European Biophysics Societies Association

The European Biophysical Societies' Association is a non-profit making organisation (UK Charity Commission no. 1059024), to foster the exchange of scientific information among European biophysicists and biophysicists in general.

EBSA is an association of 33 Biophysical Societies in the European area. EBSA is an adherent member of the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB). EBSA maintains close links with Springer-Nature, the publishers of the European Biophysics Journal for which the copyright is owned by EBSA.

History
In October 1980, at a joint conference of the Belgian, German and Netherlands Biophysical Societies in Aachen, a proposal emerged to form an Association of related European societies. In November 1981, at a meeting in Frankfurt, hosted by the German Biophysical Society and attended by representative officers of the Belgian, British, Danish, German, Italian, Netherlands, Swedish and Swiss Biophysical Societies, the concept of a European Biophysical Societies' Association was unanimously endorsed and accepted by all the National Member Societies present. A journal associated with EBSA was also proposed as an eventual objective. An Acting Executive Committee was constituted as follows: President: Anders Ehenberg (Stockholm); Vice-president: W. Kreutz (Freiburg); Secretary: Julius Clauwaert (Wilrijk); Member: Peter Bayley (London).

The first EBSA General Assembly was held in July 1984, during the 8th IUPAB Congress in Bristol. The initial eight adhering societies attended, with new applications from France and Israel, and observers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, USSR and Yugoslavia.

In 1984, The formation of the European Biophysics Journal (formally "Biophysics of Structure and Mechanism". Ed. H. Stieve, Germany), published by Springer Verlag. EBJ is now published by Springer Nature and wholly owned by EBSA, with publication revenues supporting EBSA. An "Encyclopedia of Biophysics", published by Springer-Nature and edited by GKC Roberts and A Watts, is now in its 2nd Edition.

Committees and governance
The EBSA Executive Committee is elected by voting members of the adherent societies at the General Assembly held at the biennial EBSA congresses, and meets biannually, with two meetings at the EBSA congress. The current President (6-year term) is usually the main organizer of the previous EBSA congress, and a President-elect is usually the organizer of the next congress. A Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer are joined by ~12 committee members and co-opted members. The Managing Editor of EBJ is an ex-officio member.

Conferences and activities
Every two years EBSA organizes a European biophysics congress, hosted by a national biophysical society, and located across all parts Europe. The next Congress (2025) will be held in Rome, Italy hosted by SIBPA. In addition, EBSA offers sponsorship to organisers of multi-national meetings, workshops and schools that promote biophysics in Europe. Support can come in the form of grants to the organisers or bursaries to participants. EBSA also offers bursaries (typically 50 – 60) to individual early career scientists to enable them to participate in the biennial EBSA Congresses. Furthermore, new initiatives have been generated, such as support for working visits or bursaries to attend scientific meetings.