European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES)

As a major player in life sciences and holding influential positions in international deliberations, Europe has a responsibility to help the developing world deal with the risks, challenges and opportunities of these technologies, and to facilitate the safe and efficient development and use of life sciences and biotechnology in developing countries.

European Action in Global Life Sciences (EAGLES) intends to address these questions by designing and implementing projects to be carried out mostly by life scientists from developing countries that will stimulate and facilitate activities for the European life sciences to respond to the needs of developing countries.

The members of EAGLES are determined to ensure that the skills and resources of European life sciences are properly used for the benefits of mankind. The members of EAGLES believe:

  • That the greatest humanitarian challenges for the life sciences lie in the problems of illness, starvation and environmental degradation which are faced by hundreds of millions of people in our world today, and will be faced by millions more in the coming decades.
  • That life scientists everywhere have a responsibility to address these global challenges.
  • That European life scientists could and should make a much greater contribution to meet these challenges.
  • That European policies should facilitate the life sciences in meeting these challenges.

In addressing these challenges that the people of Europe and their leaders should pay careful attention to the knowledge and advice of distinguished life scientists and humanists from the developing and emerging countries.

 

Contact Info:

European Federation of Biotechnology
Passeig Lluis Companys, 23
08010 Barcelona
Tel. +93 268 7703
Fax. +93 268 4500
[email protected]

European Action on Latin American Functional Foods (EULAFF)

The EULAFF project focuses on supporting the functional food sectors in Europe and Latin America. It aims at creating an agri-food chain innovation system for identification and development of novel functional foods, in order to build a sustainable bi-regional functional food sector. The specific goals of the EULAFF project will contribute to:

  • Establish and promote effective open collaborative networking between academic research, industrial, commercial and private investment institutions to achieve the development of a bi-regional agro-industry sector with the aim of making a sustainable use of biological diversity of Latin American agricultural crops.

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  • Contribute to the sustainable development of marginal rural areas by strengthening formal and informal production chains dedicated to the commercialisation of often under-utilised crops with high nutritional and heath promoting potential.

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  • Promote transfer of knowledge, innovative technologies and develop appropriate intellectual property protection to meet niche market demands in the global international trade.


    • For achieving these goals the project has planned a series of lectures, debates, roundtables and symposia with the participation of authoritative scientists, experts from the industry and several stakeholders from Europe and Latin America. The proposal also includes the development of a virtual community networking system and on-line information resources to support the collaborative effort and to stimulate the dissemination of information pertaining to the use of biological diversity of agricultural crops grown in Latin America with functional food potential.

     

    Contact Info:

    Coordinator of the EULAFF Project
    Christian Suojanen
    Pg. Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
    Phone: + 34 93 268 87 96
    Mobile:  +34 617 907 347
    Fax: +34 93 268 45 00
    E-mail: [email protected]

    Executive Director of the EULAFF Project
    Dr. Javier Verástegui
    Secretary General of BIOEUROLATINA
    Calle de Valderribas, 81, 2do. D, 28007 Madrid, Spain
    Mobile:  +34 630 925 374
    E-mail:  [email protected]

    Task Group on European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES)

    EAGLES was set up through the initiative of members of the European Federation of Biotechnology. It was established as a Task Group, which provides advice and support, as well as an administrative structure and its large network.

    EAGLES designs and implements projects to be carried out mostly by life scientists from developing countries that will stimulate and facilitate activities for the European life sciences to respond to the needs of developing countries.

    The members of EAGLES believe:

    • That the greatest humanitarian challenges for the life sciences lie in the problems of illness, starvation and environmental degradation which are faced by hundreds of millions of people in our world today, and will be faced by millions more in the coming decades.
    • That life scientists everywhere have a responsibility to address these global challenges.
    • That European life scientists could and should make a much greater contribution to meet these challenges.
    • That European policies should facilitate the life sciences in meeting these challenges.
    • In addressing these challenges that the people of Europe and their leaders should pay careful attention to the knowledge and advice of distinguished life scientists and humanists from the developing and emerging countries.

