FEBS Advanced Courses: A career-enhancing move for you and others

A highlight of the new 2025 FEBS Advanced Courses, as many of them are already open for registration, as well as an overview of the latest call for proposals from organizers for 2026 courses. Please share this post with anyone who might be interested in either attending or organizing a course!
FEBS Advanced Courses: A career-enhancing move for you and others
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What does your PhD, career, or next project need? A critical deep dive into the latest research in your topic? Gaining some practical skills? Understanding the challenges of your next career move? Meeting both students and experts working in your area? Getting inspiration in a new setting away from the lab?

Attending a FEBS Advanced Course might be a useful, stimulating, and fun way to answer some of those questions.

Attending a FEBS Advanced Course

FEBS supports expert scientists in organizing courses on a range of topics in the molecular life sciences. The courses have a variety of formats, but they all have a strong educational element that makes them especially valuable to PhD students and postdocs. FEBS also provides a number of Youth Travel Fund grants to support the participation of early-career scientists on these courses.

There are 20 courses running in 2025 and many of them are already open for registration. You can scroll through the Advanced Courses 2025 calendar for the full list of events or download the FEBS Advanced Courses 2025 poster for an overview (and we would be delighted if you displayed and/or shared this information at your institution, for others to see). Check each course’s website for details on the program, registration fees, and travel grants.

If you want to get a feel for what it is like to attend one of these courses, browse these posts from previous participants to courses on interorgan crosstalk in health and disease, on signal transduction and cancer, on long and short of non-coding RNAs, on functional imaging of cellular dynamics, on host-pathogen interactions and virulence in human fungal pathogens, on mitochondria in life, death and disease, or on molecular and evolutionary perspectives in fish immunology.

Organizing a FEBS Advanced Course

And if you are an expert with a great idea for a new course in 2026, check out the first call for proposals from course organizers, with a deadline for applications of 1 March 2025. We give you an overview of the different formats below and invite you to check the FEBS Advanced Courses Guidelines for more details.

FEBS Advanced Lecture Courses address topical subjects of general importance and allow participating young scientists to interact with invited scientific leaders in the field during oral presentations, poster sessions, round-table discussions and tutorials. Joint FEBS/EMBO Lecture Courses have the same focus and format as FEBS Lecture Courses but are financed jointly by FEBS and EMBO.

FEBS Practical Courses teach advanced experimental and computational methods in the molecular life sciences. They emphasize hands-on experiments so that young scientists can apply these methods in their home laboratories.

FEBS Combined Practical & Lecture Courses have strong hands-on training elements in order to teach participating students basic and advanced techniques in molecular life sciences, in addition to providing lectures and seminars.

FEBS Workshops bring together experts and interested young scientists in a forum that is different from the lecture courses by enhancing interaction and contact among lecturers and students, to discuss the most recent developments in a certain field.

FEBS Special Meetings have a program of high scientific interest featuring a large number of leading scientists in the field, oral presentations based on presented abstracts, and poster sessions. The purpose of such meetings is to provide an optimal forum for a broad discussion between groups of interested scientists and topic experts. These are usually large meetings, to allow effective and broad discussion between experts and other participating scientists.

We hope you are interested in organizing a great new course for 2026. To look at the research scope of past courses, you can select the past events button in the Advanced Courses calendar and contact the Advanced Courses Committee Chair, Prof. Mauro Maccarrone, via [email protected], for queries about your course ideas.

…and why it is not only about the science

Courses are structured so they don’t just allow participants to gain skills and knowledge but, importantly, encourage them to connect with others, discuss topics in an open and stimulating environment, and build a network of contacts. The number of participants and the ratio of students to speakers or tutors is carefully considered, as well as the course duration. Often the courses are held at attractive locations, to make the experience more pleasant and immersive, and help with networking.

Here we have selected quotes from participants highlighting this aspect of the courses:

“What was remarkable about those dinners was the opportunity to freely discuss with everyone. While scientific topics were certainly explored, the conversations also delved into broader aspects about life. This inspired the feeling we all had at the end of this lecture course: we were not only bound into a scientific network but also connected on a human level…”
Lucas Rebiffe, FEBS Advanced Course on Molecular mechanisms of interorgan crosstalk in health and disease, 9–17 May 2024, in Spetses Island, Greece.

