Report of the Trustees (incorporating Strategic …The Royal Bank of Scotland HSBC Bank PLC 171 Tottenham Court Road Cambridge Commercial Centre, Vitrum London W1P 0DL St John’s

REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: 08239097 (England and Wales) REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1149638

Report of the Trustees (incorporating Strategic Report) and Financial Statements for the Year Ended

31 December 2017 for

THE FEDERATION OF EUROPEAN BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETIES

Hill Wooldridge & Co. Limited Registered Auditors 107 Hindes Road

Harrow Middlesex HA1 1RU


Contents of the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

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1 to 13

14 to 15

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20 to 29

Report of the Trustees incorporating Strategic Report

Report of the Independent Auditors

Statement of Financial Activities

Statement of Financial Position

Statement of Cash Flows

Notes to the Statement of Cash Flows

Notes to the Financial Statements

Detailed Statement of Financial Activities 30 to 32


Report of the Trustees incorporating Strategic Report for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

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The trustees, who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report, which also forms the directors’ report as required by company law, with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 December 2017. The trustees have adopted the provisions of the Charities SORP (FRS 102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Company number 08239097 (England and Wales)

Registered Charity number 1149638

Registered office 98 Regent Street Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB2 1DP

Company Secretary

Auditors Hill Wooldridge & Co. Limited Registered Auditors 107 Hindes Road Harrow Middlesex HA1 1RU

Bankers The Royal Bank of Scotland HSBC Bank PLC 171 Tottenham Court Road Cambridge Commercial Centre, Vitrum London W1P 0DL St John’s Innovation Park United Kingdom Cambridge CB4 0DS, UK

Deutsche Bank J.P. Morgan Private Bank Filiale Heidelberg 1 Knightsbridge Adenauerplatz 1 London 69115 Heidelberg SW1X 7LX Germany United Kingdom

Investment managers Deutsche Bank J.P. Morgan Private Bank Filiale Heidelberg 1 Knightsbridge Adenauerplatz 1 London 69115 Heidelberg SW1X 7LX Germany United Kingdom

Trustees Date appointed as Officer: Term ended: V Pačes Secretary General - 1.1.17J Buchner Chair - 1.1.16 - 31.12.17F Michelangeli L Fésüs

Treasurer Chair, Publications Committee

- 14.9.16- 3.10.12

G G Akdogan Chair, Education Committee - 1.1.13C Rodrigues-Pousada Chair, Working Group on the Careers of Young Scientists - 1.1.13 - 31.12.17C Arraiano Chair, Working Group on Women in Science - 1.1.14B Vértessy Chair, Advanced Courses Committee - 1.1.15M A De La Rosa Congress Counsellor - 1.1.13J Dumić Chair, Working Group on Integration - 1.1.17E Fragkoulis Chair, Science and Society Committee - 1.1.17A Krol Chair, Fellowships Committee - 1.1.17N Özer Vice Chair - 1.1.17

V Pačes Secretary General - 1.1.17



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STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Constitution FEBS is registered as a charity (registered charity number 1149638), and is a company limited by guarantee (registered company number 08239097). The Memorandum and Articles of Association by which FEBS was governed in 2017 can be found at Appendix 1.

Organisation and membership FEBS was founded on 1st January 1964 and is a Federation of biochemistry and molecular biology societies. In 2017, its Constituent Societies spanned 37 countries in Europe and neighbouring regions, and included 34 Member Societies and 3 Associate Member Societies. The Presidents or Secretaries of the Constituent Societies of the Federation in 2017 are given in Appendix 2, and their membership numbers in Appendix 3 (totalling 35,438 individual members in 2017).

FEBS is governed by a Council composed of one delegate from each of the Constituent Societies as well as the members of the Executive Committee. FEBS Council meets once a year at the annual FEBS Congress. In 2017, the Council meeting took place in Jerusalem, Israel on 14th and 15th September following the 42nd FEBS Congress. The Council elects most of the members of the FEBS Executive Committee for three- year terms, as well as ordinary members of the FEBS Committees and Working Groups (delegated specific areas of FEBS work) for four-year terms, in a secret ballot. (The Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee, who after one year becomes Chair, is appointed by the Society hosting the annual Congress and Council Meeting in the previous year.

Subject to the Council, the administration of the Federation is vested in the FEBS Executive Committee (the 'FEBS Officers'). The Executive Committee consists of the Chairperson, the Vice-Chairperson, the FEBS Secretary General, the FEBS Treasurer, the FEBS Congress Counsellor, and the FEBS Committee and Working Group Chairpersons. With the exception of co-opted Acting Chairpersons (e.g. following resignations prior to Council elections), FEBS Officers are the FEBS charity Trustees and company Directors responsible for the actions of FEBS. The names and addresses of the members of the Executive Committee and the names of members of other Committees and Working Groups in 2017, together with dates of appointments and geographical distribution, are set out in Appendix 4.

The FEBS Trustees/Directors are distinguished scientists and (with the exception of the Executive Committee Vice Chair and Chair, as explained above) elected by FEBS Council from nominations put forward by FEBS Constituent Societies. Before formal appointment, newly elected Trustees/Directors sign the Charity Commission's 'Declaration of eligibility for newly appointed Trustees', and are referred to the Charity Commission's guidance on the role of Trustees as well as Companies House information on Director/Secretary roles.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Objectives The objectives of FEBS are to contribute to and promote the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the sciences of biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines (but only in so far as such related disciplines are ancillary to the main object), by all suitable means and in particular by:

- holding and arranging congresses, training and educational courses on matters connected with biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines; - facilitating and supporting the exchange of scientific information between biochemists, molecular biologists and scientists working in related disciplines generally and especially in Europe and other countries of Constituent Societies; - facilitating and supporting the training of young scientists in research, in the form of fellowships; and - organising the editing and publication of scientific research and educational material in biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines.

Activities The following paragraphs and their associated appendices outline activities in 2017 from the different Committees and Working Groups of FEBS. Extensive information on FEBS work is also available on the FEBS website at www.febs.org, and highlights appeared in three issues of FEBS News (pdf magazine) in 2017: http://www.febs.org/news/newsletter/.

http://www.febs.org/

http://www.febs.org/news/newsletter/

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Scientific publications FEBS owns four journals for the publication of research papers, reviews and discussion in the molecular life sciences: The FEBS Journal, FEBS Letters, Molecular Oncology and FEBS Open Bio. They are published on behalf of FEBS by Wiley, and aim to provide high-quality peer review, fast publication, and a variety of enhanced features for both authors and readers. The FEBS Journal and FEBS Letters also provide most of the income to fund FEBS' other activities.

The Publications Committee oversees the operation and development of FEBS' journals and in 2017 was under the chairmanship of Prof. László Fésüs. Income and costs of the journals in 2017 are in the Strategic Report section of this Annual Report.

The internationally recognized high quality of our two subscription journals (FEBS Journal and FEBS Letters) ensured maintenance of their subscription base in 2017 in a very competitive environment, and our open access journals FEBS Open Bio and Molecular Oncology were able to increase further the number of published papers. Since 2016/2017 the four journals can be reached through the newly established FEBS Press platform (www.febspress.com).

• The FEBS Journal (www.febsjournal.org) publishes full-length research papers and reviews in all areas of the

molecular life sciences. The journal produces issues twice each month (24 issues/year), in electronic format only. In 2017, it continued with initiatives such as State-of-the-Art Reviews, Commentaries, Special Issues, Illustrated Abstracts and database hyperlinking, Discovery-in-Context Reviews, Structural Snapshots, Viewpoints sections and Word-of-advice guides. The impact factor (published in 2018 for 2017) was 4.53. The number of published articles was more than in 2016, although it was still a deliberate strategy to reduce the number of accepted papers to increase quality and to raise the prestige of the journal.

• FEBS Letters (www.febsletters.org), produced in collaboration with Wiley since 2016, publishes short reports

describing novel and specific effects with a biologically or biochemically significant function, and attracts submissions from all over the world. In 2017, FEBS Letters produced 24 issues including special issues, which covered broad areas. It was distributed only in electronic format. Editorial speed is still a key feature of FEBS Letters (average 20 days for peer review and 10 days for all first decisions), and this could be further increased. New content, both citable (Communications, In a nutshell, Commentaries), and non-citable (The scientists’ Forum, Editorials), have been introduced in FEBS Letters. The impact factor (for 2017, reported in 2018) was 2.999.

• Molecular Oncology (www.moloncol.org), launched by FEBS in 2007 in collaboration with Elsevier BV, publishes

articles focusing on the translation of laboratory cancer research to clinical applications. It transferred to the FEBS Press platform and publication by Wiley as a full open access journal from the start of 2017. In 2017 the number of issues increased to 12, and the impact factor for 2017 (reported in 2018) remained high, at 5.264. The journal continued to attract a large number of manuscript submissions. FEBS' support of Molecular Oncology for publication of papers with potentially high medical impact fits with its charitable objectives in scientific publishing. Molecular Oncology intends to publish more papers reflecting the translational process in cancer research and articles on science policy issues, particularly at the European level.

• FEBS Open Bio (www.febsopenbio.org), launched in 2011 and published with Wiley since 2016, is an author-pays

journal publishing articles transferred from the more-established FEBS publications (if the papers are judged scientifically sound but unsuitable in topic or scope), as well as direct submissions. In 2017, submissions were increased with 170 papers published, and the journal has a respectable impact factor (1.782 for 2017).

The Publications Committee report is contained herein and there is no appendix.

The FEBS Network A new initiative in 2017 was the launch in September of a ‘FEBS Network’ platform (1) hosting blog-type posts offering insight, advice and commentaries for molecular life scientists (under the themes Early-Career Scientist, Educator, Viewpoints and Research), and (2) also supporting the development of an online community of scientists through presentation of profiles, and functionalities such as following and commenting. The FEBS Network in 2017 was overseen by an ad hoc FEBS Network Working Group comprising current and former members of the FEBS Executive and other Committees, and chaired by Prof. László Fésüs. The launch was the culmination of a long period of research, strategy and software procurement in collaboration with Wiley, who had offered collaboration to develop a FEBS Network in the journal Publishing Agreement 2016–2023. Wiley are bearing the cost of the software provision from the platform provider, Zapnito. The current aims of the FEBS Network include (1) supporting and enhancing the key FEBS activities of journals and events, as well as other FEBS work such as education, science & society and fellowships; (2) providing an innovative offering from FEBS as a new way to support the molecular life sciences community; and (3) building more access to scientists interested in FEBS activities. The period after launch from September to December 2017 saw interest and visitors to the Network grow, and the first release of basic ‘rooms’ – private online spaces on the platform offered initially to FEBS community groups.

http://www.febspress.com/

http://www.febsjournal.org/

http://www.febsletters.org/

http://www.moloncol.org/

http://www.febsopenbio.org/

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FEBS Fellowships The report from the 2017 Chairman of the Fellowships Committee, Prof. Alain Krol, provides information on the range of applications received for the various categories of Fellowships. The Long-Term Fellowships scheme continued to see strong competition for these (one to three-year) awards: 85 applications were received, 4 new Fellowships were awarded in November 2017 and were taken up from February 2017. The total in post during the year was 12 (16 in 2016 - Appendix 5). 1 Distinguished Young Investigator Award was granted.

There were 50 eligible Short-term Fellowships, 32 were awarded and 29 were taken up in the year (21 in 2016) to enable active young scientists to work for up to two or three months in laboratories in another FEBS country 3 Summer Fellowships (4 in 2016) were given to promising senior students to provide a similar experience. There were 5 Collaborative Experimental Scholarships for Central and Eastern Europe out of 7 eligible applications awarded whose aim is to provide PhD students from Central and Eastern Europe with travel and daily allowance so that they can carry out experiments in laboratories in Western Europe which would be impossible in their home countries.

Advanced Courses The subjects and venues of 16 FEBS-supported events in 2017 (16 in 2016) are given in the report of the Chairperson of the Advanced Courses Committee (ACC), Prof. Beáta G. Vértessy, at Appendix 6. These included 6 Advanced Lecture Courses, 4 joint FEBS / EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Lecture Courses, 2 FEBS Workshops, 2 FEBS Practical courses, 1 FEBS Practical and Lecture Course and 1 other event with FEBS YTF support. FEBS Advanced Courses provide research updates and teaching from scientific leaders in a particular field and are particularly valuable for early- career researchers. Interaction of participants with experts and peers is facilitated through a variety of session formats.

In 2017, grants to course organizers totaled approximately €256,318 (Appendix 7). Furthermore, Youth Travel Fund grants, €123,821, to support participation in Advanced Courses were given to 167 young members of FEBS Constituent Societies from outside the host country (119 in 2016). The participation of 13 Turkish Young Scientists at 7 FEBS Advanced Courses was supported by a special grant (€10,124) introduced for 2017 and 2018, following the cancellation of the FEBS Congress 2016. As all courses had eligible transcontinental YTF candidates, FEBS’ ACC decided to fund 5 extra grants ($7,500) over the 10 grants offered by IUBMB.

The 42nd FEBS Congress, Jerusalem, Israel (10-14 September 2017) The annual FEBS Congress is overseen by the FEBS Congress Counsellor (Prof. Miguel A. De la Rosa), jointly with the Secretary General, Prof. Vaclav Pačes. The 42nd FEBS Congress bid was submitted by the Israel Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ISBMB) with the theme ‘From Molecules to Cells and Back’. The bid was accepted in a vote by the FEBS Council at their meeting in 2014.

The 2017 Congress had 1,648 participants, including speakers, 1,225 of whom were from outside Israel and 1,300 abstracts were accepted for the event. It featured 128 invited speakers, as well as several speakers in ‘short talks’ and ‘speed talks’ selected from submitted abstracts, 8 parallel symposia sessions covering 34 topics, 4 FEBS Special Sessions covering Education, Research and Career Skills, Science and Society and Gender Issues in Science (organized by FEBS committees and working groups), 2 ISBMB Special Sessions, 5 Early Bird Sessions and the Poster Sessions. Congress abstracts received before the main deadline were published in an online supplement of The FEBS Journal, and late-breaking abstracts were included in a Congress app.

The Opening / FEBS Theodor Bücher Lecture was delivered by Jonathan Weissman (San Francisco, USA) who spoke on ‘Monitoring protein synthesis in time and space with ribosome profiling’, The FEBS Sir Hans Krebs Lecture by Carol Robinson (Oxford, UK) whose talk title was ‘The mass spectrometry of membrane assemblies – a new phase for structural biology’ and the Closing / FEBS Datta Lecture by Robert J Lefkowitz (Durham, USA) who spoke on ‘Seven Transmembrane Receptors’. Other plenary lectures were the FEBS Letters Award Lecture from Jan Löwe (Cambridge, UK), The FEBS Journal Award Lecture from Sebastian Bittner (Regensburg, Germany), the 2017 FEBS / EMBO Women in Science Award Lecture from Ottoline Leyser (Cambridge, UK), the 2016 FEBS / EMBO Women in Science Award Lecture, which had been postponed from 2016, from Fiona Watt (London, UK), the EMBO Lecture from Patrick Cramer (Gottingen, Germany), the PABMB Lecture from Marcelo Rubinstein (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and the Tang Prize / IUBMB Lecture from Feng Zhang (Cambridge, USA), The 2017 FEBS Anniversary prize recipients (selected from invited lecturers under the age of 40) were Edward Lemke (Heidelberg, Germany) and Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego (Martinsreid, Germany). To recognize excellence among the many posters at the event, FEBS Press awarded journal poster prizes.

In addition to providing a grant for the organization of the Congress, FEBS continues to support the participation of young scientists at the event through 184 Congress bursaries and through its Young Scientists' Forum awards (to 97 participants). FEBS also supported reduced registration fees for FEBS members of Hinari B countries in the FEBS area called the Sprinzl Scheme.

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Congress Management and Development and future Congresses Following the 2016 Congress cancellation and FEBS decision to take out a cancellation insurance policy for each Congress, this policy cover was in place for the 2017 Congress in Jerusalem. The insurance cover for event cancellation is just an example of FEBS’ responsibilities as a charity to manage risk and effectively deliver its aims, but the contracts in place with the PCO and Host Society are intended to minimize the likelihood of such a situation arising.

At the FEBS Council meeting, held in Jerusalem, Israel on 14th-15th September 2017, the Council voted to approve the bid from the Slovenian Biochemical Society, in partnership with the Croatian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, to hold the 45th FEBS Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 4-9 July 2020, and the 2020 Young Scientists Forum in Croatia.