    For information on the activities of this Task Group please visit the EAGLES website or contact:

    European Federation of Biotechnology
    Passeig Lluis Companys, 23
    08010 Barcelona
    Tel. +93 268 7703
    Fax. +93 268 4500
    [email protected]

     

     

    Associated Section YEBN (Young European Biotech Network)

    “Biotechnology and young people’s networks are both essential components of Europe’s scientific and technological futures. Accordingly, I strongly endorse the goals and activities of the YEBN.” - Philip Campbell, Ph.D. Editor-in-chief, Nature

    Biotechnology is a key factor for sustainable development of our future. The Young European Biotech Network (YEBN) is a non-profit organisation that aims to strengthen the co-operation among European Countries in order to promote a responsible and dynamic community of young scientists and increase the competitiveness of the European Life Science sector worldwide. YEBN was founded in December 2002 in Bertinoro, Italy, by four student organisations active in several European countries. Today, YEBN consists of several hundred members in 15 European countries.

    Linking people together has proven to be vital for businesses. A successful scientist has to seek out contacts at conferences as well. Networking is a crucial aspect, not only for career, but for information and also sometimes for fun. YEBN links people within its network and to the outside world, either through its member database or through specific networking events, such as conferences, meetings or workshops. In doing this, YEBN achieves an internal and a vertical integration of its members, for example with academia, other organisations (such as the European Federation of Biotechnology) and companies.

    Young Life Scientists are often concerned with their future career. YEBN has built specific career services, such information on job matching databases and its internal networking database to help YEBN members in critical questions, i.e. on getting information of research groups in other countries.
    Young people most often have great ideas, as well as the courage and motivation to realize them. Yet, sometimes the space is missing for the creativity to be put into reality.

    YEBN helps you to realize your own ideas by helping to find human resource to fill your team, helps you to find financial aid, management skills and most importantly provides its name to leverage your endeavour. Genetic engineering, cloning and other issues have caused widespread anxiety and debates in society. YEBN is dedicated to provide society with unbiased and objective knowledge and information on Life Science, from young involved scientists. YEBN aims for these objectives by representing a young generation of open-minded scientists who can be regarded as trustworthy. Specific projects and Task Groups within YEBN are focused on science and society, public perception and communication of science. A project called BioPop of a new model for science communication and sociology of science under the FP6 program of the European Commission” was accepted and run from 2004.
    Everyone is welcome to join and initiate projects in YEBN, membership is for free. We encourage persons with different backgrounds but strong interest in biotechnology to join, in order to create a fruitful interdisciplinary forum.


    For further information regarding this Associated Section, please visit the YEBN website or contact the Chairman:

    Marie Mueller
    YEBN Chairwoman of the Executive Board
    .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
    http://yebn.eu/

    Section on Medicines Development

    With the mapping of the human genome, biotechnology is of increasing importance for development of new and targeted medicines and will impact future medical practice. This calls for an optimising of the current medicines R&D process and a re-thinking of the process. It is for this reason that the Section on Medicines Development was established in 2003. This Section covers all aspects of Medicines Development (which today all will involve biotech in one way or other) as well as all processes within the R&D cycle from idea through research, applied research, preclinical, clinical, regulatory and post-marketing follow-up.         
             
    The EFB Section on Medicines Development is a platform for all stakeholders and sciences related to development of medicines. NSMF follows two tracks:

    Streamlining:
    Activities to optimise and reengineer the current drug research & development processes utilising contemporary scientific knowledge by removing bottlenecks and developing new tools.

    Fresh approach:
    To re-evaluate the entire drug development process and create a new efficient flow of knowledge generation and management without compromising safety based on recent scientific and technological advances including genome research.


             
    For information about the activities of this Section please contact:

    Dr. Adreani Odysseos (Chairman)
    Organisations: EPSO-Iasis, R&D and University of Cyprus
    University of Cyprus
    Dept. of Chemistry
    75, Kallipoleos Street, Nicosia 1678
    Tel: +357-22-892218
    Fax: +357-22- 894501
    E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 

    EFB Statutes

    EFB Statutes 2004 (PDF document)

    As the legal seat of the EFB is in Belgium, the official Statutes of the European Federation of Biotechnology as filed with the Ministry of Justice are in French.  An English translation of the statutes is available to EFB members upon request to the Central Office, but the French version available for download here is the definitive one.