“Another aspect of the course that I really enjoyed was that PhD students and postdocs that participated in the course were from very diverse backgrounds and research areas. It was fascinating to talk to these people about science, as each area of science tends to have a different perspective or angle on research questions.”
Roksolana Kobylinska, FEBS Practical Course on Functional imaging of cellular dynamics, 9–15 June 2024, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

“Boat trips and beach discussions were among the highlights of this lecture course, offering a more informal setting where professors and students could freely interact and exchange ideas beyond science. Topics ranged from careers after Ph.D., women in science, and the importance of collaboration in science. These discussions provided valuable insights on questions we, as early-career researchers, often contemplate but rarely get answers to until much later. The value of these sessions and the conversations they sparked will stay with many of us even after the meeting.”
Kajal Singh, EMBO/FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on Molecular mechanism in signal transduction and cancer, 18–26 August 2024, in Spetses Island, Greece.

“During my poster presentation, I was genuinely touched by the interest shown in my research. I appreciated the way people engaged with my research ideas, offered constructive feedback, and showed such enthusiasm. It is crucial for researchers to participate in conferences like this, as they provide a platform for knowledge exchange, networking, and professional growth.”
Florabelle Cabarrubias, FEBS Advanced Course on Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence in Human Fungal Pathogens, 18–24 May 2024, in La Colle sur Loup, France.

“Attending this conference was an incredible learning experience for me. I feel that I now have a more global but deeper understanding of my research field. I returned home with lots of motivation and new perspectives and ideas for my project. Moreover, I gained more experience in presenting my research and I strengthened my communicative skills. I met experts within the field from all over the world and I increased my network within the research field.”
Stine Mary Vissing, FEBS Workshop on the Long and the Short of Non-Coding RNAs, 17–22 June 2024, in Crete, Greece.

One of the most exciting moments for me was during the poster session, where I had the chance to discuss my research findings with experts in the field. Engaging in these discussions with renowned scientists was fascinating: it’s not every day you get to exchange ideas with leaders in your area of study. On a personal level, attending the conference alone was a challenge, as it pushed me to step outside my comfort zone and actively socialise with other researchers. This experience not only helped me to improve my social skills but also allowed me to connect with other scientists.
Diego González Pérez, EMBO|FEBS Lecture Course on Mitochondria in Life, Death and Disease, 16–20 September 2024, in Landshut, Germany.

“As I approach the submission of my thesis, I initially questioned whether attending the course was a wise decision. However, it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to step away from my desk, engage in scientific discussions, and gain fresh perspectives from outside my research group. This course has broadened my horizons and provided me with renewed motivation for the final weeks of my thesis writing.”
Helena Marie Doherty Midtbø, FEBS Advanced Course on Fish Immunology: Molecular and Evolutionary Perspectives, 22–28 September 2024, in Spetses Island, Greece.

“This [course] provides an unparalleled opportunity to hear world leaders discuss their topics, but it also provides the time and opportunity for personal interactions in a friendly, relaxed, and beautiful setting, and to put faces to names of people who have shaped their field.  It is a great opportunity to build international and interdisciplinary networks and, importantly, it also allows us to focus on one of the most important parts of our respective careers – forging friendships that enrich and support us in our field. Having time to develop these relationships is incredibly precious and not something that we often get the opportunity to do!”
Alison Forrester and Hanaa Hariri, lecturers at the Joint FEBS/EMBO Advanced Lecture Course on Membranes, lipids, and proteins in organelle biogenesis, 26 May –1 June 2024 in Spetses Island, Greece.

Two photos side by side, the one on the left showing students sitting at tables and listening to someone off camera, and the one on the right showing a man pointing at a computer screen and explaining somethig to students sitting close to him.
FEBS Practical Course on Functional imaging of cellular dynamics, 9–15 June 2024, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Photo of a large group, sitting with trees behind them.
FEBS Advanced Course on Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence in Human Fungal Pathogens, 18–24 May 2024, in La Colle sur Loup, France.
Photo of Diego González Pérez standing by his research poster and smiling at the camera.
Diego González Pérez, EMBO|FEBS Lecture Course on Mitochondria in Life, Death and Disease, 16–20 September 2024, in Landshut, Germany.
Photo of Stine Mary Vissing standing by a screen that shows her presentation title.
Stine Mary Vissing, FEBS Workshop on the Long and the Short of Non-Coding RNAs, 17–22 June 2024, in Crete, Greece.
Photo from the beach of a moored boat with young people boarding it in order.
Boat trip, EMBO/FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on Molecular mechanism in signal transduction and cancer, 18–26 August 2024, in Spetses Island, Greece.
Screengrab of a tweet from X showing three photos.
Social media post from the FEBS Advanced Course on Molecular mechanisms of interorgan crosstalk in health and disease, 9–17 May 2024, in Spetses Island, Greece.

Top image from the FEBS Advanced Lecture Course ‘Fish Immunology: molecular and evolutionary perspectives’; Spetses Island, Greece; 22–28 September 2024.

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