Young Scientists' Forum The Chairperson of the Working Group on the Careers of Young Scientists, Prof. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada in 2017, and a committee of young scientists, in 2017 led by Maayan Pour and including Gamze Tuna (organizer of the cancelled 16th YSF in Turkey), organised the 17th Young Scientists' Forum which was held 7th to 10th September 2017 at the Ramat Rachel Resort in Jerusalem, Israel. Nearly 300 abstracts were submitted by applicants and 101 were selected, (97 accepted) from various countries, to attend the YSF and the ensuing Congress and they were supported by FEBS grants. The YSF featured four invited speakers: Naama Barkai (Rehovot, Israel), Nicolas Plachta as the EMBO Young Investigator lecture recipient (Singapore), Gunes Ozhan (Izmir, Turkey) and Eric Westhof (Strasbourg, France), and 5 symposia where selected participants delivered talks on their work. In addition, round-table discussions on career development and skills, postdoctoral grant applications for EMBO programs, the EU Mobility program, CV preparation and Writing a Scientific Paper, poster presentations and social events were held.

Prof. Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada’s term as Chair ended on 31.12.17.

Support for Constituent Society events FEBS supports scientific events of its Constituent Societies through the FEBS3+ meetings programme and the FEBS National Lecture scheme, overseen by the FEBS Congress Counsellor (Prof. Miguel A. De la Rosa in 2017).

The FEBS3+ meetings programme provides funding for meetings organized through collaborations of at least three FEBS Constituent Societies. In 2017, FEBS supported the meeting of the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Portuguese Biochemical Society and the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, hosted by the Spanish society in Barcelona from 23 to 26 October, with financial support comprising €10,000 for general meeting organization and €10,000 to support the attendance of young scientists. The meeting attracted 750 attendees.

In 2017, FEBS funded the attendance of five key speakers from a different FEBS country invited by a FEBS Constituent Society to their national meeting through FEBS National Lecture Awards. FEBS National Lectures were awarded to the following recipients: Emmanuelle Charpentier (Germany) at the 53rd Contact meeting of the Norwegian Biochemical Society held 19–22 January, Revaz Solomonia (Georgia) at the Turkish Biochemistry Society’s 28th National Congress held 19–23 September, Maya Schuldiner (Israel) at the International Conference of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held 24–27 September, Maria Mota (Portugal) at the 9th Austrian Association of Molecular Life Sciences and Biotechnology meeting held 25–27 September and Carl-Henrik Heldin (Sweden) at the Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Annual Meeting held 10–12 November.

Other events In the framework of promoting FEBS' journals and FEBS' collaborations with related international organizations of molecular life sciences, FEBS continues to support, with travel costs, for distinguished speakers to deliver lectures at annual meetings of learned societies of biochemistry/molecular biology/cell biology in parts of the world with rapidly developing contributions to molecular life sciences research. In 2017, FEBS supported the travel costs of Pura Munoz-Canoves (Spain) to speak at the FAOBMB-ConBio 2017 Conference in Kobe, Japan held 6–9 December. FEBS provided funding support to the ‘New Horizons in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education’ conference held in Israel 6–8 September, in cooperation with IUBMB and funding support through sponsorship of and the attendance of the FEBS Letters Editorial Manager at the ENABLE 1st European PhD and Postdoc Symposium held in Barcelona, Spain 15-17 November, in cooperation with IUBMB This area of FEBS funding in 2017 was coordinated and overseen by the FEBS Secretary General, Treasurer and Congress Counsellor.

Science & Society The Science and Society Committee activities, led by the Chair Prof. Emmanouil Fragkoulis, were focused in 2017 on four targets: firstly, organization of a successful Science and Society session at the FEBS congress in Jerusalem entitled “The role of CRISPR in personalized medicine: legal and ethical problems”; secondly active participation on activities of the Biomed Alliance (at their General Assemblies and Policy officers meeting) in order for FEBS to be involved in the formulation of the recommendation to the commission regarding European scientific policy and especially FP9 shaping; thirdly, support for a round-table event organized by the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Malaga, Spain on 12th December 2017 on The role of CRISPR in Personalized Medicine with more than 350 attendees. The event saw lively discussion and there was interest from local media and radio; and fourthly, the S&S Committee formulated several suggestions at their meeting held in Athens 25-26 May 2017 for scientific policy, support of S&S events in collaboration with the constituent societies and consideration of the committee’s budget.

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Education The Education Committee has the mission of promoting education of the highest quality in biochemistry and molecular biology in Europe at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This is the report from the Chairperson, Prof. Gül Güner Akdogan, on Education Committee activities in 2017.

Activities during 2017:

2nd FEBS Education Ambassadors’ Meeting took place 7-8 April in Paris, with ambassadors from 24 of FEBS constituent societies and the Education Committee members participating. The four working groups were entitled ‘Key knowledge and skills expected from a molecular life sciences graduate’, ‘Good practices on university education’, ‘Promotion of education: Ambassadors’ educational activities and communication with all strategic stakeholders’ and ‘Learning Resources’. The program also included many discussion sessions and social events. The Education Committee also held its first meeting of 2017 in Paris on 5 April.

The Education Committee held a joint session with the Advanced Courses Committee entitled ‘Research and Career Development’ during the Advanced Course event in Spetses, Greece 25-30 May.

Members of the Education Committee attended the FEBS Workshop on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education in Kaunas, Lithuania 26-27 June, coordinated by the Lithuanian and Belorusian societies.

The Education Committee were involved in the organization of and participation at the IUBMB-FEBS Conference on New Horizons in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education held in Rehovot, Israel 6-8 September. There were 130 participants (including lecturers) from all over the world and young scientists were supported by FEBS bursaries. The program featured lectures, poster sessions, parallel workshops, mini-symposium sessions and evening events. The three plenary lecturers were Bruce Alberts (USA), whose lecture was entitled ‘Why science education is more important for the world than most scientists realise’, Robert Harris (Sweden), whose lecture was entitled ‘The future of the doctorate’ and Ada Yonath (Israel) whose lecture was entitled ‘Next generation environmental friendly antibiotics’. The five mini-symposium sessions were entitled: ‘Key knowledge and skills for molecular life scientists’, ‘Pre-university biology education’, ‘PhD training – new prospects’, ‘Research in undergraduate education’ and ‘Re-thinking postdoctoral training’.

The Education Committee organized events during the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem: Education Committee session ‘Practicals in Molecular Life Sciences’ on 11 September, a workshop on ‘Practicals – useful tips’ on 11 September, the FEBS Special Session on Research and Career Skills – ‘How to write and publish a scientific article’ on 13 September and the ‘Workshop on writing and publishing skills’ on 13 September. The Education Committee also held their second committee of the year during the Congress in Jerusalem.

The Chair of the Education Committee, by invitation from the German society, attended the ‘GBM-Arbeitskreises Studium Molekulare Biowissenschaften meeting in Bochum, Germany 23-24 September and gave a talk about the Education Committee’s activities, entitled ‘Key knowledge and skills for molecular life scientists’.

Members of the Education Committee participated in the FEBS Workshop on Molecular Life Science Education held in Sofia, Bulgaria 16-17 November, attended by ca.100 participants mainly young scientists, with the event entitled Youth Scientific Conference ‘Kliment’s days’.

Integration

The Working Group on Integration (WGI), which was chaired in 2017 by Prof. Jerka Dumic, continued its outreach and support for scientists in European countries with economic challenges and/or no existing or active biochemical society, in several ways, including through attendance at meetings and workshops. The WGI met unofficially during the FEBS Education Ambassadors meeting in Paris, 7-8 April; the WGI was represented at the FEBS Education Workshop in Kaunas, Lithuania (26-27 June) by Vida Mildazienie; the WGI meeting took place during the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem (September); Jerka Dumic attended the National Congress of the Slovenian Biochemical Society as the WGI representative (20-22 September); two representatives of the WGI, Vida Mildazienie and Jerka Dumic, attended the ‘Women in biological sciences’ conference in Armenia (11-13 October) delivering a presentation and two scientific lectures and developing contacts with Armenian institutions; Jerka Dumic went to Moldova for a WGI visit in October; Jerka Dumic represented the WGI at the FEBS Education event in Sofia, Bulgaria (17 November) and Jerka Dumic, as Chair of the WGI, coordinated the membership application of the Belarusian society, which was approved, by a vote, at the Council meeting in Jerusalem - Belarus became an Associate Member society on 1.1.2018 and she coordinated the application from the Associate Member society, the Association of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to become a full Member Society which was also approved, by a vote, at the Council meeting in Jerusalem.

Also in 2017 relating to WGI activities, financial support was given under the ‘Sprinzl Scheme’ with a 50% registration fee discount to scientists resident (studying/working) in Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine to attend the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem.

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Women in Science The activities of the Working Group on Women in Science (WISE) during 2017, with Dr Cecilia Arraiano as Chairperson, were as follows:

The FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award, now in its tenth year, recognizes and rewards the exceptional achievements of a female researcher in molecular biology giving particular attention to the previous five years. Winners of the award are role models who inspire future generations of women in science

As mentioned in the 2016 report, the 10th meeting of the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award Committee took place in November 2016 in Warsaw, Poland to review the nominations received for The FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award and the working group decided to award the 2017 prize to Prof. Ottoline Leyser (University of Cambridge, UK) and she was presented with the award at the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem, Israel in September. The deadline for next nominations was 1 October 2018.

The working group organized events during the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem:

a) the Women in Science Career Luncheon for fifty women including small group career-related discussions was held on

12 September; b) the FEBS Women in Science Symposium entitled ‘Gender Issues in Science Education’ was held on 12 September,

chaired by Prof. Cecilia Arraiano and featured three speakers followed by an active discussion with the audience. The speakers were: Dr Marianne Skardeus (former European representative Delta Kappa Gamma Society, Women in Education),whose lecture was entitled ‘Does the 21st century need single gender societies?’, Prof. Gul Huray Islekel (Izmir, Turkey) whose lecture was entitled ‘Challenges and opportunities for women in science – a personal appraisal’ and Prof. Lilach Hadany (Tel Aviv, Israel) whose lecture was entitled ‘Gender equality in theory and practice – insights from Tel Aviv University;

c) the FEBS/EMBO 2017 Women in Science Award plenary lecture held on 13 September, was chaired by Prof. Cecilia Arraiano and Dr. Gerlind Wallon (EMBO) and the awardee, Prof. Ottoline Leyser, spoke on ‘Dual mode strigolactone signalling and the bud activation switch’ and

d) the FEBS/EMBO 2016 Women in Science Award plenary lecture was held on 14 September, chaired by Prof. Cecilia Arraiano and Dr. Gerlind Wallon and the awardee, Prof. Fiona Watt (King’s College, London, UK) spoke on ‘Understanding tissue homeostasis in adult mammalian skin’. (Due to the cancelled Congress in 2016, Fiona Watt was invited to the 2017 Congress in Jerusalem to receive her award and deliver her lecture).

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT The overall objective of FEBS is to contribute to and promote the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the sciences of biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines. As indicated by the specific key objectives of FEBS set out above under 'Objectives', FEBS does this particularly through:

• funding forums for presentation and discussion of research results and related areas of interest at its large annual

Congress, Young Scientists' Forum (YSF), FEBS Fellows Meeting, Special Meetings and other Advanced Courses; promoting training through lectures courses, workshops and practical courses of its Advanced Courses programme, as well as its education workshops; and supporting participation of promising young scientists in these events through YSF awards, Youth Travel Fund grants and Congress bursaries;

• facilitating and supporting the exchange of scientific information between biochemists and molecular biologists especially in Europe and other countries of FEBS Constituent Societies principally through these forums and mechanisms, but also through Constituent Society meetings (National Lecture scheme), FEBS3+ meetings, FEBS Fellowships (which promote mobility), and schemes to support integration of bioscientists working in economically disadvantaged countries of the FEBS area;

• providing stipends through its Fellowships programme to allow research to be carried out in host laboratories by talented early-career scientists;

• offering high-quality publication of research findings for both authors and readers through its four international molecular life science journals.

Through the many activities of FEBS outlined above, the beneficiaries of FEBS include scientists at all levels directly engaged in research and education in the molecular life sciences, and ultimately humankind across the globe through the contributions of these areas of science to human health, agriculture, biotechnology and related areas, and enrichment of human knowledge.

FEBS wholly owns its international journals, which are of importance to FEBS both by directly contributing to its objectives and as a source of income to support its other purposes. FEBS follows all directives on Open Access publishing from the UK, EU and relevant research funders across the world. Its journals offer authors an immediate open access option for new articles and an option to turn past papers open access; in addition, authors are able to deposit accepted research articles, as required by funders, in institutional repositories, through which they are accessible to the public, and all published articles in our subscription-model journals are freely available after 12 months to all readers. In addition, two of the FEBS publications - FEBS Open Bio and Molecular Oncology - are entirely open access.

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FEBS events are normally open to scientists throughout the world. Recipients of FEBS grants for fellowships and for support of participation in meetings are normally required to be members of FEBS' Constituent Societies (where membership criteria are those expected of learned societies) and resident within the FEBS area of Europe and neighbouring countries. Some FEBS programs particularly benefit disadvantaged scientists.

The trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the organization's aims and objectives and in planning future activities.

Grant Making Policy The overall objective of FEBS is to contribute to and promote the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the molecular life sciences and related disciplines. Policies for key grants awarded by FEBS to achieve these goals are outlined below.

Fellowships As part of our commitment to young scientists under the FEBS Fellowship programme set up in 1978, and to further research in the molecular life sciences, we offer both Short-Term and Long-Term Fellowships to members of Constituent Societies, as well as Summer Fellowships to promising students, and awards and follow-up grants to past holders of a FEBS Long-Term Fellowship. As part of our Fellowships programme, we also offer scholarships designed exclusively for members of our Constituent Societies in the currently depressed economies of Central and Eastern Europe. Our Fellowships are intended to allow members of our Constituent Societies working in a FEBS country to work in a laboratory in another FEBS country.

Eligibility criteria for FEBS Fellowships are set out in detailed guidelines on the FEBS website. The initial applications for Fellowships, and renewal requests for Long-Term Fellowships (which are awarded for 1 year in the first instance, with renewal possible for additional years up to a maximum of 3 years in total), are assessed on merit by the FEBS Fellowships Committee. At the end of each six months of the Long-term Fellowships, Fellows must prepare a short report highlighting the progress of their work and, within three months of completion of all Fellowships, awardees are required to prepare a final report on the work carried out during the tenure of the Fellowship.

In addition, recipients of the Distinguished Young Investigator Award and Fellowship Follow-up Research Fund grants must produce an audited financial report within 12 months from the time of the award.

Grants for organizing FEBS Advanced Courses Grants for organizing FEBS Advanced Courses (including lecture courses, workshops, practical courses and special meetings) are awarded to senior scientists by the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee on a competitive basis. Reports (including scientific and financial) from the organizers are required within 3 months after the event.

Grants for young scientists attending Advanced Courses Students participating in FEBS Advanced Courses (including lectures courses, workshops and practical courses) may apply for financial support through the FEBS Youth Travel Fund (YTF). In 2017, grants were made to persons travelling from their current country of residence to another country, mostly in the European area. Applicants for these grants should normally be registered as a student at an institution of higher learning in a country where there is a FEBS Constituent Society or be within five years of having completed a PhD thesis, be a member of a FEBS Constituent Society, and not have received a grant from the Youth Travel Fund to attend an Advanced Course in the current or preceding year or received a grant to attend the Young Scientists' Forum in the current year. Candidates are shortlisted by the Course organizers on merit.

Grants/loans for organizing the FEBS Congress and FEBS3+ meetings, and requests for National Lecture support FEBS evaluates bids for organizing its yearly Congresses and also FEBS3+ meetings, as well as requests from Constituent Societies for National Lecture support, according to their quality; the administrative responsibility for these is in the hands of the FEBS Congress Counsellor (Prof. Miguel A. De la Rosa in 2017).

Grants for attending the FEBS Young Scientists' Forum and Congress (YSF awards) Recipients of YSF awards are selected by the Chair of the Working Group on the Careers of Young Scientists (Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada in 2017) and the local organizing committee on merit, with eligibility criteria that normally include: being a PhD student or postdoctoral fellow within 5 years of finishing his/her PhD at an institution of higher education in a country where there is a FEBS constituent Society; being under 35 years old; being a member of a FEBS Constituent Society; not having attended a recent YSF, and not having received a Youth Travel Fund award in the same year.

Congress bursaries Recipients of bursaries (to assist with registration, travel and accommodation costs for the Congress) are selected by the host society of that year's Congress on merit, with eligibility criteria similar to those for YTF and YSF awards.

Page 9



STRATEGIC REPORT

Achievement and performance

This section summarizes and assesses our principal achievements in 2017 against the formal objectives of FEBS. More details of the activities included in brief here can be found in the 'Activities' section above.

Objective 1: holding and arranging congresses, training and educational courses on matters connected with biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines

Achievements Comments

FEBS Advanced Courses 16 FEBS-supported events, including 6 Advanced Lecture Courses, 4 joint FEBS/EMBO lecture courses, 2 FEBS Workshops, 2 FEBS Practical courses, 1 FEBS Practical and Lecture Course and 1 other event with FEBS YTF support. Attendance of 167 young scientists supported through YTF awards.