    Section on Biodiversity

    The Section on Biodiversity, an initiative of the European Federation of Biotechnology, was founded on 27 February 2003. The main task of this section is to investigate and debate the impact of Biotechnology on Biodiversity.

    Priority topics of the EFB Section on Biodiversity are:

    • Benefits and threats from GMO’s
    • How can the view on Biodiversity help in research and development?
    • Enhance the knowledge about soil microbiology and agricultural biodiversity
    • Biodiversity and Population Genetics: A wide field of research
    • Active participation in the development and outlining of research programmes on an European level.

    For an overview of the topic Biodiversity related to Biotechnology see:

  • Ammann, K. (20110921)
    Review:  Can GM crops help to enhance biodiversity? Open Source Version. In ASK-FORCE contribution AF-11, Vol. AF-11, pp. 88. Ammann K., Neuchatel
    http://www.ask-force.org/web/AF-11-Biodiversity/AF-11-Biodiversity-Biotechnology-20110921-opensource.pdf


  • Download a summary of the latest updates of all contributions
    http://www.ask-force.org/web/ASK-FORCE-Summary/ASK-FORCE-Summary.pdf


  • The section leader acted also as Guest Editor, together with Prof. em. Ingo Potrykus for the Journal of New Biotechnology: Vatican conference on GM crops and developing countries May 2009, online open source publication 20101130: it can be downloaded at
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/43660-2010-999729994-2699796

    • Contact Info:

    Klaus Ammann
    Prof. hon. emeritus, former Director Botanic Garden, University of Bern
    Rue de Monruz 20
    CH - 2000 NEUCHATEL, Switzerland
    Website: www.efb-central.org/Biodiversity/homepage.html
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Tel.: +41 79 429 70 62, skypeIn +41 33 534 91 52
    [email protected]
    http://www.efb-central.org/Biodiversity/homepage.html
    http://www.efb-central.org/index.php/forums/
    http://www.pubresreg.org

    Task Group on International Relations (TGIR)

    The EFB Task Group TGIR aims at the promotion of international (global) interactions and cooperation between governments, industries and academics in the field of biotechnology. Specifically, TGIR formulates proposals to the European Commission and implements EC programmes to establish strategic relations.

    One of the main activities of the Task Group is European Focus on Biotechnology in China (EFBIC). EFBIC’s purpose is to establish strategic relations in biotechnology between decision makers in Europe and China and facilitate collaborations in research, training and innovation among European and Chinese scientists.
     
    For further information on the activities of this Task Group please contact:
           
    Prof. Dr. Brian Clark (Chairman)
    Department of Molecular and Structural Biology
    University of Aarhus
    Gustav Wieds Vej 10C
    DK-8000 Aarhus C
    Tel: +45 - 8942 5055
    Fax: +45 - 8619 1959
    E-mail: [email protected]

    The EFB Fora

    The main fora of the EFB are Sections and Task Groups. They accomodate all European scientists interested in biotechnology. Sections are devoted to a particular field of biotechnology (vertical topics) and are open to all personal members. Task Groups cover topics which are of interest to all or most biotechnologists (horizontal topics); you can become a member of a Task Group by invitation only.

    Sections may decide to establish Working Groups to address selected issues. Working Groups are operating under the guidance of the Section Board.

    Section on Phyto-Pharmaceuticals

    Currently there is intense interest worldwide for studying medical treatment derived from traditional medicine sources. The EFB therefore deems it appropriate to start a section on phyto-pharmaceutical science which will network with European scientific experts in the field from various countries which have source material based on natural plant materials from in particular China, Latin America, India and Russia. This section will aim to encourage via its members the establishment of scientific procedures and norms for enabling new biomedical health treatments in prevention of and intervention in the course of human diseases. The section will aim to be a channel for high level research investigation and global co operations to enable new drug discoveries.

