Montenegro officially joins the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Montenegro has joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) today. The Delegation of Montenegro, headed by the Minister of Science Dr. Sanja Damjanović, is taking part in the annual meeting of the EMBL Council and EMBC in Hamburg. The application of Montenegro for full membership in EMBL was presented by Minister Damjanović and Dr. Danilo Mrdak, assistant professor from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the University of Montenegro.

During the conference, the Minister had official meetings with the following delegation: Gerrit van Meer, EMBC President, Maria Leptin, EMBO Director, Iain Mattaj, EMBL Director-General, Patrick Cramer, EMBL Council President, Matthias Hentze, EMBL Director, Christian Scherf, EMBL Administrative Director, Matthias Wilmanns, Head of the EMBL-Hamburg, and Silke Schumacher, Director International Relations at EMBL. During the meetings, different models of cooperation with Montenegrin researchers and scientists have been discussed, with a view to enable access to large infrastructures and modern technologies offered by EMBL and EMBO.

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. During the discussions, Minister Damjanović informed the delegation of EMBO and EMBL about the Initiative for 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 Institute, “synchrotron light source”, the EMBO and EMBL support would be most welcome, given that they work in this area, which was recognized by the leaders of these organizations who supported the idea.

Also, special attention was paid to future cooperation under EU programmes Horizon 2020 and Twinning. The Minister informed the interlocutors about the establishment of a national project office, which was missing in our ecosystem. In this context, active national contact persons have been engaged and participation has been enabled in all important committees in Brussels.

Representatives of EMBO and EMBL expressed their full support to Montenegro and welcomed the fact that Montenegro joined these prestigious scientific families. The agreement was reached on the organization of workshops and training programmes for students and researchers in Montenegro, as well as on the fixed-term stay of doctoral students in EMBL and EMBO, in order for them to acquire knowledge and experiences that they can later apply in laboratories in their home institutions, thus reinforcing scientific and research capacities in the country.

If we enable young people to work on international projects and have access to modern technologies, large amounts of data, and state-of-the-art IT resources, we will reduce the brain-drain, reversing the process in the long run, Minister Damjanović pointed out.

Yesterday, Montenegro became a full member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), headquartered in Germany. The accession to both organizations took place in parallel, as in the case of Malta and Luxembourg. In that regard, Minister Damjanović stressed that Montenegro was following the experiences of countries such as Malta, which made a major step forward in the innovative system and has similarities with Montenegro when it comes to the size of the country and the number of scientists.

The Minister stressed that she was pleased that Montenegro joined EMBO and EMBL because internationalization was one of the priorities of the Ministry, leading to an increase in participation in the EU Horizon 2020 programme and reducing brain-drain.

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the world’s leading research institutions. The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) gathers over 1,700 scientists from Europe. Over a hundred scientists have the opportunity every year to be a beneficiary of short-term EMBO fellowships, after which they can use the newly acquired skills and knowledge in laboratories of their home institutions and be the contact persons for cooperation with EMBO. In addition, EMBO offers the EMBO Young Investigators Programme, which started in 2000. EMBO Young Investigators are selected annually, and 73 current members, along with 384 former members of the programme and recipients of EMBO grants, form a network of leading scientists in Europe.