Also, assessment procedure for course selection and funding refined, online database for applications and reporting enhanced, FEBS-owned and branded course websites introduced and collaborations with EMBO and IUBMB continued.

In 2017, FEBS continued to fund numerous Advanced Courses with high scientific content and also funded many YTF grants to allow participation of young researchers at the FEBS courses.

FEBS Education Workshops 2nd Education Ambassadors’ Meeting 7-8 April in Paris, France including representatives of 24 FEBS constituent societies. FEBS Workshops on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education in Lithuania (26-27 June) and the Workshop on Molecular Life Sciences Education, in Bulgaria (16-17 November). The IUBMB-FEBS Conference on New Horizons in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 6-8 September in Rehovot, Israel including 130 participants from all over the world.

Promoting education of the highest quality in biochemistry and molecular biology in Europe at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Good ‘value for money’ in raising standards in molecular life science education. The workshops had a positive impact on the participants, mainly young scientists.

Education Sessions at the 42nd FEBS Congress Jerusalem, Israel: the Education Committee organized their committee session, a workshop and a special session during the Congress.

The education events organized at the Congress attracted more than 100 participants, including young scientists and faculty, offering them the possibility of exposure to novel learning and teaching methods.

FEBS3+ Meeting, Barcelona, Spain FEBS grant supported the 1st FEBS 3+ Joint Meeting of the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM), the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Portuguese Biochemical Society, held in Barcelona 23-26 October and organized by SEBBM, with 750 participants.

Support for scientists in Spain, France and Portugal and enhanced links between these three FEBS Constituent Societies. See ‘Support for Constituent Society events’ section for more details.

17th FEBS Young Scientists Forum (YSF) and 42nd FEBS Congress: were held in Jerusalem, Israel in 2017.

17th Young Scientists' Forum 7th–10th September with nearly 300 abstracts submitted by applicants and 101 selected, (97 accepted) from various countries, to attend the YSF and the ensuing Congress, supported by FEBS grants. The program included 4 invited speakers, 5 symposia and round-table discussions.

The 2017 Congress had 1648 participants, including speakers, 1225 of whom were from outside Israel and 1300 abstracts were accepted for the event. It featured 128 invited speakers, as well as several speakers in ‘short talks’ and ‘speed talks’ selected from submitted abstracts, 8 parallel symposia sessions covering 34 topics, 4 FEBS Special Sessions covering Education, Research and Career Skills, Science and Society and Gender Issues in Science (organized by FEBS committees and working groups), 2 ISBMB Special Sessions, 5 Early Bird Sessions and the Poster Sessions.

The YSF includes over 100 PhD students and young postdocs, whose attendance at this and the Congress is funded by FEBS YSF awards. In addition, FEBS supports participation of a large number of young scientists in its annual Congress through the FEBS Bursaries scheme.

The annual FEBS Congress provides a platform for international scientific exchange and showcases the newest developments in biochemistry, molecular biology and related areas. The Congress comprises plenary lectures, symposia, poster sessions, workshops and other activities on related topics. The Congress is held in countries with a Constituent Society of FEBS.


STRATEGIC REPORT

Objective 2: facilitating and supporting the exchange of scientific information between biochemists, molecular

Page 10

biologists and scientists working in related disciplines generally and especially in Europe and other countries of Constituent Societies


FEBS Congress, Advanced Courses and Education Workshops See above

See above

Lecturers for Constituent Society and other scientific meetings National Lectures in Norway, Turkey, Germany, Austria and Greece during 2017.

Effective enhancement of regional, national and international meetings by funding of distinguished speakers.

Other meeting sponsorship ‘Worldwide lectures’ at learned society meetings; in 2017 in Japan.

Eminent speakers for special events and meetings beyond Europe, which also allowed collaboration with international organizations and yielded FEBS journals’ promotion.

FEBS Fellowships Fellows move to work in host lab in different country (see Objective 3 below). FEBS Fellows Meeting, bringing together senior recipients of FEBS Long-Term and Return-to-Europe Fellowships, took place during the YSF in Jerusalem. (This meeting is held every two years.)

Promotion of exchange of skills/knowledge.

WGI schemes Support for communities of molecular life scientists in European countries with economic challenges and/or no existing or active biochemical society through visits, Education Workshops, CES Fellowships and literature access scheme as well as encouraging the establishment of new societies and for them to benefit from FEBS.

Contributes to developing/maintaining pool of effective researchers in Europe.

Objective 3: facilitating and supporting the training of young scientists in research, in the form of fellowships

Achievements Comments Short Fellowships 3 Summer, 29 Short-Term and 5 Collaborative Experimental Scholarships for Central and Eastern Europe Fellowships taken up.

Enhances research possibilities for young scientists; numbers awarded in accordance with budgetary limits.

Long Fellowships 4 Long-Term (12 such Fellows in post). 1 Distinguished Young Investigator Award.

Very competitive - only the most outstanding scientists successful; numbers awarded in accordance with budgetary limits. Accounts for major part of FEBS expenditure.

Objective 4: organising the editing and publication of scientific research and educational material in biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines


In 2017, the journals had significant numbers of article downloads, good impact factors and a stable subscriptions base (FEBS Journal, FEBS Letters, Molecular Oncology); FEBS Open Bio increased number of submissions and articles published.

Strong performance of FEBS’ journals in challenging market conditions.

The Publishing Agreement signed by FEBS and Wiley in 2015 came to effect on January 1st 2016. The eight years' contract is based on revenue share, includes a significant amount of signing bonus, annually increasing guaranteed income per year, support for establishing and development of the FEBS publishing platform, joint development and special support for the FEBS Research and Education Expertise Portal and a service level agreement. Transfer of FEBS Letters and FEBS Open Bio from Elsevier to Wiley was successfully achieved. The transfer of Molecular Oncology took place in 2018.



Page 11

STRATEGIC REPORT

Financial review

Journal income and costs The on-going transition of publishing within the life sciences to full open-access (author pays) models is leading to serious concerns about long-term profitability of subscription journals. However, with regard to the short-term, the 2017 royalty income from The FEBS Journal and FEBS Letters, across both journals, was maintained at a similar level to that in 2016. Total income from royalties in 2017 was 3% higher than the royalty income in 2016.

• Income in 2017 from The FEBS Journal decreased from the previous year by 2%, and contributed 43% of FEBS'royalty income (45% in 2016). The total expenses in running the journal editorial office (including the journal prize andeditorial board payments) amounted to 9.1% of journal income (9.5% in 2016; 9.5% in 2015).

• Income in 2017 from FEBS Letters increased from last year by 3%, and contributed 51% of FEBS' royalty income (51%in 2016). The costs in running the journal office in Heidelberg (including the journal prize and editorial payments)amounted to 11.4% of journal income (10% in 2016; 9% in 2015).

• Income in 2017 for Molecular Oncology increased significantly by 146% compared with that in 2016, and contributed3% of FEBS' royalty income (1% in 2016). Office costs are 54.1% of journal income (108% in 2016 – total costsincluding editors fees).

• For FEBS Open Bio, the royalty payment made to FEBS for 2017 also increased significantly by 35% and contributed2% of FEBS' royalty income (2% in 2016). In 2016 income received was in excess of FEBS’ editorial costs for thejournal for the first time.

Distribution of expenditure on FEBS activities In 2017, Fellowships remained by far the highest area of charitable FEBS spending €722,000 (€776,000 in 2016), then Advanced Courses, gross course grants and YTFs totalling ~€380,000; (~€295,000 in 2016). Prizes and awards for excellence in molecular life sciences totalled ~€15,000 (~€11,000 in 2016), and funding of lecturers for meetings within and outside of Europe totalled ~€23,000 including the FEBS 3+ meetings. Several other areas of FEBS work - including education workshops, science and society sessions, and 'integration' initiatives - were undertaken for ~€75,000 in total.

Governance and support costs The senior scientists who serve as FEBS Officers and members of FEBS committees all work pro bono, and the holders of key positions in the FEBS Executive Committee generously devote considerable time and energy to FEBS activities. There are a small number of administrative support personnel working in (1) the FEBS Central Administration Office, which includes the FEBS Treasury Office dealing with financial matters, central administration and communications, and (2) working with the Fellowships and Advanced Courses Committee Chairs to support their work and those of the committees.

The total governance costs - including the expenses associated with higher-level committees (Council, Executive and Finance) within FEBS, Central Administration Office and Secretary General expenses, as well as auditor and other fees - amounted to about 22% (25% in 2016) of the size of charitable spending in 2017 (note that these governance costs are not included in the total for charitable spending).

An indication of the support costs involved in running the two activities of FEBS with the highest expenditure can be given by the committee expenses as a percentage of the charitable spending in that area; in 2017, this was approximately 6% (5.1% in 2016, 5.9% in 2015) for Fellowships, and 7% (10.1% in 2016, 16.7% in 2015) for Advanced Courses (although these figures exclude governance costs of central administration at the FEBS Treasury Office). Support costs for the journals are covered in 'Journal income and costs 'above.

Investment performance In 2016 FEBS reviewed its investments and the Finance Committee decided to hold a tender for the management of the investments of FEBS. JP Morgan was the successful tenderer after an intensive selection process. The tender was conducted by the Finance Committee, plus the Chair of the Fellowship Committee, with the assistance of an independent investment consultant. By 31 December 2017 the investment portfolio had been moved to JP Morgan. 100% of all investments are now held by JP Morgan. For the twelve months to the 31 December 2017 the investments achieved a return of 5.43% (3.62% in 2016).

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STRATEGIC REPORT

Principal risks and uncertainties

The trustees have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error.

Reduction of income due to changes in journal publishing In addition to directly fulfilling one of the charitable objectives of FEBS, our journals have provided a source of income to fund FEBS' other charitable work. A major risk to FEBS is a loss of income because of the loss of journal subscriptions as publishing in the life sciences moves to open access models. The income of FEBS could eventually disappear as existing contracts from libraries will increasingly not be renewed. By the law of unintended consequences, open access thus stands to devastate the finances of many learned societies and prevent their funding of academic and socially responsible activities.

FEBS is addressing these concerns by (1) its policy on reserves (see below) so that future income can be derived from investments and (2) signed long-term contracts with publishers.

Return from investments Up until the end of 2017 FEBS followed a standard investment policy with investment in 30% bonds and 70% equities. Since moving the investment management to JP Morgan FEBS has made minor changes to its policy with investments allocated to 60% equities, 30% fixed income and cash and 10% alternatives. The performance of FEBS' investments is monitored regularly. All decisions about investments are made by the Finance Committee, as delegated by the Executive Committee.

Fraud FEBS' controls include regular internal and external oversight and checks. Controls and procedures are appropriate for the organisation's size and operation. FEBS has an environment where suggestions for improvements to the systems and processes are encouraged.

Impact on overall objectives The success of FEBS in promoting the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the sciences of biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines is carefully monitored by stringent peer review and other methods.

Plans for future periods

Reserves policy The current financial strategy on reserves 2017 €62,241,920 (2016 €55,972,784; 2015 €50,738,358; 2014 €36,618,359) has been implemented to cover the potential loss of journal income in the coming years. Expenditure on Fellowships and Advanced Courses, which were large areas of spending, has been reduced compared with pre-2013 levels, to allow the excess of income over spending while journal income remains significant, to be used to grow our reserves. With careful management of the greater reserves, the aim is then to be able to fund the key activities of FEBS in the future solely from the total return from our investments. To be able to respond to any sudden changes in circumstance, the estimated average annual expenditure for one year is held as liquid funds (and not incorporated in the overall investment portfolio) to provide the greatest flexibility in reacting to income shortfalls and to give time to review the investment strategy if necessary. This strategy is to remain in place and will be reviewed at least annually by the Finance Committee and the Executive Committee.

Future commitments and plans for other areas of FEBS work We now have firm arrangements for a programme of Annual Congresses until 2021, as these involve substantial forward planning. Expenditure on Advanced Courses up to 2019 and the costs of annual extensions of Long-Term Fellowships to up to 3 years for Fellows already in post are included in our budgets.

With regard to future activities, we are also continuing to attempt to forge closer links with related European and worldwide organizations that cover contiguous/overlapping areas of molecular life sciences (e.g. biophysics, microbiology, immunology, cancer) with the aim of maximising the use of our impacts and resources.

Concluding Comments FEBS has continued to operate successfully in promoting the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the sciences of biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines, and its current strategy for its long-term survival is progressing smoothly and according to plan. By making provisions to increase the reserves FEBS will be in a position to provide support to many researchers in years to come.

Page 14

Report of the Independent Auditors to the Members of The Federation of European Biochemical Societies

Opinion We have audited the financial statements of The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (the 'charitable company') for the year ended 31 December 2017 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Statement of Financial Position, the Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice), including Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland'.

In our opinion the financial statements: - give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 December 2017 and of its incoming

resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;- have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and- have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC's Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Use of our report This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Conclusions relating to going concern We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require us to report to you where: - the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not

appropriate; or- the trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast

significant doubt about the charitable company's ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accountingfor a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Other information The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our Report of the Independent Auditors thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinion on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006 In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit: - the information given in the Report of the Trustees for the financial year for which the financial statements are

prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and- the Report of the Trustees has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.



Statement of Financial Activities (Incorporating an Income and Expenditure Account) for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

2017 2016 Unrestricted

fund Total funds

Notes € € INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies 2 8,614 9,054

Other trading activities 3 6,970,009 6,735,438 Investment income 4 726,968 593,067

Total 7,705,591 7,337,559

EXPENDITURE ON Raising funds 5 224,746 256,485 Charitable activities 6 Charitable activities 3,361,731 3,209,569

Total 3,586,477 3,466,054

Realised gains/(losses) on investments 1,984,319 (257,939)

Net income before unrealised gains/(losses) 6,103,433 3,613,566

Unrealised gains/(losses) on investments 165,703 1,620,860

NET INCOME 6,269,136 5,234,426

RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS

Total funds brought forward 55,972,784 50,738,358

TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD 62,241,920 55,972,784

CONTINUING OPERATIONS All incoming resources and resources expended arise from continuing activities which were acquired from the unincorporated FEBS on 1 January 2013 (see Report of the Trustees).

Page 16



Statement of Cash Flows for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

2017 2016 Notes € €

Cash flows from operating activities: Cash generated from operations 1 3,384,526 4,574,387

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 3,384,526 4,574,387

Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of tangible fixed assets (8,071) (6,943) Purchase of fixed asset investments (55,061,874) (26,019,170) Sale of fixed asset investments 58,099,814 14,556,093 Interest received 196,752 104,834 Dividends received 530,216 488,233

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities 3,756,837 (10,876,953)

Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period 7,141,363 (6,302,566) Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 4,903,417 11,205,983

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period 12,044,780 4,903,417

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Notes to the Statement of Cash Flows for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

1. RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES2017 2016 € €

Net income for the reporting period (as per the statement of financial activities) 6,269,136 5,234,426 Adjustments for: Depreciation charges 10,681 11,545 Gain on investments (2,150,022) (1,362,921) Interest received (196,752) (104,834) Dividends received (530,216) (488,233) Decrease in debtors 3,739 1,275,292 (Decrease)/increase in creditors (22,040) 9,112

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 3,384,526 4,574,387

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Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statementsThe financial statements of the charitable company, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have beenprepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement ofRecommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial ReportingStandard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015)', Financial ReportingStandard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the CompaniesAct 2006. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with the exception ofinvestments which are included at market value, as modified by the revaluation of certain assets.

IncomeAll income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it isprobable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

ExpenditureLiabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amountof the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has beenclassified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributedto particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the year end date are noted as a commitment butnot accrued as expenditure.

Raising fundsRaising funds includes all expenditure incurred by the charity to raise funds for its charitable purposes and includescosts of all fundraising activities, events and non-charitable trading.

Allocation and apportionment of costsAllocation of costs is based on the activity which has driven the relevant cost. Costs which are incurred for one ormore support activity have been apportioned on one of two basis. For personnel costs the apportionment basis isman hours utilised. For premises costs the apportionment basis is floor space utilised.

Tangible fixed assetsDepreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life.

Fixtures and fittings - 15% on reducing balanceComputer equipment and website - 25% on reducing balance

TaxationThe charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.

Fund accountingUnrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictionsarise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.

Foreign currenciesAssets and liabilities in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rates of exchange ruling at thestatement of financial position date. Transactions in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rate ofexchange ruling at the date of transaction. Exchange differences are taken into account in arriving at the operatingresult.

Hire purchase and leasing commitmentsRentals paid under operating leases are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities on a straight line basisover the period of the lease.

Pension costs and other post-retirement benefitsThe charitable company operates a defined contribution pension scheme. Contributions payable to the charitablecompany's pension scheme are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the period to which they relate.

