Grant Report: The 31st Edition of the European Meeting for PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology (EMPSEB 31)

EMPSEB, the annual European Meeting for PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology, has been organized by volunteering PhD students across Europe since 1995. The 31st edition of EMPSEB (https://empsebconf.github.io/index.html) was held from 8–12 June 2026 at the Best Western Ahorn Hotel am Fichtelberg in Oberwiesenthal, Germany. The meeting brought together 74 PhD students from universities, museums, and research institutes representing 20 countries across three continents. In addition, four distinguished researchers were invited to hold keynote lectures and workshops.

The registration fee covered all conference activities, including accommodation and meals, to ensure the costs were as affordable as possible for PhD students from different backgrounds.  Furthermore, sharing accommodation and meals maximizes the opportunities for interaction between participants and keynote speakers. This highly interactive format fostered a welcoming and supportive environment that aligns with EMPSEB’s primary goal: promoting both scientific and professional development among early-career researchers.

Each of the 74 attendees had an oral presentation and received feedback from their peers, giving everyone the opportunity to practice and refine their presentation skills. Participants were also given the option to present a poster and an alternative presentation format; 20 and 10 PhD students, respectively, chose to do so. The alternative presentation promotes innovative approaches to science communication, which can be used to present research to broader, non-specialist audiences.

The workshops at EMPSEB 31 were carefully selected to support early-career researchers in developing essential skills for future careers in science. The meeting began with a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) workshop led by Professor Mariella Herberstein. During the session, participants discussed challenges, strategies, and benefits associated with integrating DEI principles into the scientific community.
On the following days, participants had the opportunity to attend a Scientific Writing workshop led by Dr. Abderrahman Khila. This workshop addressed common challenges in scientific writing and provided practical guidance on manuscript preparation, collaboration, and the peer-review process from an editor’s perspective. Dr. Edyta Sadowska conducted a workshop on Ethics in Scientific Practices in Ecology and Evolution, in which research integrity and scientific responsibility were explored through real life examples and discussed in groups. In addition, Dr. Jonathan Henshaw led a guided bird-watching nature hike, enabling participants to engage with the ecological context of their work while fostering informal discussions and interdisciplinary exchange.

The 31st edition of EMPSEB was a great success, creating a strong sense of community among early-career scientists from diverse countries and research areas within evolutionary biology. Throughout the conference, participants shared experiences, knowledge, and expertise during scientific sessions, coffee breaks, and communal meals, fostering new collaborations and strengthening international research networks.

Organisers
The organisers of EMPSEB 31 were seven PhD students at different stages of their studies and at different research institutes across Europe:
Benneth Nass, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic;
Erica Winslott, Lund University, Sweden;
Kartikey Awasthi, Albert-Ludwig University, Germany;
Kevin Hsiung, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels, Germany;
Veera Schroderus, University of Turku, Finland;
Uliana Kolesnikova, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany;
Zorimar Vilella-Pacheco, KU Leuven, Belgium.

This meeting was supported by the Nordic Oikos Early-Career Researcher Grant 2026 awarded to Erica Winslott.

The meeting was also funded in part by:
Annual support by the European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB);
International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) awarded to Erica Winslott;
Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung awarded to Veera Schroderus;
Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft (DBG) awarded to Uliana Kolesnikova;
Company of Biologists awarded to Veera Schroderus;
The Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) awarded to Erica Winslott;
Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfonds (DTZF) awarded to Benneth Nass.
Other supporters of EMPSEB31: Society of Study of Evolution (SSE), PyroScience, ZymoResearch, AllGenetics, Evolution Letters, CellPress, The Royal Society, and Wiley