    In contrast to target oriented Western medicine, traditional use of herbal medicines such as TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) uses a holistic, synergetic and personalized approach for diagnosis and treatment. Although products like those from TCM are sold in many countries, there is an insufficient post-market surveillance system, lack of control over quality and safety, no integration of existing knowledge on adverse effects, uncertainty over IPR issues and regulatory requirements, and in general a large need for more advanced knowledge and new approaches to R&D. At the scientific level at the present time there is little understanding about the mechanisms of action of many such therapies, which would be immediately valuable for evidence-based evaluation and improved regulation. Given the complexity of both the human body plus the often complex compositions of the herbal extracts, this requires multidisciplinary research applying advanced tools, in conjunction with holistic approaches, to decipher the scientific fundamentals of the medication.

    As the EFB has established Regional Branch Offices (RBO) in Europe and via its task group on international relation, RBOs outside Europe, these can be natural elements for interacting with particular national requirements and national granting bodies including the European Commission and also be available to stimulate networking and high level scientific cooperation between our European members and important interested bodies such as the Chinese Ministeries, responsible for regulating and overseeing the proper use of phyto-pharmaceuticals.
    The Board of the new Section will contain representatives of interested parties. To start, the Chairman has been nominated to be Professor Brian Clark and the Executive Director Mr. Jens Sundbye, both at the Danish RBO of the European Federation of Biotechnology.

    All Section Members are welcome to become an active participant in this EFB Section.

    For further information about the Section activities, please contact:


    Prof. Brian F.C. Clark (Chairman)
    Institute of Molecular Biology
    Gustav Wieds Vej 10
    DK-8000 Aarhus C
    Denmark
    E-mail: [email protected]

    Jens Sundbye (Executive Director)
    BioMedico Forum
    Forskerparken
    Gustav Wieds Vej 10
    DK-8000 Aarhus C
    Denmark
    Tel +45 - 8620 5080
    Fax +45 - 8620 1222
    E-mail: [email protected]

    General Council and General Assembly

    The General Council (GeCo) consists of one representative of each Institutional Member of EFB. The members of the EFB Executive Board , all chairmen of the EFB Sections and Task Groups also belong to the GeCo. The General Council decides on all fundamental matters connected with the work of the Federation. The members of the GeCo meet at the General Assembly (GeAs).

    EFB RBO London, UNITED KINGDOM

    Region:

    The London RBO is located at the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and serves as EFB Regional Branch Office for United Kingdom.

    Contact:

    EFB RBO UK
    Ms. Joanne Lyall
    Society of Chemical Industry (SCI)
    14 - 15 Belgrave Square
    London, SW1X 8PS
    E-mail:[email protected]
    www.soci.org

     

    EFB RBO Waedenswill, SWITZERLAND

    Region:
    The Zwitzerland RBO is located at the Swiss Coordination Committee for Biotechnology SCCB and serves as EFB Regional Branch Office for Switzerland.

    Contact:


    EFB RBO Switzerland
    EFB RBO Switzerland
    Dr. Roland Wohlgemuth
    Sigma-Aldrich Chemie GmbH
    Industriestrasse 25
    9470 BUCHS
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Phone: +41 81 755 2640
    Fax: +41 81 756 5449

    Prof. Dr. Bernhard Sonnleitner
    Swiss Coordination Committee for Biotechnology SCCB
    Campus Reidbach, Einsiedlerstrasse 29
    CH-8820 Waedenswill
    Phone:+41 58 934 5492
    E-mail:[email protected]
    http://www.sk-biotechnologie.ch/

    EFB RBO Madrid, SPAIN

    Region:

    The Madrid RBO is located at the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBiot) and serves as EFB Regional Branch Office for Spain.

    Contact:


    EFB RBO Madrid
    Dra. Carmen Vela
    Sociedad Española de Biotecnologia (SEBIOT)
    Vitubrio 8
    E-28006 Madrid
    Phone: +34 91 561 3464
    E-mail: [email protected]
    http://www.sebiot.org

    EFB RBO Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

    Region:

    The Ljubljana RBO is located at the National Institute of Chemistry and serves as EFB Regional Branch Office for Slovenia.

    Contact:


    EFB RBO Ljubljana
    Dr. Vladka Gaberc Porekar
    National Institute of Chemistry
    Hajdrihova 19
    SI-1000 Ljubljana
    Phone: +386 1 4760 241
    E-mail:[email protected]
    http://www.ki.si/