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Notes to the Financial Statements - continued for the Year Ended 31 December 2017

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES - continued

Investments and investment incomeInvestments are valued on a continuous market value basis; these gains or losses being shown as unrealised gains and losses in the Statement of Financial Activities. Gains and losses arising from foreign exchange rate fluctuationsare separated and similarly dealt with as unrealised gains and losses in the Statement of Financial Activities. Nogains and losses arise on the disposal of investments as they are always recorded at market value.

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

2017 2016 € €

Subscriptions receivable 8,614 9,054

3. OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES

2017 2016 € €

Royalties receivable 6,970,009 6,735,438

4. INVESTMENT INCOME

2017 2016 € €

Franked investment income - dividends 530,216 488,233 Interest received 196,752 104,834

726,968 593,067

Investment income from UK investment assets was €2,881 (2016: €2,542). Investment income from investment assets outside the UK was €724,087 (2016: €590,525).

5. RAISING FUNDS

Investment management costs

2017 2016 € €

Portfolio management 224,746 256,485

J.P. Morgan Private Bank, the company's investment manager, holds a charge over the company's cash and investments it manages on behalf of the company.

6. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS

Direct costs Grant funding

of activities

Support costs Totals (See note 7) (See note 8) (See note 9)

€ € € € Charitable activities 573,599 1,375,486 1,412,646 3,361,731

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7. DIRECT COSTS OF CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

2017 2016 € €

FEBS Journal Editors & Referees 115,887 116,162 FEBS Letters Editors 64,125 74,994 Molecular Oncology Authors, Editor & Sponsorship 33,216 33,444 Open Bio Editors 1,237 1,542 Women in Science Events 7,833 4,270 Education Committee Events 13,875 9,880 Science & Society Events 3,982 1,604 National Lecture Expenses 1,957 5,584 Expenses & Publicity at Other Conferences 386 - World Wide Lecture expenses 1,120 1,545 Other education workshops 47,209 - FEBS Congress 123,965 384,081 FEBS Young Scientist Forum Congress 105,648 57,479 WGI participation Events 9,635 4,226 FEBS Fellows at Congress 21,135 - Sprinzl Scheme 7,500 (1,125) Publications congress expenses 14,889 275

573,599 693,961

8. GRANTS PAYABLE

2017 2016 € €

Charitable activities 1,375,486 1,121,438

The total grants paid to institutions during the year was as follows: 2017 2016 € €

Advanced courses 256,318 226,502 FEBS Congress Grant 75,000 - Grants/sponsorships to other organisations/conferences 12,750 28,065

344,068 254,567

The total grants paid to individuals during the year was as follows: 2017 2016 € €

Youth Travel Fund grants 123,821 68,248 FEBS Congress Bursaries 147,845 - Young Scientists Forum travel grants 23,157 11,379 FEBS Fellowships 721,764 775,828 Prizes and awards 14,831 11,416

1,031,418 866,871

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9. SUPPORT COSTS

FEBS Letters Office

Expenses (Heidelberg)

FEBS Journal Office

Expenses (Cambridge)

Molecular Oncology

Office Expenses

(Copenhagen)

FEBS Open

Bio Office Expenses

(Cambridge) € € € €

Charitable activities 332,740 158,639 79,365 89,626

Treasury (Cambridge)

Administrative Support and

Committee Expenses

Central Administration

Expenses (Cambridge)

Governance Costs Totals

€ € € € € Charitable activities 81,291 143,453 132,436 395,096 1,412,646

Support costs, included in the above, are as follows:

FEBS Letters Office Expenses (Heidelberg)

2017 2016 Charitable

activities Total activities

€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 319,653 252,595 Postage 144 924 Travel 2,389 5,156 Telephone, computer and IT 6,971 9,500 Sundry expenses 3,583 1,860

332,740 270,035

FEBS Journal Office Expenses (Cambridge)



€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 146,182 157,809 Telephone, computer and IT 3,206 14,310 Meetings 4,954 1,631 Sundry expenses 3,012 598 Insurance 717 1,052 Editorial administrative support services 568 1,593

158,639 176,993

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9. SUPPORT COSTS - continued

Molecular Oncology Office Expenses (Copenhagen)



€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 73,090 56,085 Meetings and travel 6,065 1,650 Sundry expenses 210 292

79,365 58,027

FEBS Open Bio Office Expenses (Cambridge)



€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 83,163 72,387 Telephone, computer and IT 1,776 2,712 Meetings 812 768 Sundry expenses 2,832 365 Insurance 383 164 Editorial administrative support services 418 1,643 Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 242 285

89,626 78,324

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Treasury (Cambridge)



€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 74,893 74,772 Meetings 1,868 823 Sundry expenses 556 944 Telephone, computer & IT 1,801 63 Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 2,173 1,759

81,291 78,361

Administrative Support and Committee Expenses



€ € Executive committee 44,469 23,761 Finance committee 11,278 10,336 Secretary General's office expenses 1,352 81,253 Other meetings and miscellaneous costs 1,498 - Congress Counsellor 410 168 Publications committee 7,260 21,713 Fellowships committee 41,312 39,927 Advanced Courses committee 28,373 29,778 Science & Society committee 1,178 - Education committee 5,149 1,963 Working group women in science 1,174 1,957 Working group on integration - 4,020

143,453 214,876

Page 25




Central Administration Expenses (Cambridge)



€ € Office costs (personnel and office facilities) 122,404 194,943 Stationery 395 1,543 Telephone, computer & IT 2,625 3,702 Meetings 1,455 1,920 Sundry expenses 2,544 2,203 Insurance 512 658 Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 2,896 4,104

132,436 209,073

Governance Costs



€ € Auditors' remuneration 16,340 18,126 Auditors' remuneration for non-audit work 18,019 18,346 Bank charges 15,164 12,777 Legal and professional fees 75,610 26,492 Digital Platform incl. Fellowships Applications and Advanced Courses Reporting

- 16,247

- 5,308

Council and other meetings 29,155 35,422 Foreign exchange movements 217,005 264,813 Insurance 2,186 1,956 Depreciation of tangible fixed assets 5,370 7,156

395,096 390,396

10. NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):

2017 2016 € €

Auditors' remuneration 16,340 18,126 Auditors' remuneration for non-audit work 18,019 18,346 Depreciation - owned assets 10,681 11,545 Property leases 30,790 36,666

Page 26



11. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

There were no trustees' remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 December 2017 nor for the yearended 31 December 2016.

Trustees' expenses

The Charity paid travel and subsistence costs for 12 Trustees (2016: 12) attending various Committee meetingsand conferences during the period. The total cost of Trustees' expenses for the period was a sum of €38,864 (2016: €47,424).

12. STAFF COSTS

2017 2016 € €

Wages and salaries 331,679 318,873 Other pension costs 44,155 48,808

375,834 367,681

The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:

9 7

No employees received emoluments in excess of £60,000.

Other Personnel Costs

Due to the wide geographical spread of the Charity's activities, some staffing requirements are fulfilled by independent parties and freelancers. Details of the cost and number of personnel contracted in this manner are detailed below:

2017 2016 € €

Heidelberg office 319,653 252,595 Copenhagen office 73,052 56,085 Fellowships committee administrator 30,797 25,302 Advanced Courses committee administrator 19,389 19,007 Secretary General's office administrator 1,352 51,500

444,243 404,489

The average number of other such personnel (including part-time personnel) engaged by the charity during the period was as follows:

2017 2016 4 4 2 2 1 1 1 1

Heidelberg office Copenhagen office Fellowships committee administrator Advanced Courses committee administrator Secretary General's office administrator -

8 9

2017 2016

Publications (Cambridge) 5 4 Treasury 2 1 Central Administration 2 2

Page 27

1



13. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Fixtures and fittings

Computer equipment and

website

Totals € € €

COST At 1 January 2017 6,316 73,926 80,242 Additions 534 7,537 8,071

At 31 December 2017 6,850 81,463 88,313

DEPRECIATION At 1 January 2017 3,084 41,010 44,094 Charge for year 564 10,117 10,681

At 31 December 2017 3,648 51,127 54,775

NET BOOK VALUE At 31 December 2017 3,202 30,336 33,538

At 31 December 2016 3,232 32,916 36,148

14. FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS

Listed investments

€ MARKET VALUE At 1 January 2017 50,707,347 Additions 55,061,874 Disposals (58,099,814) Revaluations 2,150,022

At 31 December 2017 49,819,429

NET BOOK VALUE At 31 December 2017 49,819,429

At 31 December 2016 50,707,347

The market value of investment assets in the UK is €880,448 (2016: €4,846,004). The market value of investment assets outside the UK is €48,938,981 (2016: €45,861,343). All investments are held primarily to provide an investment return. Investments are held on a long term basis with a view to capital appreciation. The high value of additions and disposals in the year was a result of a change in investment manager during the year and a re-alignment of the portfolio to the new manager's investment profile.

15. DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

2017 2016 € €

Trade debtors 2,286,729 2,263,630 Other debtors 41,501 36,498 Prepayments and accrued income 286,759 318,600

2,614,989 2,618,728

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16. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

2017 2016 € €

Trade creditors 103,019 69,715 VAT 335,203 329,830 Other creditors 15,789 52,063 Accruals and deferred income 1,816,805 1,841,248

2,270,816 2,292,856

17. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

At 1.1.17 Net movement

in funds

At 31.12.17 € € €

Unrestricted funds General fund 55,972,784 6,269,136 62,241,920

TOTAL FUNDS 55,972,784 6,269,136 62,241,920

Net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

Incoming resources

Resources expended

Gains and losses

Movement in funds

€ € € € Unrestricted funds General fund 7,705,591 (3,586,477) 2,150,022 6,269,136

TOTAL FUNDS 7,705,591 (3,586,477) 2,150,022 6,269,136

Comparatives for movement in funds

At 1.1.16 Net movement

in funds

At 31.12.16 € € €

Unrestricted Funds General fund 50,738,358 5,234,426 55,972,784

TOTAL FUNDS 50,738,358 5,234,426 55,972,784

Comparative net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

Incoming resources

Resources expended

Gains and losses

Movement in funds

€ € € € Unrestricted funds General fund 7,337,559 (3,466,054) 1,362,921 5,234,426

TOTAL FUNDS 7,337,559 (3,466,054) 1,362,921 5,234,426

18. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 December 2017.

Page 29

COMPANY NOT HAVING A SHARE CAPITAL

______________

MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION OF


Each subscriber to this memorandum of association wishes to form a company under the

Companies Act 2006 and agrees to become a member of the company.

Name of each subscriber Authentication by each subscriber

The Biochemical Society

Hungarian Biochemical Society

Israeli Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dated: 3 October 2012

THE COMPANIES ACT 2006

PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

OF


1 Company’s name

1.1 The company’s name is The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (the “Federation” or “FEBS”).

2 Interpretation

2.1 In the articles:

“address” means a postal address or, for the purposes of electronic communication, a fax number, an e-mail or postal address or a telephone number for receiving text messages in each case registered with the Federation;

“annual membership fee” means the annual membership fee to be determined by the Council in accordance with article 15.1.10;

“articles” means the Federation’s articles of association;

“Associate Member Society” means a Constituent Society admitted as an Associate Member Society in accordance with article 10 and the rights and obligations as set out in article 11.3;

“By-laws” means by-laws of the Federation in accordance with article 32;

“clear days” in relation to the period of a notice means a period excluding:

(a) the day when the notice is given or deemed to be given; and

(b) the day for which it is given or on which it is to take effect;

“Chairperson” means the chairperson of the Federation, appointed in accordance with article 19;

“Commission” means the Charity Commission for England and Wales;

“Committee Chairpersons” means the chairpersons of the Committees appointed in accordance with article 23.2;

“Committees” means the Advanced Courses Committee, Education Committee, Fellowships Committee, Publications Committee, Science and Society Committee and any other committee established in accordance with article 26, whose rights and responsibilities shall be set out in By-laws from time to time;

“Committee Members” means all members of the Committees excluding the Committee Chairpersons;

“Companies Acts” means the Companies Acts (as defined in section 2 of the Companies Act 2006) insofar as they apply to the Federation;

“Congress” means a congress of the Federation held in accordance with article 29;

“Congress Counsellor” means any person elected to perform the duties of the Congress counsellor in accordance with article 22;

“Constituent Societies” means organisations who are national scientific societies in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology who are admitted either as a Member Society or an Associate Member Society in accordance with article 10;

“Council” means the council consisting of one Delegate from each Constituent Society and all members of the Executive Committee;

“Council Meeting” means any meeting of the Council, including an annual general meeting or any other meeting called in accordance with article 17;

“Delegate” means a Constituent Societies’ nominated representative in accordance with article 16;

“document” includes, unless otherwise specified, any document sent or supplied in electronic form;

“electronic form” has the meaning given in section 1168 of the Companies Act 2006;

“Executive Committee” means the executive committee of the Federation, consisting of all of the Officers as set out at article 18.1, further detailed at article 24;

“Finance Committee” means the finance committee of the Federation, further detailed at article 25;

“Members” means the company members of the Federation who will be admitted in accordance with articles 10 and 11;

“Member Society” means a Constituent Society admitted as a Member Society in accordance with article 10 with the rights set out in article 11.2;

“memorandum’ means the Federation’s memorandum of association;

“Objects” shall have the meaning given to it in article 4;

“Officer Members” means the members of the Executive Committee who will upon appointment as an Officer be a Member in accordance with article 11.1.3;

“Officers” means the officers of the Federation making up the Executive Committee as set out at article 18.1. The Officers are charity trustees as defined by section 177 of the Charities Act 2011 and company directors;

“Secretary General” means any person elected to perform the duties of the secretary of the Federation in accordance with article 20;

“Special Resolution” means a resolution passed by a majority of not less than 75% of the Voting Members present and exercising their vote at a meeting present in person or, in the case of Member Societies, by their Delegate;

“Treasurer” means any person elected to perform the duties of the treasurer of the Federation in accordance with article 21;

“United Kingdom” means Great Britain and Northern Ireland;

“Vice Chairperson” means the vice chairperson of the Federation appointed in accordance with article 19;

“Voting Members” means the Member Societies and the Officer Members;

“Working Group” means any new working groups formed in accordance with article 26.3; and

“Working Group Chairpersons” means the chairpersons of the Working Groups appointed in accordance with article 23.2.

2.2 Words importing one gender shall include all genders, and the singular includes the plural and vice versa.

2.3 Unless the context otherwise requires words or expressions contained in the articles have the same meaning as in the Companies Acts but excluding any statutory modification not in force when this constitution becomes binding on the Federation.

2.4 Apart from the exception mentioned in the previous paragraph a reference to an Act of Parliament includes any statutory modification or re-enactment of it for the time being in force.

3 Liability of Members

3.1 The liability of the Members is limited to a sum not exceeding £10, being the amount that each Member undertakes to contribute to the assets of the Federation in the event of its being wound up while it is a Member or within one year after it ceases to be a Member, for:

3.1.1 payment of the Federation’s debts and liabilities incurred before it ceases to be a Member;

3.1.2 payment of the costs, charges and expenses of winding up; and

3.1.3 adjustment of the rights of the contributories among themselves.

4 Objects

4.1 The Federation’s objects (“Objects”) are and shall be to contribute to and promote the advancement of research and education for the public benefit in the sciences of biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines (but only in so far as such related disciplines are ancillary to the main object), by all suitable means and in particular by:

4.1.1 holding and arranging congresses, training and educational courses on matters connected with biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines;

4.1.2 facilitating and supporting the exchange of scientific information between biochemists, molecular biologists and scientists working in related disciplines generally and especially in Europe and other countries of Constituent Societies;

4.1.3 facilitating and supporting the training of young scientists in research, in the form of fellowships; and

4.1.4 organising the editing and publication of scientific research and educational material in biochemistry and molecular biology and related disciplines.

4.2 The quality of science shall be of prime importance for decisions concerning support of any and all activities of the Federation.

5 Powers

5.1 The Federation has power to do anything which is calculated to further its Objects or is conducive or incidental to doing so. In particular, the Federation has power:

5.1.1 to raise funds. In doing so, the Federation must not undertake any taxable permanent trading activity and must comply with any relevant statutory regulations;

5.1.2 to buy, take on lease or in exchange, hire or otherwise acquire any property and to maintain and equip it for use;

5.1.3 to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of all or any part of the property belonging to the Federation. In exercising this power, the Federation must comply as appropriate with Part 7 of the Charities Act 2011;

5.1.4 to borrow money and to charge the whole or any part of the property belonging to the Federation as security for repayment of the money borrowed or as security for a grant or the discharge of an obligation. The Federation must comply as appropriate with Part 7 of the Charities Act 2011, if it wishes to mortgage land;

5.1.5 to co-operate with other charities, voluntary bodies and statutory authorities and to exchange information and advice with them;

5.1.6 to establish or support any charitable trusts, associations or institutions formed for any of the charitable purposes included in the Objects;

5.1.7 to acquire, merge with or to enter into any partnership or joint venture arrangement with any other charity;

5.1.8 to set aside income as a reserve against future expenditure but only in accordance with a written policy about reserves;

5.1.9 to establish or acquire subsidiaries;

5.1.10 to employ and remunerate such staff as are necessary for carrying out the work of the Federation. The Federation may employ or remunerate an Officer only to the extent it is permitted to do so by article 7 and provided it complies with the conditions in that article;

5.1.11 to:

(i) deposit or invest funds;

(ii) employ a professional fund-manager; and

(iii) arrange for the investments or other property of the Federation to be held in the name of a nominee;

in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as the trustees of a trust are permitted to do by the Trustee Act 2000;

5.1.12 to provide indemnity insurance for the Officers in accordance with, and subject to the conditions in, section 189 of the Charities Act 2011; and

5.1.13 to pay out of the funds of the Federation the costs of forming and registering the Federation both as a company and as a charity.

