The Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Mission & Vision

The major missions of Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SEBBM) include:

• To promote Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Spain at the research, teaching and industrial levels;
• To facilitate contacts among Spanish biochemists and molecular biologists;
• To foster international links of Spanish biochemistry and molecular biology, particularly with other FEBS member societies as well as with Latin-American Biochemical Societies; and
• To give Spanish Biochemistry and Molecular Biology public stance and voice in society.

Key Activities

• The main scientific event organised by SEBBM is its annual Congress, held in the first fortnight of September, generally in a Spanish University, and with delegates numbering around 700, who present nearly 200 oral communications and 300 posters.
• The Argentinean, Chilean, Mexican and Portuguese Societies of Biochemistry, as well as the Pan American Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PABMB), have a regular presence in the SEBBM Congress, and, similarly, SEBBM participates in the meetings of these Iberian and Latin-American Societies. Memorial plenary lectures in all the SEBBM Congresses include the Alberto Sols, Luis Leloir, Hermann Niemeyer, PABMB and Women in Science Lectures.
• In addition, there are the awards IBUB-SEBBM for the research trajectory, UCM ‘Professor María Teresa Miras’ for the Best Article of Young People of the SEBBM, and Josep Tormo-Bruker and Biotechnology Entrepreneur Award Lectures, as well as awards for young researchers, for the best posters and for the best scientific image of the year.
• The registration fee of the SEBBM Congress is very low for members.
• Furthermore, we yearly award about 100 fellowships to student members in order to finance their participation in the Congress.
• A limited number of travelling fellowships are also awarded for attending the FEBS meeting and other courses or meetings deemed of interest.

SEBBM publishes a bulletin (4 issues per year) in which national and international scientific policy is a central topic, and that is highly influential and widely read in the Spanish scientific-political arena.

History

SEBBM, one of the FEBS founding societies, was created in 1963, the year before FEBS was founded.

SEBBM is organised into 19 working groups, and has a large number of local delegates in the various Spanish Universities and Research Centres.

Besides being a member of FEBS, SEBBM represents Spain at the IUBMB, and is one of the founding societies of COSCE, the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain – a Society of societies that aims to give Science a strong and single voice. It belongs to the Spanish Association of Biocompanies (ASEBIO), which develops activities in the field of biotechnology in Spain. And it is part of the Spanish Commission (ISC – International Science Council), the only international non-governmental organization that brings together the natural and social sciences and is the world’s largest scientific organization of its type.

Membership

By December 2022 SEBBM had approximately 3500 members.

SEBBM accepts non-resident scientists as its members on the same basis as Spanish members, although the language of SEBBM is generally Spanish.