News

Slovenia became a member of the Instruct- ERIC consortium, a pan-European research infrastructure in the field of structural biology. The holder of the Slovenian membership is the Institute of Chemistry. In addition to Slovenia, Greece has also joined the consortium, bringing the total number of Instruct- ERIC member countries and organizations to 16. Researchers in Slovenia and Greece can apply for funded access to Instruct- ERIC services from July 1, 2023.

Following approval from the Instruct Council, researchers from Greece and Slovenia now are now members of the Instruct family and can participate in the entire portfolio of Instruct services, including the full technology catalogue, internships, training programmes and R&D funding.

Slovenia applied for membership directly. Greece previously held Observer status, and is now a member. Both countries are now part of the international distributed research infrastructure, joining Belgium, Czech Republic, EMBL, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom.

Prof. Dr. Harald Schwalbe, Director of Instruct-ERIC, said, “These memberships are major steps forward extending our distributed infrastructure in Integrated Structural Biology into central and southeast Europe. Given the major challenges on European society, enlarging our community will increase European cohesion and competitiveness. Recent examples have documented the impact of integrated structural biology for European innovation”.

Both Greece and Slovenia have a long history of structural biology expertise; the experience that they can bring to the consortium and the innovation that they can bring to the 11 Instruct centres as part of access visits will have profound effects on the structural biology community.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marjetka Podobnik of The National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia said, “Slovenian scientists are very pleased that Slovenia has become a member of Instruct-ERIC. As active members of the excellent Instruct-ERIC community, we will continue to strive for high quality research that addresses the great challenges of our time”.

Dr. Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, Director and Chairman of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece said, “It is a great honor for the Greek Structural Biologists whose joint efforts, patience, and perseverance to become full members of the ESFRI Landmark Instruct, have been rewarded. We plan for Greece, through NHRF, to become a regional hub for Structural Biology, develop the community further through access to Instruct Centres, and build synergies with national and European RIs contributing to the consolidation of the European Research Infrastructures ecosystem”.

For further information please contact: Marjetka Podobnik / marjetka.podobnik(at)ki.si