6 Application of income and property

6.1 The income and property of the Federation shall be applied solely towards the promotion of the Objects.

6.2 An Officer is entitled to be reimbursed from the property of the Federation or may pay out of such property reasonable expenses properly incurred by him or her when acting on behalf of the Federation.

6.3 An Officer may benefit from trustee indemnity insurance cover purchased at the Federation’s expense in accordance with, and subject to the conditions in, section 189 of the Charities Act 2011.

6.4 An Officer may receive an indemnity from the Federation in the circumstances specified in article 39.

6.5 An Officer may not receive any other benefit or payment unless it is authorised by article 7.

6.6 Subject to article 7, none of the income or property of the Federation may be paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividend bonus or otherwise by way of profit to any Constituent Society or Officer. This does not prevent a Constituent Society or Officer receiving:

6.6.1 a benefit from the Federation in the capacity of a beneficiary of the Federation; and/or

6.6.2 reasonable and proper remuneration for any goods or services supplied to the Federation.

7 Benefits and payments to Officers and connected persons

7.1 No Officer or connected person may:

7.1.1 buy any goods or services from the Federation on terms preferential to those applicable to members of the public;

7.1.2 sell goods, services, or any interest in land to the Federation;

7.1.3 be employed by, or receive any remuneration from, the Federation;

7.1.4 receive any other financial benefit from the Federation;

unless the payment is permitted by articles 7.2 to 7.7 or authorised by the court or the Commission.

In this article a “financial benefit” means a benefit, direct or indirect, which is either money or has a monetary value.

7.2 An Officer or connected person may receive a benefit from the Federation in the capacity of a beneficiary of the Federation provided that a majority of the Officers do not benefit in this way.

7.3 An Officer or connected person may enter into a contract for the supply of services, or of goods that are supplied in connection with the provision of services, to the Federation where that is permitted in accordance with, and subject to the conditions in, section 185 to 188 of the Charities Act 2011.

7.4 Subject to article 7.8 an Officer or connected person may provide the Federation with goods that are not supplied in connection with services provided to the Federation by the Officer or connected person.

7.5 An Officer or connected person may receive interest on money lent to the Federation at a reasonable and proper rate which must be 2% (or more) per annum below the base rate of a clearing bank to be selected by the Executive Committee.

7.6 An Officer or connected person may receive rent for premises let by the Officer or connected person to the Federation. The amount of the rent and the other terms of the lease must be reasonable and proper. The Officer concerned must withdraw from any meeting at which such a proposal or the rent or other terms of the lease are under discussion.

7.7 An Officer or connected person may take part in the normal trading and fundraising activities of the Federation on the same terms as members of the public.

7.8 The Federation and its Officers may only rely upon the authority provided by article 7.4 if each of the following conditions is satisfied:

7.8.1 the amount or maximum amount of the payment for the goods is set out in an agreement in writing between the Federation or its Officers (as the case may be) and the Officer or connected person supplying the goods (the “supplier”) under which the supplier is to supply the goods in question to or on behalf of the Federation;

7.8.2 the amount or maximum amount of the payment for the goods does not exceed what is reasonable in the circumstances for the supply of the goods in question;

7.8.3 the Executive Committee is satisfied that it is in the best interests of the Federation to contract with the supplier rather than with someone who is not an Officer or connected person. In reaching that decision the Executive Committee must balance the advantage of contracting with an Officer or connected person against the disadvantages of doing so;

7.8.4 the supplier is absent from the part of any meeting at which there is discussion of the proposal to enter into a contract or arrangement with him or her or it with regard to the supply of goods to the Federation;

7.8.5 the supplier does not vote on any such matter and is not to be counted when calculating whether a quorum of Officers is present at the meeting;

7.8.6 the reason for the Executive Committee’s decision is recorded in the minute book; and

7.8.7 a majority of the Officers then in office are not in receipt of remuneration or payments authorised by article 7.

7.9 In articles 7.2 to 7.8:

7.9.1 “Federation” includes any company or charity in which the Federation:

(i) holds more than 50% of the shares;

(ii) controls more than 50% of the voting rights attached to the shares; or

(iii) has the right to appoint one or more directors to the board of the company or charity; and

7.9.2 “connected person” includes any person within the definition in article 41 (Interpretation).

8 Declaration of Officers’ interests

8.1 An Officer must declare the nature and extent of any interest, direct or indirect, which he or she has in a proposed transaction or arrangement with the Federation or in any transaction or arrangement entered into by the Federation which has not previously been declared. An Officer must absent himself or herself from any discussions of the Officers in which it is possible that a conflict will arise between his or her duty to act solely in the interests of the Federation and any personal interest (including but not limited to any personal financial interest).

9 Conflicts of interests and conflicts of loyalties

9.1 If a conflict of interests arises for an Officer because of a duty of loyalty owed to another organisation or person and the conflict is not authorised by virtue of any other provision in the articles, the unconflicted Officers may authorise such a conflict of interests where the following conditions apply:

9.1.1 the conflicted Officer is absent from the part of the meeting at which there is discussion of any arrangement or transaction affecting that other organisation or person;

9.1.2 the conflicted Officer does not vote on any such matter and is not to be counted when considering whether a quorum of Officers is present at the meeting; and

9.1.3 the unconflicted Officers consider it is in the interests of the Federation to authorise the conflict of interests in the circumstances applying.

9.2 In this article 9 a conflict of interests arising because of a duty of loyalty owed to another organisation or person only refers to such a conflict which does not involve a direct or indirect benefit of any nature to an Officer or to a connected person.

10 Members

10.1 The subscribers to the memorandum are the first members of the Federation.

10.2 Subject to meeting the requirements as set out in article 11 prospective members, being national scientific societies representing scientists in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology in Europe or in countries of the Federation’s area of interest, who wish to be admitted as Members, shall need to:

10.2.1 apply to the Federation in the form required by the Council; and

10.2.2 be approved by the Council.

10.3 The procedure for admission is set out in the By-laws.

10.4 The annual membership fee due to the Federation and payable by the Member Societies is determined by the Council.

10.5 Membership is non-transferrable.

10.6 For the avoidance of doubt, only one Constituent Society may be admitted as either a Member Society or Associate Member Society per country.

10.7 For the purpose of this article the Executive Committee shall have the final decision with regard to:

10.7.1 the interpretation of ‘country’; and

10.7.2 which organisation is any particular country’s national scientific society representing scientists in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology.

11 Classes of membership

11.1 The Federation has the following categories of Members:

11.1.1 Member Societies, who shall have the rights and responsibilities as set out in article 11.2;

11.1.2 Associate Member Societies, who shall have the rights and responsibilities as set out in article 11.3;

11.1.3 Officer Members, who shall have the rights and responsibilities as set out in article 11.4; and

11.1.4 any other category as may be determined by the Executive Committee from time to time.

11.2 Member Society

11.2.1 A Constituent Society which has been accepted as a Member Society by the Council shall pay the annual membership fee.

11.2.2 A Member Society has voting rights in the Council.

11.2.3 A Constituent Society which has been accepted as a Member Society by the Council but does not pay the annual membership fee will be considered as an Associate Member Society (with no voting rights) until the annual membership fee is paid.

11.2.4 A Member Society may nominate a Delegate to act as its representative at Council meetings in accordance with article 16.

11.3 Associate Member Society

11.3.1 A Constituent Society which has been accepted as an Associate Member Society by the Council does not pay the annual membership fee.

11.3.2 An Associate Member Society has no voting rights in Council meetings.

11.3.3 An Associate Member Society may nominate a Delegate (with no voting rights) to attend Council meetings in accordance with article 16.

11.4 Officer Member

11.4.1 The members of the Executive Committee are Officer Members.

11.4.2 Subject to the articles, Officer Members shall be Members and have voting rights in the Council for so long as they are Officers. Such a voting right is personal to each individual Officer Member and cannot be delegated.

11.4.3 Whenever an Officer ceases to be an Officer they shall also cease to be an Officer Member.

12 Obligations of Members

Membership of the Federation implies strict adherence to the articles, the By-laws and any lawful decision made or to be made by the Council or Executive Committee.

13 Termination of membership

13.1 Constituent Societies

13.1.1 A Constituent Society’s membership of the Federation ends in case of

(i) a dissolution or winding up of the Federation; or

(ii) a notice of withdrawal pursuant to article 13.1.2 by the Constituent Society; or an expulsion of the Constituent Society pursuant to article 13.1.3;

13.1.2 Any Constituent Society is free to withdraw from the Federation at a meeting of the Council provided written notice of such withdrawal has been communicated to the Secretary General at least one month before the Council Meeting.

13.1.3 Expulsion of a Constituent Society may be decided by the Council with a two-thirds majority of Council Members if the continued affiliation of such a Society with FEBS would, in the opinion of the Council, injure the reputation or interests of the Federation. The particular Constituent Society must be heard before a decision is made.

13.2 Officer Members

13.2.1 An Officer Member’s membership of the Federation ends if they cease to be an Officer.

14 Structure of the Council

14.1 The Council shall be composed of:

14.1.1 one Delegate from each Constituent Society; and

14.1.2 all members of the Executive Committee.

14.2 The Council shall be directed and represented by the Chairperson.

14.3 The Council shall conduct its activities in accordance with these articles, rules set out in the By-laws, Council resolutions and the applicable law.

15 Competence of the Council

15.1 Subject to the powers of the Executive Committee as set out in article 24.2, the Council has all such competencies that have not been conferred upon another organ of the Federation under the present articles. In particular the Council shall be required to:

15.1.1 approve any adoption and/or modification of the articles and By-laws;

15.1.2 approve any decision to dissolve, wind-up or merge the Federation;

15.1.3 approve the acceptance and/or expulsion of Constituent Societies;

15.1.4 consider all basic aspects of science policies of the Federation as proposed and formulated by the Executive Committee and approve those modifications and changes which the Council believes adequate and appropriate;

15.1.5 approve the establishment of Committees and Working Groups;

15.1.6 elect, by secret ballot:

(i) the Executive Committee (with the exception of the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson, who will be appointed in accordance with article 19); and

(ii) all Committee Members.

15.1.7 approve the work directives for the Executive Committee, other Committees and Working Groups and to monitor the operation of the Federation;

15.1.8 approve the appointment of one or more of the Constituent Societies to be the host society of a Congress;

15.1.9 approve the appointment of the Statutory Auditors and receive their annual audit at the Council Meeting;

15.1.10 determine the annual membership fee with details of the annual membership fees to be spelt out in the By-laws; and

15.1.11 approve the annual budgets and statements of account.

16 Delegates of Constituent Societies

16.1 Each Constituent Society shall have the right to appoint a Delegate as their representative to attend Council meetings.

16.2 Each Constituent Society shall notify the Secretary General in writing of their nominated Delegate from time to time, and in any event at least one month in advance of any meeting at which the Delegate is to attend on behalf of the Constituent Society. Until the Secretary General is further notified otherwise in writing any nominated Delegate shall have authority to represent the Constituent Society that nominated them as such.

16.3 If the Council, acting reasonably, considers a Delegate to be disruptive, or is bringing the Federation into disrepute, they can require a Constituent Society to appoint an alternative Delegate.

17 Meetings of the Council – Voting

17.1 The Council shall hold at least once a year an ordinary Council Meeting normally at each Congress of the Federation.

17.2 Further to article 17.1, additional Council Meetings shall be held upon the request of one third of the Constituent Societies. The request has to be addressed in writing to the Secretary General who shall convene a Council Meeting within four months after receipt of the request.

17.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise in these articles (including articles 13.1.3, 31 and 33) or as otherwise required by the Companies Acts:

17.3.1 the Council Meeting has a quorum if at least two-thirds of the Voting Members are present;

17.3.2 each matter shall be decided by simple majority of the number of votes cast; and

17.3.3 each Delegate of a Member Society and each Officer Member has one vote.

17.4 Subject to articles 31 and 33, the Council can pass resolutions as written resolutions in accordance with the provisions of Part 13 Chapter 2 of the Companies Act 2006.

17.5 Additional provisions on the structure and the organisations of the Council may also be defined in By-laws.

18 Appointment and Term of Officers to the Executive Committee

18.1 The Officers of the Federation (the “Officers”) are:

18.1.1 the Chairperson,

18.1.2 the Vice-Chairperson,

18.1.3 the Secretary General,

18.1.4 the Treasurer,

18.1.5 the Congress Counsellor,

18.1.6 the Committee Chairpersons; and

18.1.7 the Working Group Chairpersons.

18.2 The Officers, except for the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson (whose term shall be in accordance with article 19), shall serve for a term of three years, and then may not serve in the same capacity for more than two additional terms (a total of nine years). Save with the approval of the Members, a retiring Officer who has served for nine consecutive years will not be eligible to be re-elected as an Officer for a period of two years.

18.3 No Officer shall be a Delegate of a Constituent Society.

19 The Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson

19.1 The functions and responsibilities of the Chairperson are in particular:

19.1.1 to chair Council Meetings;

19.1.2 to chair meetings of the Executive Committee;

19.1.3 to perform any other tasks conferred by the Council on the Chairperson; and

19.1.4 together with the Secretary General, to prepare and organise the Council Meetings, including the calling of such meetings and the preparation and distribution of documents and minutes.

19.2 The Chairperson shall be proposed and nominated by the Constituent Society hosting the annual Congress. The application of the Constituent Society for hosting a Congress shall specify the qualification of the proposed Chairperson for such office. The Council shall confirm the nomination of the Chairperson together with the election of the Constituent Society which shall host the next Congress.

19.3 The Chairperson proposed by the host Society shall take office as Vice-Chairperson of the Federation on the 1st of January following the Congress. He/she will become the Chairperson one year later: the previous Chairperson leaves office at that time.

20 The Secretary General

20.1 Subject to article 24.2, the Secretary General shall be responsible for conducting all general administrative issues and matters of the Federation in accordance with these statutes and in particular:

20.1.1 maintain and promote the contacts and exchange of information between Council, the Executive Committee and Constituent Societies;

20.1.2 together with the Treasurer, negotiate and execute contracts on behalf of the Federation where appropriate within the restrictions and limits set by the Council or the Executive Committee from time to time;

20.1.3 together with the Chairperson, prepare and organise the Council Meetings, including the calling of such meetings and the preparation and distribution of documents and minutes. In particular, all Constituent Societies shall be asked, in due time, to nominate candidates for the elections of Officers and Committee members; the Secretary General shall circulate the respective Curricula Vitae of the nominated candidates to the Constituent Societies and members of the Executive Committee at least three months prior to a Council Meeting;

20.1.4 give an annual report to the Council;

20.1.5 organise the meetings of the Executive Committee, including the calling and preparation of such meetings and the preparation and distribution of minutes;

20.1.6 may participate ex officio in meetings of all Committees and Working Groups of the Federation with voting rights;

20.1.7 promote contacts with other scientific organisations and international bodies; and

20.1.8 provide a summary of Executive Committee minutes to the Constituent Societies.

20.2 The Secretary General shall be elected by the Council. If the term of the Secretary General is due to end, the next Secretary General shall be elected one year before the last meeting of the Council convened by the outgoing Secretary General.

21 The Treasurer

21.1 Subject to article 24.2, the Treasurer shall:

21.1.1 chair the Finance Committee;

21.1.2 report to the Council about the financial status at every Council Meeting, and to the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee at least twice a year and on the occasion of events significantly affecting the finances of the Federation;

21.1.3 execute relevant decisions made by the Council and the Executive Committee;

21.1.4 propose every year a budget to the Council, in line with decisions reached in the Executive Committee and Finance Committee;

21.1.5 be responsible for keeping all financial records as required under the Charities Act 2011; and

21.1.6 together with the Secretary General, negotiate and execute contracts on behalf of the Federation where appropriate within the restrictions and limits set by the Council or the Executive Committee from time to time.

