For many years the lack of a visibility of medicinal chemistry as a scientific discipline within the panel structure of the European Research Council (ERC) was a limiting factor for medicinal chemists to submit grant applications and to be successful.

The European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) invited Prof. Klaus Bock, at that time Vice-President of ERC, to present a lecture at the opening ceremony of its flagship event, the International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ISMC) in Manchester, August 2016. During a follow-up meeting with him, the EFMC President and President-elect discussed this matter and showed the important position of medicinal chemistry in the scientific landscape.

We are grateful that medicinal chemistry is now listed for the first time as a keyword (PE5_18) in the Synthetic Chemistry and Materials Panel (PE5) of the Physical Sciences and Engineering field. This is adopted for all 2019 calls for Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants within ERC.

We hope that this will largely increase the visibility of medicinal chemistry within ERC, that rapidly became the most prestigious funding body to support excellent, investigator-driven frontier research in Europe.

We wish all scientists a lot of success in submitting their grant applications in one of the ERC calls.

Annually, EFMC funds grants with the aim of supporting the participation of young academic scientists to EFMC organised events.

Grant applications for the following 2019 events are now open:

• 15th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry - Small Becomes Big in Medicinal Chemistry: Fragment-based Drug Discovery
  (deadline for application is March 1, 2019) - Link to the Event
  
  
• EFMC|ACSMEDI Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers 2019
  (deadline for application is March 14, 2019) - Link to the Event
  
  
• EFMC-ASMC’19 : International Symposium on Advances in Medicinal Chemistry
  (deadline for application is March 20, 2019) - Link to the Event
  
  
• 6th EFMC Young Medicinal Chemist Symposium 
  (Combined grant with the EFMC-ASMC’19) - Link to the Event

To apply for an EFMC grant, please fill in the application form before the deadline and upload your CV, publication list, abstract, motivation letter and support letter from the supervisor.

Upon application, a limited number of full registration fees for EFMC-ISMC, EFMC-ASMC, ACSMEDI-EFMC Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers and up to 50% of the registration fee for the EFMC Short Courses or the EFMC Accredited School will be covered by EFMC.

Please note that EFMC Grants are only available to the members of EFMC National Adhering Organisations, a full list of which is available here. 

EFMC represents a research community that plays an important role in society. By providing tools to better understand the biology of human diseases and developing new drugs, chemical biologists and medicinal chemists can address issues that represent a huge burden to patients, families and social welfare. In particular, there is an enormous need for improved treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Our recent workshop in Brussels “Parkinson’s disease: understanding the causes to find a cure” was co-organized with EuChemS, alongside Members of the European Parliament, and representatives from the European Commission and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). The workshop aimed to increase awareness of both patients and researchers needs, as well as review the latest understanding of the causes of the disease. Further information on this event is available in the press release, and all presentations can be viewed at https://www.euchems.eu/parkinsons-disease-causes-and-cures-workshop/

By participating in such activities, EFMC both supports the cause of patients and helps increase awareness of the need for research funding, and for policies facilitating the task of our scientific community to address these complex issues. Please take advantage of this event to share our efforts within our network, and let people know that EFMC really cares.

Building a strong network at the very early stage in your career is crucial. Therefore, EFMC decided to create a new network for young scientists: the EFMC-Young Scientists Network. 

The aim of the EFMC-YSN is to inspire, connect and provide opportunities to medicinal chemists and chemical biologists under the age of 35 by:

• holding dedicated events & competitions
• offering awards to best PhDs & Post-docs
• funding grants and scholarships to attend EFMC organised and sponsored events
• providing a forum to exchange, seek advices and mentoring

Shaping itself it into a usefull tool, custom-made to your needs and managed by young scientists, for young scientists.

Join the EFMC-YSN now and get access to the content as it becomes available in the following weeks/months.

Questions? Reach out to us at ysn@efmc.info

EFMC is supporting the new EuChemS Periodic Table, depicting the issue of element scarcity on the occasion of the upcoming International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 (IYPT2019). The EFMC shares their hope that this image will lead to reflection, and ultimately action, that it will raise awareness of the threat this poses and also hope to see it have an impact on policy, education and on individual actions.