FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE crosses seven seas: Report of the 2024 Singapore Conference
The 3rd FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE International Molecular Biosciences PhD and Postdoc Conference made history as it ventured outside Europe for the first time, taking place in Singapore from 4–6 December 2024. Hosted by the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine – Nanyang Technological University, and co-organized with NUS and A*STAR, the event welcomed over 260 participants from 22 countries, representing 36 different nationalities and bringing together PhD students, postdocs, clinicians, and outstanding speakers.
🌐 Artificial Intelligence: Reshaping biomedical and healthcare research
The 2-day scientific symposium explored how AI is transforming biomedical research in fields like metabolic diseases, neuroscience, infectious diseases, and wound repair. The symposium featured 10 keynote speakers and over 120 presentations from participants including flash talks, short talks, and posters.
💡 Career day
The final day of the conference focused on navigating career decisions and finding career opportunities within and beyond academia. It included career development workshops, interactive career sharing sessions with different professionals, and a panel discussion on "Translating academic research into industry innovations and startups".
🌍 Supporting young life scientists
With the support from FEBS, IUBMB and local partners, 40 travel grants enabled broad participation, including dedicated support for ASEAN and African trainees as well as young members from FEBS Constituent Societies.
✨ What makes ENABLE unique?
Entirely organized by and for young researchers, the event fosters leadership, collaboration, and interdisciplinary research and was the culmination of 1.5 years of team work by the Scientific and Local Organising Committees with the support from FEBS, IUBMB and ENABLE partners.
📖 Want to know more? Explore the full conference report
The full conference report and citable abstract supplement are now published in FEBS Open Bio:
- Meeting report: https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.70031
- Abstract supplement: https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.70030
- Citation guidelines: https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.70033
Next stop: Glasgow 2025!
If you enjoyed the ENABLE spirit, don’t miss the next edition of the conference. FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE 2025 will take place in Glasgow, UK, from 10–12 September, under the theme "Bridging minds – Interdisciplinary research for the future of life sciences".
🔗 Applications are now open! Register before 15 June to apply for a travel grant and/or a scientific talk: https://febs-iubmb-enableconference.org/registration-and-travel-grants/
The FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE Conference is a joint initiative of FEBS, IUBMB, and several leading European biomedical research institutes (the ENABLE partners), building on a successful project originally funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (2017–2020). These interdisciplinary, international, three-day events are organized by and for young researchers in the molecular life sciences and attract up to 300 participants from around the world. Each conference features a scientific symposium, a career day, and outreach activities.
ENABLE (the European Academy for Biomedical Science) was launched in 2017 through the collaboration of four renowned European institutes: the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona, Spain), the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (NNF-CPR, Denmark), the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences at Radboudumc (Netherlands), and the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM, Italy). These core institutions hosted the first four conferences from 2017 to 2021.
In 2022, FEBS and IUBMB joined forces with the ENABLE founders to relaunch the initiative as FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE, expanding its reach and impact. In this new cycle, institutions can apply to become associated centres and host one of the events.
Join the FEBS Network today
Joining the FEBS Network’s molecular life sciences community enables you to access special content on the site, present your profile, 'follow' contributors, 'comment' on and 'like' content, post your own content, and set up a tailored email digest for updates.