21.2 The Treasurer may participate ex officio in all Committees and Working Groups of the Federation with voting rights.

21.3 The Treasurer shall be elected by the Council. If the term of the Treasurer is due to end, the next Treasurer shall be elected one year before the last meeting of Council at which the accounts of the Federation will be presented by the outgoing Treasurer.

22 The Congress Counsellor

22.1 The Congress Counsellor shall prepare for the election of Congress organisers and supervise the preparations and arrangements of each Congress. The details of the tasks of the Congress Counsellor are set forth in the By-laws.

22.2 The Congress Counsellor chairs the Congress Programme Board (as defined in the By-laws) that ensures the quality, consistency and international visibility of the annual FEBS Congress.

22.3 The Congress Counsellor shall be elected by the Council.

23 The Committee Chairpersons and Working Group Chairpersons

23.1 Each Committee Chairperson and Working Group Chairperson shall be responsible for the functioning of the Committee and Working Group that he/she chairs, including the meeting schedule and the supervision of committee functions. Further details of the tasks of the respective Committee Chairpersons and Working Group Chairpersons are set out in the By-laws.

23.2 Each Committee Chairperson and Working Group Chairperson shall be elected by the Council.

24 The Executive Committee

24.1 The members of the Executive Committee are the Officers.

24.2 The Executive Committee members agree, with their acceptance of the respective position within the Executive Committee, to also assume the responsibility of a trustee in the sense of the Charities Act 2011 and to be jointly responsible together with the other members of the Executive Committee for the actions of the Federation being in line with all charity law requirements applicable to the Federation. The members of the Executive Committee must in particular comply as trustees with the legal requirements as to the keeping of financial records, the audit of the accounts and the preparation and transmission to the Commission of the annual statements of account.

24.3 The members of the Executive Committee are collectively responsible to the Council for handling the administration of the Federation in agreement with the policies laid down by the Council.

24.4 Notwithstanding article 24.2, the Council delegates to the Executive Committee all of its responsibilities with respect to the general control of the Federation, which is vested in the Council, between Council Meetings. The Executive Committee is especially empowered to:

24.4.1 fulfil the Objects of the Federation in accordance with article 4;

24.4.2 administer the assets and property of the Federation;

24.4.3 assist the Secretary General in preparing the Council Meetings;

24.4.4 implement Working Groups and Committees (subject to approval of Council) entrusted with special tasks within the general framework of the Federation;

24.4.5 appoint delegates or representatives of the Federation to scientific conferences or meetings;

24.4.6 execute decisions of the Council;

24.4.7 receive reports from the Finance Committee and all other Committees and Working Groups on a regular basis; and

24.4.8 report to the Council on a regular basis.

24.5 Any proposal that would substantially alter the scope or balance of FEBS expenditure needs to be approved by the Council.

24.6 The Executive Committee makes decisions based on a majority vote. In case of a tie the Secretary General has two votes.

24.7 Should any position held by an Officer become vacant, the Executive Committee shall take immediate action to arrange the appointment of a temporary replacement Officer.

24.8 Further details of the organisation of the Executive Committee are set out in the By-laws.

25 The Finance Committee

25.1 The Finance Committee consists of the Treasurer (Chairperson), two persons elected by Council, the Chairperson of the Publications Committee ex officio and the Secretary General ex officio.

25.2 The Finance Committee shall assist the Treasurer in all financial matters and in communicating with the Constituent Societies, the Executive Committee and with all other Committees and Working Groups of the Federation. The Finance Committee shall draw up the overall budget and submit it to the Executive Committee and Council for adoption before the start of the financial year. After the end of the financial year, the Finance Committee will prepare the financial report and the annual

accounts. Next year’s budget, financial report and annual account of the previous year are presented at a Council meeting in due course.

25.3 The Finance Committee shall consider requests from all other Officers in preparing the annual budget.

25.4 The Finance Committee must ensure accounting records are kept as required by the Companies Acts and that the accounts are prepared to show a true and fair view and follow accounting standards issued or adopted by the Accounting Standards Board or its successors and adhere to the recommendations of applicable Statements of Recommended Practice.

25.5 Further details of the duties of the Finance Committee are set out in the By-laws.

25.6 Finance Committee members shall serve for a four year term of service (but this does not apply to the Treasurer, Publications Committee Chairperson or the Secretary General, whose terms shall be in accordance with article 18.2).

26 Other Committees and Working Groups

26.1 In addition to the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee, the Federation has so far established the following Committees:

26.1.1 Advanced Courses Committee;

26.1.2 Education Committee;

26.1.3 Fellowships Committee;

26.1.4 Publications Committee; and

26.1.5 Science and Society Committee.

26.2 Further committees may be formed if necessary. Their creation and composition shall be proposed by the Executive Committee and approved by the Council. The working mode of the committees is spelled out in the By-laws.

26.3 The formation of Working Groups and their objectives, structure and regulation will be approved by Council.

26.4 Committee Members shall serve for a four year term and will not be eligible for re-election in another capacity for at least two years after completion of his or her term of service. The same rule applies to elected members of Working Groups (but does not apply to the Chairpersons of such Working Groups, whose term shall be in accordance with article 18.2).

27 Nomination Rules

27.1 Constituent Societies and members of the Executive Committee shall be asked by the Secretary General with a sufficient time lead to nominate relevant candidates for the respective positions to be filled in future and to provide the relevant information on the candidate (including a Curriculum Vitae) on the standard nomination form provided.

27.2 The Committee Chairpersons shall inform Council of the qualifications of the candidates needed by the Committee with due regard to geographical and gender

representation. The Secretary General shall provide the nomination forms of all the candidates proposed at least three months prior to the Council Meeting at which elections are held. The members of Council may vote for a candidate from among those proposed in due time.

27.3 Persons elected must gain more than 50% of the votes cast by those present and voting. If after two rounds of voting there is no such majority for a candidate, Council must decide how to proceed.

28 Cessation of Officers and Committee Members

28.1 All Officers and Committee Members have to fulfil their duties with due care in accordance with the laws, in particular in accordance with these articles, the By-laws, the Council resolutions and any other rules which the Federation may adopt.

28.2 An Officer or Committee Member may be removed from his or her office by a Council decision if he or she:

28.2.1 acts unlawfully;

28.2.2 endangers the reputation of the Federation through his or her behaviour; or

28.2.3 is absent without the permission of the Officers or Committee Members (as applicable) from all their meetings held within a period of six consecutive months and the Officers or Committee Members resolve that his or her office be vacated.

The Officer or Committee Member in question shall be heard by Council before its decision is made.

28.3 An Officer or Committee Member shall cease to hold his or her office if he or she:

28.3.1 ceases to be an Officer or Committee Member by virtue of any provision in the Companies Acts or is prohibited by law from being a director;

28.3.2 is disqualified from acting as a trustee by virtue of section 178 of the Charities Act 2011 (or any statutory re-enactment or modification of that provision);

28.3.3 becomes incapable by reason of mental disorder, illness or injury of managing and administering his or her own affairs; or

28.3.4 resigns as an Officer or Committee Member by notice to the Federation (but an Officer’s resignation in accordance with this article 28.2.6 will only be effective provided that at least two Officers will remain in office when the notice of resignation is to take effect).

29 The Congress

29.1 The Congress of the Federation shall be held normally at least every year at a place proposed by the hosting Constituent Society and approved by the Council. The Congress Counsellor is responsible for the appropriate preparation of the Congress

in cooperation with the hosting Constituent Society and the Congress Programme Board (as defined in the By-laws).

29.2 The Congress of the Federation is a scientific meeting and exhibition and shall provide opportunities for the presentation of original communications, demonstrations and symposia. Further details are set out in the By-laws.

29.3 The Congress of the Federation will be financed by registration fees of participants and by sponsoring funds, including specific grants from the Federation approved by Council as proposed by the Executive Committee. The financial arrangements for a Congress are the responsibility of the hosting Constituent Society and approved by the Finance and Executive Committees. They will be represented by the Congress Counsellor as set forth in the By-laws.

30 Statutory Auditors

30.1 The Council shall approve the appointment annually of a firm of statutory auditors who shall report on the accounts of the Federation. The Council may also appoint at its discretion two individuals from among its Constituent Societies to act as auditors. At all times, these auditors may require that the books and all relevant documents or reports are presented to them and they may examine the cash and financial situation of the Federation. All organs of the Federation, in particular the Treasurer and the Finance Committee, must cooperate with both the statutory auditors and any other auditors appointed by the Council (if any).

30.2 The statutory auditors may be re-elected.

31 Alterations of the articles

31.1 The articles of the Federation may be amended at any Council Meeting by a Special Resolution (which is a resolution passed by a majority of not less than 75% of the Voting Members present and exercising their vote at a meeting present in person or, in the case of Member Societies, by their Delegate), provided that there is a quorum of least three-quarters of the Voting Members.

31.2 Proposals for changes of the articles must be submitted to the Executive Committee and the Secretary General at least three months prior to a Council Meeting at which it is intended to hold a vote to amend such articles. The Secretary General shall notify all Constituent Societies of such a proposal at least two months prior to the Council Meeting.

31.3 No change shall be made which would extend the Objects of the Federation beyond those set out in article 4.

32 By-laws of the Federation

32.1 The Executive Committee may from time to time make such reasonable and proper rules or bye laws as they may deem necessary or expedient for the proper conduct and management of the Federation (the “By-laws”).

32.2 The Council has the power to alter, add or to repeal the By-laws.

32.3 The Executive Committee must adopt such means as they think sufficient to bring the By-laws to the notice of Constituent Societies.

32.4 The By-laws shall be binding on all Members. No By-law shall be inconsistent with, or shall affect or repeal anything contained in, these articles.

32.5 The Executive Committee may amend the By-laws on application by the relevant Committee or Working Group provided that the alterations apply to the operating rules of that Committee or Working Group. Budgetary amendments should be supported by the Executive Committee. Any amendment which would substantially alter the scope or purposes of a Committee or Working Group would need the approval of Council.

33 The dissolution or merger of the Federation

33.1 A resolution to dissolve or merge the Federation can only be passed by a Council Meeting by a Special Resolution (which is a resolution passed by a majority of not less than 75% of the Voting Members present and exercising their vote at a meeting present in person or, in the case of Member Societies, by their Delegate), provided that there is a quorum of at least three quarters of the Voting Members. A motivated proposal for dissolution must be submitted in writing to the Secretary General at least four months before the Council meeting.

33.2 If at any time a Council resolution to dissolve or merge the Federation is passed, the Officers will remain in office as charity trustees and will be responsible for the orderly winding up of the Federation’s affairs. They shall send to the Commission a final report and statement of account relating to the Federation once the winding up is completed.

33.3 On the dissolution or merger of the Federation any surplus assets of the Federation shall be transferred to a body or bodies having aims similar to those of the Federation or for charitable purposes.

34 Remuneration of Officers

The Officers must not be paid any remuneration unless it is authorised by article 7.

35 Validity of Officers’ and Committee Member’s decisions

35.1 Subject to article 35.2, all acts done by the Executive Committee, or of a Committee and Working Group, shall be valid notwithstanding the participation in any vote of an Officer and/or Committee Member who:

35.1.1 was disqualified from holding office;

35.1.2 had previously retired or who had been obliged by the constitution to vacate office; and/or

35.1.3 was not entitled to vote on the matter, whether by reason of a conflict of interests or otherwise,

if without:

35.1.4 the vote of that Officer and/or Committee Member; and

35.1.5 that Officer and/or Committee Member being counted in the quorum,

the decision has been made by a majority of the Officers and/or Committee Members participating at a quorate meeting.

35.2 Article 35.1 does not permit an Officer or connected person to keep any benefit that may be conferred upon him or her by a resolution of the Executive Committee or of a Committee or Working Group if, but for article 35.1, the resolution would have been void, or if the Officer has not complied with article 8.

36 Minutes

36.1 The Federation must keep minutes of all:

36.1.1 elections of Officers and Committee Members made by the Council;

36.1.2 proceedings at meetings of the Council;

36.1.3 meetings of the Executive Committee, Committees and Working Groups including:

(i) the names of those present at the meeting;

(ii) the decisions made at the meetings; and

(iii) where appropriate the reasons for the decisions.

37 Annual Report and Return and Register of Charities

37.1 The Officers must comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 with regard to the:

37.1.1 transmission of a copy of the statements of account to the Commission;

37.1.2 preparation of an Annual Report and the transmission of a copy of it to the Commission; and

37.1.3 preparation of an Annual Return and its transmission to the Commission.

37.2 The Officers must notify the Commission promptly of any changes to the Federation’s entry on the Central Register of Charities.

38 Means of communication to be used

38.1 Subject to the articles, anything sent or supplied by or to the Federation under the articles may be sent or supplied in any way in which the Companies Act 2006 provides for documents or information which are authorised or required by any provision of that Act to be sent or supplied by or to the Federation.

38.2 Subject to the articles, any notice or document to be sent or supplied to an Officer in connection with the taking of decisions by Officers may also be sent or supplied by the means by which that Officer has asked to be sent or supplied with such notices or documents for the time being.

38.3 Any notice to be given to or by any person pursuant to the articles:

38.3.1 must be in writing; or

38.3.2 must be given in electronic form.

38.4 The Federation may give any notice to a Constituent Society either:

38.4.1 personally;

38.4.2 by sending it by post in a prepaid envelope addressed to the Constituent Society at the Constituent Society’s address;

38.4.3 by leaving it at the address of the Constituent Society;

38.4.4 by giving it in electronic form to the Constituent Society’s address; or

38.4.5 by placing the notice on a website and providing the Constituent Society with a notification in writing or in electronic form of the presence of the notice on the website.

38.5 A Constituent Society who does not register an address with the Federation shall not be entitled to receive any notice from the Federation.

38.6 A Constituent Society whose Delegate is present in person at any meeting of the Federation shall be deemed to have received notice of the meeting and of the purposes for which it was called.

38.7 Proof that an envelope containing a notice was properly addressed, prepaid and posted shall be conclusive evidence that the notice was given.

38.8 Proof that an electronic form of notice was given shall be conclusive where the Federation can demonstrate that it was properly addressed and sent, in accordance with section 1147 of the Companies Act 2006.

39 Indemnity

39.1 The Federation shall indemnify any relevant Officer against any liability incurred by him or her or it in that capacity, to the extent permitted by sections 232 to 234 of the Companies Act 2006.

39.2 In this article a “relevant Officer” means any Officer or former Officer of the Federation.

40 Disputes

If a dispute arises between Members about the validity or propriety of anything done by Members under these articles, and the dispute cannot be resolved by agreement, the parties to the dispute must first try in good faith to settle the dispute by mediation before resorting to litigation.

41 Interpretation

41.1 In article 7, article 9.2 and article 35.2, “connected person” means:

41.1.1 a child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, brother or sister of the Officer;

41.1.2 the spouse or civil partner of the Officer or of any person falling within paragraph 41.1.1 above;

41.1.3 a person carrying on business in partnership with the Officer or with any person falling within paragraph 41.1.1 or 41.1.2 above;

41.1.4 an institution which is controlled:

(i) by the Officer or any connected person falling with paragraphs 41.1.1, 41.1.2 or 41.1.3 above; or

(ii) by two or more persons falling within paragraph 41.1.4(i) above, when taken together;

41.1.5 a body corporate in which:

(i) the Officer or any connected person falling within paragraphs 41.1.1 to 41.1.3 above has a substantial interest; or

(ii) two or more persons falling within sub-paragraph 41.1.5(i) above who, when taken together, have a substantial interest.

41.1.6 Sections 350 – 352 of the Charities Act 2011 apply for the purposes of interpreting the terms used in this article.

FEBS CONSTITUENT SOCIETIES – 2017

ARMENIA: Association of Armenian Biochemists H. Buniatin Inst. of Biochemistry Paruir Sevak Str. 5/1

0014 Yerevan REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA Dr. Varduhi Knaryan

AUSTRIA: Österreichische Gesellschaft für Molekulare Biowissenschaften und Biotechnologie (ÖGMBT)

Marxbox, VBC, Helmut-Qualtinger-Gasse 2, Stiege 02, EG L.01, 1030 Wien AUSTRIA Mrs DI (FH)

Alexandra Khassidov

(BELARUS: elected in 2017 as an Associate Member with effect 1.1.2018).

