The process to become a full member took some time, as it was necessary to secure support from both the scientific and financial sectors, but the hard work paid off. \u201cBecoming a member in EMBL\u2019s 40th anniversary year is something that was worth waiting for,\u201d says Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1, the Czech Republic\u2019s delegate during her inaugural meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joining EMBL is the latest step in a deliberate expansion in scientific research that the Czech Republic has been undertaking for the last 20 years. It joined the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) in 1994, and since then has forged more scientific links through several organizations like the European Life Science Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR) and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF). \u201cSo we have sort of completed it by membership in EMBL,\u201d says Byst\u0159ick\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Czech Republic has several previously established connections to EMBL that provided the stepping stones toward full membership. Seven Czech scientists are members of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), EMBL\u2019s sister organization, and EMBL has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) in Brno and the Biotechnology and Biomedicine Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University (BIOCEV) in Vestec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The push for membership was propelled forward in part by Czech scientists themselves. \u201cBiologists are among the most numerous scientists in the whole scientific community in the Czech Republic,\u201d says Byst\u0159ick\u00e1. \u201cIt was their effort that helped persuade the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to lead the way toward becoming a member state and supporting the kinds of life science research that concentrate around EMBL.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being an EMBL member will help solidify the Czech Republic\u2019s position in European research.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Along with voting rights on the EMBL Council, membership grants the Czech Republic access to state-of-the-art facilities and services, scholarships for EMBL\u2019s PhD and Postdoctoral degree programs, and training in the form of courses and conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 expects that Czech scientists will continue benefiting from their country\u2019s membership in the future, either on-site at one of EMBL\u2019s five locations or through increased collaboration opportunities. \u201cBeing an EMBL member will help solidify the Czech Republic\u2019s position in European research, both in molecular biology and in life sciences in general,\u201d says Byst\u0159ick\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EMBL isn\u2019t stopping at 21 members. Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 and the other council delegates will soon be joined by representatives of the Republic of Malta, whose application for membership was approved at this meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL’s 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62,958,24,43,25],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lab-matters","tag-administration","tag-council","tag-governance","tag-heidelberg","tag-partnerships"],"acf":{"article_intro":"
There is a new addition to the waving banner welcoming EMBL Council delegates to Heidelberg for the Summer meeting of EMBL\u2019s governing body. Among the established member states\u2019 flags now flies the red, white and blue flag of the Czech Republic, the 21st and newest state to join EMBL.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lindsay Brownell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LindzBro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lindsay Brownell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lindsay Brownell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/93b4023d898e31d430ebb837620c8786\"},\"headline\":\"Czech-ing out EMBL Council\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"administration\",\"council\",\"governance\",\"heidelberg\",\"partnerships\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lab Matters\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\",\"name\":\"Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":465,\"caption\":\"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 on her first visit to EMBL as a member of the Council. PHOTO: EMBL PHOTOLAB\/HUGO NEVES\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News\",\"description\":\"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"EMBL News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"alternateName\":\"EMBL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":144,\"caption\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/embl\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/93b4023d898e31d430ebb837620c8786\",\"name\":\"Lindsay Brownell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/662a20dd8b58b2d277ac0cbb3e90b1579ef59dd4112b7004ec0b07dcc0a948c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/662a20dd8b58b2d277ac0cbb3e90b1579ef59dd4112b7004ec0b07dcc0a948c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lindsay Brownell\"},\"description\":\"Lindsay Brownell was a science writing intern on EMBL\u2019s communications team. She once climbed into an air duct at midnight while interviewing members of MIT\u2019s hacking community for radio.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/LindzBro\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/lindsay-brownell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL","description":"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL","og_description":"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/","og_site_name":"EMBL","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","article_published_time":"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":465,"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lindsay Brownell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LindzBro","twitter_site":"@embl","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lindsay Brownell","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/"},"author":{"name":"Lindsay Brownell","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/93b4023d898e31d430ebb837620c8786"},"headline":"Czech-ing out EMBL Council","datePublished":"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/"},"wordCount":423,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","keywords":["administration","council","governance","heidelberg","partnerships"],"articleSection":["Lab Matters"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/","name":"Czech-ing out EMBL Council | EMBL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-15T07:49:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-18T11:33:26+00:00","description":"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 represents EMBL's 21st member state at her first Council Meeting.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/czech-ing-embl-council\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","width":620,"height":465,"caption":"Czech delegate Jana Byst\u0159ick\u00e1 on her first visit to EMBL as a member of the Council. PHOTO: EMBL PHOTOLAB\/HUGO NEVES"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News","description":"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"alternateName":"EMBL News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory","alternateName":"EMBL","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","width":300,"height":144,"caption":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","https:\/\/x.com\/embl","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/93b4023d898e31d430ebb837620c8786","name":"Lindsay Brownell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/662a20dd8b58b2d277ac0cbb3e90b1579ef59dd4112b7004ec0b07dcc0a948c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/662a20dd8b58b2d277ac0cbb3e90b1579ef59dd4112b7004ec0b07dcc0a948c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lindsay Brownell"},"description":"Lindsay Brownell was a science writing intern on EMBL\u2019s communications team. She once climbed into an air duct at midnight while interviewing members of MIT\u2019s hacking community for radio.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/LindzBro"],"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/lindsay-brownell\/"}]}},"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1407_Czech1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19779,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/19779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}