
FEBS-EACR Special Session
Molecular aspects of cancer: the Tumour cell, the non-tumour cell and the Extracellular environment
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 16:00 – 17:45, Auditorium 1
It is well established that cancer is driven by cell-intrinsic genetic and epigenetic changes, but tumour development relies on an ecosystem of tumour cells, immune and other normal cells, and a supporting microenvironment. In this special session hosted by FEBS and the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) the molecular mechanisms and interplay of these different components of tumour development will be detailed and discussed.
FEBS Education Special Session
Wellbeing in times of change: Finding balance in an unbalanced academic world
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 16:00 – 17:45, 0.10 Sydney + 0.11 Cape Town
Wellbeing has become a critical part of learning, teaching and doing science – and this year, the FEBS Education & Training Committee places it at the centre of its annual Congress session. As a committee dedicated to supporting educators, mentors and early-career researchers, we see daily how pressures from limited funding, precarious career paths, heavy workloads, and rapid changes such as AI reshape the academic experience. This session brings all career stages together to examine how wellbeing influences learning, supervision, scientific integrity, and long-term career development. Gathering together PhD students, researchers and mentors, we’ll share practical strategies, learn from each other’s experiences, and explore how individuals, teams and institutions can create environments where people – and science – truly thrive. The session will be chaired by Francesco Malatesta (Italy) and Ly Villo (Estonia) from the FEBS Education and Training Committee, and feature talks from Cormac Taylor (University College Dublin, Ireland) and Kay Guccione (University of Glasgow, UK). The programme will also include interactive moments and discussion with the audience, with the aim of moving beyond reflection alone toward practical, shared approaches for fostering healthier and more sustainable academic environments.