BELGIUM: Société Belge de Biochimie et de Biologie Moleculaire, Nanobody Lab, Dept. of Biochemistry,

Ghent University, Albert Baertsoenkaai 3 9000 Ghent Belgium BELGIUM Prof. Jason Perret, Chairman

and Prof. Jan Gettemans, Secretary

BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA (Associate Member in 2017; elected in 2017 to Full Member with effect 1.1.2018):

ABMB in B&H, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo, Čekaluša 90, 71000 Sarajevo, BOSNIA and

HERZEGOVINA Radivoj Jadrić, Secretary

BULGARIA: Bulgarian Society for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology (BBMBS), Inst. of

Biophysics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev st. bl. 21 Sofia 1113 BULGARIA Prof. Diana

Petkova

CROATIA: Croatian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ksaverska cesta 2, POB291 HR-10000

Zagreb CROATIA Dr. Zrinka Kovarik, President

CYPRUS: Cyprus Biological Society EPOS-Iasis, R&D 5 Karyatidon Street, Suite 202 Nicosia 2028 CYPRUS

Mikis Hadjineophytou, President

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Kladenská 48 CZ-16000 Prague

6 CZECH REPUBLIC Dr. Irena Krumlová, Secretary; Prof. Libor Grubhoffer, Chairman and Prof. Tomáš

Zima, Scientific Secretary.

DENMARK: Danish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Unit of Cell Stress and Survival

Center for Autophagy, Recycling and Disease, Danish Cancer Society Research Center,

Strandboulevarden 49, DK 2100 Copenhagen Ø DENMARK Mette Vixø Vistesen, Chair

ESTONIA: Estonian Biochemical Society University of Tartu, Ravila 14a, 50411 Tartu, Estonia

Dr. Olga Mazina, President.

FINLAND: Societas Biochimica, Biophysica et Microbiologica Fenniae (Biobio Society), Biochemistry /

Arcanum building, Vatselankatu 2, 20014 Turku FINLAND Terhi Maula, Secretary.

FRANCE: Société Francaise de Biochimie et de Biologie Moléculaire (SFBBM), IBMC, 15 Rue René

Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex FRANCE Prof. Alain Krol, Secretary General.

GEORGIA: Association of Georgian Biochemists, Institute of Chemical Biology, Ilia State University 3/5,

K.Cholokashvili Av., Tbilisi 0162, GEORGIA Professor Revaz Solomonia, President.

GERMANY: Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie e.V. GBM-Geschaftsstelle Morfelder

Landstr. 125 60598 Frankfurt/Main GERMANY Dr. Anke Lischeid, Managing Director.

GREECE: Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 11 Soufliou Street Athens 115 27

GREECE Dr Dimitris Kletsas, President / Dionyssios Sgouras, General Secretary.

HUNGARY: Hungarian Biochemical Society (Magyar Biokémiai Egyesület – MBKE) Institute of

Enzymology, Research Center for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar tudosok

korutja 2. H-1117 Budapest, Hungary Prof. Laszlo Buday, Chair.

ISRAEL: Israel Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Dept. of

Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Prof. Michal Sharon, Secretary

ITALY: Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SIB), Sapienza Universita di Roma, Dip. to

di Scienze Biochimie ‘A. Rossi Fanelli’, P. le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy

Prof. Mauro Magnani, President and Prof. Eugenia Schinina, Secretary.

LATVIA: Latvian Biochemical Society, University of Latvia Biomedical Research and Study Centre,

Ratsupites Street 11 LV 1067 Riga LATVIA Prof. Kaspars Tars, President.

LITHUANIA: Lithuanian Biochemical Society, Dept. of Biothermodynamics and Drug Design, Inst. of

Biotechnology, Vilnius University, Graiciuno 8 LT-02241 Vilnius Lithuania Dr Daumantas Matulis,

Chairman.

MOLDOVA (Associate): Moldovan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (MSBMB) Institute of

Genetics, Physiology and Protection of Plants, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, 20 Padurii str.,

Chisinau, 2002-MD Moldova Prof. Olga Tagadiuc, President.

MOROCCO (Associate): Moroccan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SMBMB), University

of Hassan II Mohammedia Casablanca, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Mohammedia, Morocco

Prof. Abdelaziz Hmyene, President.

THE NETHERLANDS: Nederlandse Vereniging voor Biochemi en Moleculaire Biologie (NVBMB) Dept. of

Chemistry, Utrecht University, Padualaan 12, 3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands Prof. Luc Brunsveld,

Chairman and Dr Hugo van Ingen, Secretary.

NORWAY: Norwegian Biochemical Society, IMBV, University of Oslo P.O.Box 1041 Blindern 0316 Oslo,

NORWAY Professor Emeritus Tom Kristensen

POLAND: The Polish Biochemical Society (PT Bioch) Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, 3 Pasteur

str. 02-093 Warszawa POLAND Prof. Pawel Pomorski, Society General Board Secretary

PORTUGAL: Sociedade Portuguese de Bioquimica (SPB), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra,

Polo III, 3000-548, Coimbra PORTUGAL Prof. João Laranjinha, President

ROMANIA: The Romanian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Molecular Institute of

Biochemistry, Splaiul Independentei 296, sector 6, 060031 Bucharest ROMANIA Dr. Norica Nichita

RUSSIA: National Committee of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (NCBMB) Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov

Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, RAS; Ul. Miklukho-Maklaya, 16/10 117997 Moscow RUSSIA

Prof. Aleksander Gabibov, Dr Vera Knorre Secretary General, Marina Tretyak, Scientific Secretary

SERBIA: Serbian Biochemical Society, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of

Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade SERBIA. Prof. Marija Gavrovic-Jankulovic

SLOVAKIA: Slovak Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Faculty

of Natural Sciences – Comenius University, Mlynska dolina, 842 15 Bratislava 4 SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Prof. Jan Turna

SLOVENIA: The Slovenian Biochemical Society, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Pharmacy, Aškerčeva c.

7, SI-1000 Ljubljana SLOVENIA Prof. Janko Kos President, Prof. Aljosa Bavec Secretary

SPAIN: Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biologica Molecular (SEBBM), C/Rodriguez San Pedro, 2-

despacho 210, 28015 Madrid SPAIN Almudena Porras Gallo, Secretary and Félix Goni, Chairman

SWEDEN: Swedish Society for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Linköping University.

Dep. of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Campus Valla B-house, entrance 23, Room 221:199, SE-581 83

Linköping SWEDEN Matts Hansson – President

SWITZERLAND: Life Sciences Switzerland, Biotechnology Institute Thurgau (BITg) University of Konstanz

Unterseestrasse 47 CH-8280 Kreuzlingen SWITZERLAND Daniel F. Legler, Jacqueline Oberholzer

TURKEY: Turkish Biochemical Society, Ege University, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Biochemistry, Izmir

TURKEY Dr Ferhan Girgin-Sagin, Vice President

UKRAINE: Ukrainian Biochemical Society, Paladin Institute of Biochemistry, 9 Leontovicha St 0161 Kiev

30 UKRAINE Prof. Sergiy Komisarenko, President and Prof. Tatiana Borisova, Secretary

UK (including IRELAND): The Biochemical Society, Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger St, London, WC1N

2JU UK Laura Woodland, Head of Membership Engagement

FEBS Membership 2017

Member Society no. members 2017 Subscription

1 Association of Armenian Biochemists 140 35.00€

2 Austrian Association of Molecular Life Sciences and Biotechnology (ÖGMBT) 716 179.00€

3 Société Belge de Biochimie et de Biologie Moleculaire 660 165.00€

4 Bulgarian Society for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology 108 27.00€

5 Croatian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 389 97.25€

6 Biological Society of Cyprus 120 30.00€

7 Czech Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 620 155.00€

8 Danish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 800 200.00€

9 Estonian Biochemical Society 110 27.50€

10 Societas Biochemica, Biophysica et Microbiologica Fenniae 634 158.50€

11 Société Francaise de Biochimie et de Biologie Moléculaire (SFBBM) 1300 325.00€

12 Association of Georgian Biochemists 83 20.75€

13 Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie e.V. 3442 860.50€

14 Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 340 85.00€

15 Hungarian Biochemical Society 853 213.25€

16 Israel Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 116 29.00€

17 Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 1000 250.00€

18 Latvian Biochemical Society 240 60.00€

19 Lithuanian Biochemical Society 265 66.25€

20 Nederlandse Vereniging voor Biochemi en Moleculaire Biologie 1206 301.50€

21 Norwegian Biochemical Society 1085 271.25€

22 Polish Biochemical Society 1046 261.50€

23 Portuguese Biochemical Society 400 100.00€

24 Societatea Romana de Biochimie si Biologie Moleculara 280 70.00€

25 National Committee of Russian Biochemists * 6500 1,625.00€

26 Serbian Biochemical Society 180 45.00€

27 Slovak Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 220 55.00€

28 Slovenian Biochemical Society 220 55.00€

29 Sociedad Espanola de Bioquímica y Biologica Molecular 3700 925.00€

30 Swedish Society for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology 426 106.50€

31 Swiss Society for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (SSMCB) 822 205.50€

32 Turkish Biochemical Society 600 150.00€

33 UK Biochemical Society 6137 1,534.25€

34 Ukrainian Biochemical Society 680 170.00€

Total number of Members 35438

Levy per Member 0.25€

Associate Member Societies

ABMB in Bosnia and Herzegovina N/A N/A

Moldavian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (MSBMB) N/A N/A

Morroccan Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SMBMB) N/A N/A

* - National Committee of Russian Biochemists - refund from FEBS for 2016

COMPOSITION OF THE FEBS COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS

AND THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEMBERS

January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2017 * = position ending end of 2017

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Country Elected in Starting Ending

Johannes Buchner Chairperson

Germany Berlin (2015)

01 01 17 * 31 12 17

Nazmi Ozer Vice-Chairperson

Turkey Munich (2016)

01 01 17 *31 12 17

Václav Pačes, Secretary General

Secretary-General Elect

Czech Republic Paris (2014)

01 01 17 01 01 15

31 12 19 31 12 16

Frank Michelangeli Treasurer

United Kingdom Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17

Miguel A. De la Rosa Congress Counsellor

Spain Paris (2014)

01 01 2015 *31 12 17

Beata Vertessy Chairperson Advanced Courses

Hungary Paris (2014)

01 01 2015 *31 12 17

Alain Krol Chairperson Fellowships

France

Munich (2016)

01 01 17

31 12 19

László Fésüs Chairperson Publications


Turin (2011)

01 01 15

01 01 12

* 31 12 17

31 12 14

Emmanouil Fragkoulis Chairperson Science & Society

Greece Munich (2016)

01 01 17 31 12 19

Gul Güner-Akdogan, Chairperson Education

Turkey Berlin (2015)

Seville (2012)

Prague (2009)

01 01 16

01 01 13

01 01 10

31 12 18

31 12 15

31 12 12

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada Chairperson, Careers of Young Scientists

Portugal

Munich (2016) – 1 year extension

St. Petersburg (2013)

Gothenburg (2010)

01 01 17

01 01 14

01 01 11

* 31 12 17

31 12 16

31 12 13

Cecilia Arraiano Chairperson, Women in Science Working Group (WiSe)

Acting Chair, Women in Science Working Group

Portugal

Munich (2016) St. Petersburg (2013) Seville (2012)

01 01 17 01 01 14 11 09 12

31 12 19 31 12 16 31 12 13

Jerka Dumić Chairperson, Working Group on Integration (WGI)

Croatia Munich (2016)

01 01 17

31 12 19

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Frank Michelangeli, Treasurer

United Kingdom Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17

Winnie Eskild

Norway Munich (2016)

Berlin (2015)

Seville (2012)

01 01 17

01 01 16

01 01 13

31 12 20 elected

31 12 16 co-opted

31 12 15

Adam Szewczyk Poland Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Václav Pačes, Secretary General (Ex-Officio)

Israel Paris (2014)

01 01 17 31 12 19

László Fésüs, Chairperson Publications Committee (Ex-Officio)


Seville (2012)

01 01 15

01 01 13

*31 12 17

31 12 14

ADVANCED COURSES COMMITTEE

Beata Vertessy, Chair

Acting Chair

Hungary Paris (2014) 01 01 15

08 08 13

* 31 12 17

31 12 14

Paola Bruni Italy Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Stefana Petrescu Romania Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Ivan Ivanov Bulgaria Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Irene Díaz-Moreno Spain Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Cláudio Manuel Soares

Portugal Paris (2014)

01 01 15 31 12 18

Zrinka Kovarik

Croatia Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Frank Michelangeli, Treasurer (Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

FELLOWSHIPS COMMITTEE

Alain Krol Chairperson Committee member

France Munich (2016) Seville (2012)

01 01 17 01 01 13

31 12 19 31 12 16

Laurence Drouard France Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Tim Skern Austria Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Kristina Gruden Slovenia Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Paola Chiarugi Italy St. Petersburg (2013) 01 01 14 *31 12 17

Modesto Orozco Spain St. Petersburg (2013) 01 01 14 *31 12 17

Margarida Oliveira Portugal Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

George Panayotou Greece Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Lluis Montoliu Spain

Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Rostyslav Stoika

Ukraine Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Oliver Vugrek Croatia Munich (2016) 01 01 17 01 01 20

Laszlo Nyitray Hungary Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

László Fésüs, Chairperson


Turin (2011)

01 01 15

01 01 12

* 31 12 17

31 12 14

Erik Boye

Norway Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Seppo Meri Finland Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Francesc Posas

Spain St. Petersburg (2013) 01 01 14 *31 12 17

Miguel Castanho

Portugal St. Petersburg (2013) 01 01 14 *31 12 17

Aristidis Moustakas

Greece Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

SCIENCE AND SOCIETY COMMITTEE

Emmanouil Fragkoulis Chairperson

Committee member

Greece

Munich (2016)

Seville (2012)

Turin (Co-opted - 2011)

01 01 17

01 01 14

01 01 11

31 12 19

31 12 16

31 12 13

Isabel Varela-Nieto Spain Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Mark Roberts UK Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Karmen Stankov Serbia St. Petersburg (2013) 01 01 14 *31 12 17


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

Miguel A. De la Rosa Congress Counsellor (Ex-officio)

Spain Paris (2014)

01 01 2015 *31 12 17

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

Gul Güner-Akdogan, Chairperson

Turkey

Berlin (2015)

Seville (2012)

Prague (2009)

01 01 16

01 01 13

01 01 10

31 12 18

31 12 15

31 12 12

Jason Perret

Belgium Munich (2016) 01 01 17 31 12 20

Jean-Luc Souciet France Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Ferhan Girgin-Sagin Turkey Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

László Dux Hungary Berlin (2015) 01 01 16 31 12 19

Angel Herráez Spain Berlin EC (2015) - Co-opted 01 01 16

Keith Elliott UK Co-opted Unlimited


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

Beata Vertessy Chair of Advanced Courses (Ex-officio)


01 01 15 *31 12 17

WORKING GROUPS

WORKING GROUP ON WOMEN IN SCIENCE (WISE)

Cecilia Maria Arraiano, Chairperson

Portugal Munich (2016)


01 01 17

01 01 14

31 12 19

31 12 16


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

WORKING GROUP ON CAREERS OF YOUNG SCIENTISTS

Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada, Chairperson

Portugal Munich (2016) 1 year extension


Gothenburg (2010)

01 01 17

01 01 14

01 01 11

*31 12 17

31 12 16

31 12 13


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

WORKING GROUP ON INTEGRATION (WGI)

Jerka Dumić, Chairperson

Croatia

Munich (2016)

01 01 17

31 12 19

Marija Jankulovic-Gavrovic

Serbia Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18

Vida Mildažiene

Lithuania Paris (2014) 01 01 15 31 12 18


(Ex-Officio)

United Kingdom

Munich (2016)

09 09 16 *31 12 17



01 01 17

31 12 19

Gul Güner-Akdogan, Chair of the Education Committee (Ex-officio)

Turkey Berlin (2015)

Seville (2012)

Prague (2009)

01 01 16

01 01 13

01 01 10

31 12 18

31 12 15

31 12 12

Beata Vertessy Chair of the Advanced Courses (Ex-officio)


01 01 15 *31 12 17

Appendix 5 - Fellowship Committee

LONG-TERM FELLOWSHIPS

From To

Start 2015

1 Tubingen, Germany Switzerland

2 Austria Lausanne, Switzerland

3 Madrid, spain Lisboa, Portugal

Start 2016

4 Stockholm, Sweden Leuven, Belgium

5 Cambridge, UK

6 Paris, France Groningen, NL

7 Manchester, UK Leuven, Belgium

8 Großbeeren, Germany Sweden

Start 2017

9 Italy Switzerland

10 Israel UK

11 Sweden Uk

12 France UK

SHORT-TERM FELLOWSHIPS

No. From To

1 Derio, Spain Cambridge, UK

2 Czech Rep Hamburg, Germany

3 Ukraine Dresden, Germany

4 Wageningen, NL Granada, Spain

5 Ioannina, Greece Uppsala, Netherlands

6 Madrid, Spain Birmingham, UK

7 Lisbon, Portugal Cardiff, UK

8 Ioannina, Greece Birmingham, UK

9 Madrid, Spain Oxford, UK

10 Granada, Spain France

11 Barcelona, Spain Paris, France

12 Goettingen, Germany Huddinge, Sweden

13 Warsaw, Poland Bergen, Norway

14 Genova, Italy Paris, France

15 Novosibirsk, Russia Stockholm, Sweden

16 Valencia, Spain Bologna, Italy

17 France

18 Russia

19 Moscow France

20 Athens, Greece Grenoble, France

21 Padova, Italy London, UK

22 Ljubljana, Slovenia Innsbruk, Austria

23 Madrid, Spain London, UK

24 Prague, Czech Republic Girona, Spain

25 Moscow, Russia Umea Sweden

26 Milano, Italy Utrecht, Netherlands

27 Trebon, Czech Republic London, UK

28 Nijmegen, Netherlands Madrid, Spain29 Paris, France Madrid, Spain

COLLABORATIVE EXPERIMENTAL SCHOLARSHIPS 2017

No. From To

1 Kyiv, Ukraine Liege, Belgium

2 Kyiv, Ukraine Poznan, Poland

3 Belgrade, Serbia Austria

4 Belgrade, Serbia Madrid, Spain

5 Lviv, Ukraine Rzwszow, Poland

SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS

No. From To

1 Spain Sweden

2 Strasbourg Germany

3 Reims, France Varese, Italy

SUMMER PRIZE1 France

DISTINGUISHED YOUNG INVESTIGATOR

1 Israel

FOLLOW UP RESEARCH FUND

1 None in 2017

1

www.febs.org

FEDERATION OF EUROPEAN BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETIES A Registered Charity

FEBS Advanced Courses Committee Secretariat Department of Applied Biotechnology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Szt Gellért tér 4, 1111 Budapest, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

FEBS Advanced Courses Committee Report: 2017 Activities “Science education by Scientists”

The mission of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee is to promote education on the latest research approaches and findings to early-career researchers in the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines throughout the Constituent Societies of FEBS and beyond. In order to serve this honourable goal, each year the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee decides to fund a range of courses with the sum of €20,000–40,000, plus up to €10,000 dedicated to enhance participation of young scientists through FEBS Youth Travel Fund (YTF) grants. Application for courses are submitted by expert scientists. Aside from the benefit to scientists in the early stages of their career, these courses also provide a great opportunity for organizers to extend their scientific network and contribute to the advancement of their field.

