Initially funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, the first four ENABLE conferences were held in the cities hosting the headquarters of the four entities leading the project: the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in Barcelona, Spain; the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS) in Nijmegen, The Netherlands; The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR) in Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Scuola Europea di Medicina Molecolare (SEMM), in Milan, Italy. In this new cycle of conferences, FEBS, IUBMB and the four core ENABLE institutions have joined forces to share ENABLE best practices with other international research institutions. To this end, in addition to the four core research centres, other institutions can apply to become associated centres and host one of the events. For the 2024 event, FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE will actively search for an associated centre in a non-European country to ensure that one of the events is held on another continent.

The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology unites scientists in 75 countries or regions through a society, national council, or academy of sciences.

I spent 40 years teaching and researching, and developed a particular interest in education and career development. I chaired the Education Committee and was Careers advisor for the UK Biochemical Society. In these roles, and my work with students at the University of Manchester, I realised how important it is for young scientists to recognise their skills and be able to "sell" themselves to potential employers (and grant awarding bodies). I now run CV support sessions for young scientists on behalf of the FEBS Education Committee, of which I was a founder member.