Montenegro joins European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Hamburg, Germany (29 November 2017) -- Montenegro has joined today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). The Delegation of Montenegro, headed by the Minister of Science Sanja Damjanović, is taking part in the annual meeting of the EMBL Council and the EMBC in Hamburg.

Montenegrin delegation had the opportunity to visit the German research centre DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) and the third generation of the synchrotron accelerator - PETRA III, located in Hamburg. The DESY project includes scientific institutions from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain and other countries from around the world. Minister Damjanović informed the delegation of EMBO and EMBL about the Initiative on the establishment of the International Institute for Sustainable Technologies in South East Europe. In that regard, in order to build expertise for the first option of the "synchrotron light source" institute, the EMBO and EMBL support is welcome, as they deal with this area, and the leaders of these organisations recognised and supported the idea.

Representatives of EMBO and EMBL expressed their full support to Montenegro and welcomed the country's joining these prestigious scientific families. The organisation of workshops and training programmes for students and researchers in Montenegro, as well as the stay of students of doctoral studies on fixed time in EMBL and EMBO were agreed, in order to acquire knowledge and experiences that can later be applied in laboratories in the parent institutions, thus reinforcing scientific and research capacities in the country.

If we allow young people to work on international projects, access to modern technologies, a large amount of data, access to state-of-the-art IT resources, we will reduce the outflow of talents from the country, and in the long run and reverse the process, Minister Darmanović pointed out.

Yesterday, Montenegro became a full member of the European Organisation for Molecular Biology (EMBO). The involvement in both organisations took place in parallel, as in the case of Malta and Luxembourg. In that regard, Minister Darmanović stressed that Montenegro is just following the experiences of countries such as Malta, which made a major step forward in the innovative system and has similarities with Montenegro regarding the size of the country and the number of scientists.