2

1 The FEBS Advanced Courses Committee In 2017 the Committee included the following Members:

Chair: Beáta G. Vértessy (Hungary)

Members: Paola Bruni (Italy), Irene Diaz-Moreno (Spain), Ivan Georgiev Ivanov (Bulgaria),

Zrinka Kovarik (Croatia), Stefana Petrescu (Romania), Cláudio M. Soares (Portugal).

Ex-Officio Members: Vaclav Paces (Czech Republic), FEBS Secretary General, Frank

Michelangeli (UK), Treasurer of FEBS. Winnie Eskild (Norway) acts as deputy for Frank

Michelangeli.

At this end of this year, three ACC members will rotate out. The corresponding call, defining the Committee needs, have been sent to the FEBS Constitutent Societies. 2 Meeting of the Advanced Course Committee on April 8, 2017, Lisbon, Portugal and

on-line meeting on July 19, 2017 The deadline for the first call for applications for 2018 FEBS Advanced Courses was March 1,

2017. Following this deadline, the Advanced Course Committee (ACC) met in Lisbon to

discuss current issues and to decide on the submitted applications.

The Meeting was attended by all the official committee members: Irene Díaz-Moreno, Ivan

Georgiev Ivanov, Zrinka Kovarik, Stefana Petrescu, Cláudio M. Soares and Beáta Vértessy

(Chair), and an ex-officio member, Frank Michelangeli (FEBS Finance Committee) and Kinga

Nyíri (on-site administrator of the ACC Chair). Paola Bruni (ACC) Member and Vaclav Paces

(ex-officio ACC Member, FEBS Secretary General) sent their apologies.

FEBS Advanced Courses Committee Meeting

From left to right: Cláudio Soares, Ivan Ivanov, Frank Michelangeli, Beáta Vértessy, Stefana Petrescu, Zrinka Kovarik, Irene Díaz-Moreno, Kinga Nyíri secretary

3

The Agenda of this Advanced Course Committee Meeting included the following major issues: Welcome, adoption of the draft agenda

Discussion of the Minutes of the previous ACC Meeting (8 April, 2016, Ljubljana)

Discussion of Reports of 2016 FEBS ALC/PC/PLC/WS/EFLC courses

Discussion on current status of courses take place in 2017

The financial summary for events in 2017 is to be found in the Financial Report prepared by

the Treasury. 15 FEBS funded courses and one event supported by FEBS YTFs took place in

2017. 154 young scientists were supported with FEBS YTFs, in addition 13 Turkish YTF and

15 trans-YTF has been awarded.

Evaluation of the submitted applications for 2018 courses

Discussion of the Guidelines and the forms for applications The evaluation system introduced in 2014 by the FEBS ACC Chair and agreed by the

Committee Members was applied during the evaluation of the applications for 2018 courses.

This is summarized as follows:

All submissions are available to each ACC member (via the website, using appropriate

logging in credentials)

ACC members are asked to consider every application, but are also asked to provide

detailed written opinion on a number of applications.

Chair appoints two ACC referees for each course and sends the pre-filled evaluation

forms. Evaluation forms include summary of the course application data and

information about all prior FEBS Advanced Courses organized by the applicant, if

any.

Each course is evaluated in detail by the two appointed referees

All evaluations are summarized and sent to all members of the Advanced Course

Committee before the ACC Meeting

At the ACC Meeting, for each application, the two referees present their opinion

which is followed by a general discussion.

Finally, applications are ordered in a list reflecting the priorities for funding (as agreed

through the evaluations). Considering the budget available for Advanced Courses,

grants will be awarded following the ordered list. Courses that were judged positively

but are positioned below the funding limit will be put on a reserve list.

The Committee received 10 applications by the March 1 deadline. In light of the fortunately

increased funding opportunity, the Committee introduced a second call with the deadline

July, 1 to allow a further round of applications to be submitted. The 12 applications received

in this second round were discussed on an on-line meeting on July 19, 2017 attended by Irene

Diaz-Moreno, Ivan Georgiev Ivanov, Zrinka Kovarik, Stefana Petrescu, and Beáta Vértessy

4

(Chair), and and Kinga Nyíri (on-site administrator of the ACC Chair).

Summary of the decisions on the applications for 2018 FEBS Courses:

Out of 7 submissions for Workshops, 5 were approved with conditions and 2 were not

approved. One out of the 5 approved workshops obtained funding from EMBO and

hence became ineligible for funding by FEBS. There will be 4 FEBS funded Workshops

in 2018.

There were 2 submissions for Practical and Lecture Courses, both were approved with

conditions. One of the organizers declined to adhere the conditions so there will be one

FEBS funded Practical and Lecture Course in 2018.

Out of 4 submissions for Practical Courses, all were approved with conditions. One of

the 2017 Practical Courses is postponed to take place in 2018 so there will be 5 FEBS

funded Practical Courses in 2018.

No submission for joint events with EMBO was received.

Out of 8 submissions for Advanced Lecture Courses, 7 were approved with conditions

and 1 was not approved.

No submission for joint events with the Biochemical Society was received.

The Committee decided to reintroduce the Special Meetings (suspended from 2015

because of budgetary limitations). Out of 2 submissions for Special Meetings both were

approved with conditions.

Altogether there will be 19 FEBS Advanced Courses taking place in 2018.

The decisions were adequately explained in the decision letters and Members-in-Charge were

designated for all approved courses. Organizers submitted point-by-point revision of their

application based on the decision letter, which were approved in all cases.

3 Changes in new FEBS website and general web-site for FEBS Advanced Courses

The FEBS website was constructed in order to refresh and improve FEBS image and actions

and address security concerns. With regard to the Advanced Courses, the aim of the database

is to facilitate online submissions and also to provide a possibility for later developments.

During 2014-2016, additional features were introduced, as listed below:

Possibility to upload evaluations on course applications

Possibilities to upload MIC evaluations on courses

Relevant access rights were created for EMBO representatives to access the

joint FEBS-EMBO applications

Possibility to upload decision letters

5

During 2016, in order to provide professional webpages with a well-defined artistic style for the

different FEBS Advanced Courses, FEBS ACC initiated a trilateral contract between FEBS,

Wiley and Effi-Sciences web-designer company. An agreement was formulated in 2017 and

based on this agreement, organizers of 2018 FEBS Advanced Courses will set up course websites

by filling in a template produced by Effi- Sciences. Images below show the overall frame of this

new general FEBS Advanced Course website and some specific information for a selected course.

Screenshots illustrating the new general design and layout for FEBS Advanced Course websites.

Some specific information with photographs of invited speakers is also shown. The bottom image indicates the possibility of on-line questionnaire submission (red mark).

6

4 Collaboration with EMBO According to the agreement for the years 2014–2019 signed by all parties cf. at end of this

Committee report), FEBS and EMBO organize joint Advanced Lecture Courses. During this

year, our Committee will prepare the suggestion for the renewal, we are in contact with the

EMBO representative.

5 Collaboration with IUBMB

FEBS Advanced Courses and IUBMB collaborate in the frame of an agreement that includes

funding of IUBMB Lecturers and funding of trans- YTFs for FEBS Advanced Courses.

From 2016, in order to enhance applications from the course organizers for IUBMB Lecturer

awards, we have introduced a novel method. Namely, starting from 2016, the applications from

the course organizers for IUBMB Lecturer awards are collected and sent to IUBMB Executive

Committee Member for Congresses and Conferences by the Advanced Courses Administrator.

This method provides help to the course organizers and resulted in a high increase in IUBMB

Lecturer Awards.

Based on the applications, maximum amount (10 courses/year) of FEBS courses organized in

2018 and 2017 were awarded by IUBMB Lecturer grant. This is highly in excess as compared

to previous years. Grateful thanks are due to the IUBMB representative, Prof. Janet Macaulay,

whose efforts largely mediated the positive changes re: IUBMB Lecturer applications.

In 2017 all the 15 FEBS funded courses were offered a transcontinental Youth Travel Fund

(trans-YTF). As all courses had eligible trans-YTF candidate FEBS ACC decided to fund 5 extra

grants over the 10 grants offered by IUBMB. For 2018 FEBS ACC plans to act through a similar

scheme.

During this year, our Committee will prepare the suggestion for the renewal, in collaboration

with IUBMB.

6 Grants offered to Turkish Young Scientists

The budget of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee has been increased by 25000 euros to

assist participation of Turkish students at FEBS Advanced Courses in 2017 and 2018. In order

to avoid bias in the selection of participants based on merit, the Advanced Courses Committee

plan to assign these grants as the following:

Organizers should provide a list of approved applicants at least 10 weeks before the

course starts. Advanced Courses Administrator will notify the organizer about this extra

Turkish-Youth Travel Fund (YTF) if there is any accepted participant from Turkey for

7

their course.

Only participants of courses outside Turkey could receive this grant.

Maximum of 2 participants, who also fulfill YTF eligibility criteria could be supported

for a particular course. In addition they must be a member of the Turkish Biochemical 5

Society and have either studied for their first degree or PhD in Turkey, or lived in Turkey

for at least two years. This will avoid the situation whereby people join the Turkish

Biochemical Society to be eligible for these grants but otherwise have no other

connection with the country.

In other terms the grant would be the same as a normal YTF (max=800 euro, and can be

spent on registration fee -including accommodation and meals, travel).

The participation of 13 Turkish Young Scientists at 7 FEBS Advanced Courses have been

supported by this grant.

7 FEBS Advanced Course Poster 2017 and promoting FEBS Journals The poster is included at the end of this Committee report. It is available from the FEBS

website*, was distributed electronically to e-mail lists available to FEBS and has also been

distributed to participants of FEBS events. The poster also serves as an advertisement for the

FEBS journals: cover pages of The FEBS Journal, FEBS Letters, FEBS Open Bio and

Molecular Oncology are shown on the poster. Logos of the FEBS journals are also shown on

the websites of all FEBS Advanced Courses.

*(https://www.febs.org/document-uploads/AdvancedCoursesPoster2018.pdf)

Special foldable hand fans were created for FEBS Congresses and Executive Committee Events

to advertise FEBS Advanced Courses and the FEBS Journals.

8 Changes in the FEBS Advanced Course Guidelines and forms for Advanced Courses

The new Guidelines are available from

*http://www.febs.org/document-uploads/2017_FEBS_AC_Guidelines.pdf

Special meeting category was re-introduced to the Guidelines in 2017.

Some changes were introduced into the forms to be filled in by applicants. Most significantly,

the possibility of the applicants to make changes on the budget excel form is restricted, the

standardized form and the auto-summarizing cells are protected.

8

9 Advanced Courses in FEBS News

The Advanced Course Committee receives valuable help from Carolyn Elliss, FEBS

Communications and Projects Manager. FEBS Advanced Courses were covered in several

issues of FEBS News, to increase publicity. Links to course websites are also included in FEBS

News.

Chair, FEBS Advanced Course Committee

Budapest, 2018 February 8.

Advanced Courses and YTF Funds 2017

Course Course Name LocationTotal No.

YTFs

Total YTF

grants fees

& tvl

Trans YTF

total value

IUBMB

ALC17-002Molecular Mechanisms of Signal Transduction and

CancerSpetses Island, Greece 20,000€ 18,000€ 1,748.00€ 19,748€ 12 9600 1,350 € 30,698

EFLC17-003Molecular Architecture Dynamics and Function of

BiomembranesCargese, France 15,000€ 11,250€ 3,750.00€ 15,000€ 8 6800 1,370 € 23,170

WS17-004FEBS Workshop on Necleotide Excision Repair and

Crosslink Repair - From Molecules to MankindSmolenice, Slovakia 18,000€ 16,200€ 1,800.00€ 18,000€ 6 3069 1,410 € 22,479

EFLC17-006 Mitochondria In Life, Death and Disease Brindisi, Italy 15,000€ 11,250€ 3,750.00€ 15,000€ 13 4810 1,260 € 21,070

PC17-007 Functional Imaging of Cellular Signals Amsterdam, The Netherlands 13,000€ 11,700€ 1,300.00€ 13,000€ 8 4955 1,370 € 19,325

ALC17-008Matrix Pathobiology, Signaling ans Molecular

TargetsSpetses Island, Greece 20,000€ 18,000€ 2,000.00€ 20,000€ 21 11940 1,400 € 33,340

EFLC17-009Biophysics and Medicine of Channels and

Transporters: Electrifying New InsightsErice, Sicily, Italy 15,000€ 11,250€ 2,269.50-€ 8,981€ 8 5000 1,279 € 15,260

ALC17-012Nuclear Receptors and Epigenomic Mechanisms in

Human Disease and AgingSpetses Island, Greece 18,000€ 16,200€ 1,800.00€ 18,000€ 16 11306 1,289 € 30,595

ALC17-013 Immune System: Genes Receptors and Regulation Hvar Island, Croatia 20,000€ 18,000€ 2,000.00€ 20,000€ 18 11200 1,263 € 32,463

WS17-016Biological Surfaces and Interfaces: Interface

dynamicsCatalonia, Spain 18,000€ 16,200€ 16,200€ 5 3902 1,375 € 21,477

ALC17-018

HFP2017: molecular mechanisms of host–pathogen

interactions and virulence in human fungal

pathogens

La Colle sur Loup, France -€ -€ -€ -€ 12 9600 1,415 € 11,015

PLC17-019 Chemistry of Metals in Biological Systems Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium 15,000€ 13,500€ 660.00€ 14,160€ 8 5982 1,335 € 21,477

EFLC17-020 Proteins and Organized Complexity Spetses Island, Greece 15,000€ 11,250€ 3,450.00€ 14,700€ 9 6750 1,289 € 22,739

PC17-0218th International Practical Course In Systems Biology

Carried over to next yearGöteborg, Sweden 15,000€ 13,500€ 13,500€ 0 0 € 13,500

ALC17-023Oncometabolism: from conceptual knowledge to

clinical applicationsFigueira da Foz, Portugal 20,000€ 18,000€ 1,500.00-€ 16,500€ 16 11580 1,400 € 29,480

ALC17-024

(Formerly

EFLC17-010)

FEBS lecture course and ECF2017 meeting on

“cytoskeleton: mechanical coupling from the plasma

membrane to nucleus”

Helsinki, Finland 20,000€ 18,000€ 2,000.00€ 20,000€ 7 5500 1,400 € 26,900

Total 257,000€ 222,300€ 20,489€ 242,789€ 167 111,994€ 20,205€ 374,988€

Year End Adjustments 13,530£ 1,539-€ 6,839-€ 5,152€

Reimbursement IUBMB 13,366-€

Annual Accounts 256,318€ 123,821€ -€ 380,139€

Basic grant

100%

Basic grant

90% (75%)Grant Balance

Travel Awards

Total ACTotal Grant

Documents

Report of the Trustees (incorporating Strategic …The Royal Bank of Scotland HSBC Bank PLC 171 Tottenham Court Road Cambridge Commercial Centre, Vitrum London W1P 0DL St John’s