India becomes associate member of Embo

New Delhi: The department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology, on Thursday signed up to become an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (Embo). After Singapore signed on in July 2015, India is only the second such country outside Europe to be an associate member.

Embo is an organisation of more than 1,700 leading scientists and 84 Nobel laureates that promotes research in life sciences.

“We need to have interactions between institutions, but institutional structures do not encourage that. Physicists and chemists have interactions on a huge scale internationally, but the same does not happen for biologists on a large scale,” said K. Vijay Raghavan, secretary, department of biotechnology.

The major goals of the Germany-based organisation, started in 1964, are to support talented researchers at various stages of their careers and stimulate the exchange of scientific information.

“Many European researchers have established scientific connections in India. No doubt these will be strengthened further once more tools and formal opportunities for interactions are available,” said Maria Leptin, director of EMBO.

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