SymBioSE (as the meeting is called) is short for Symposium of Biology Students in Europe. In essence, it’s an annual meeting where biology students from all over Europe gather to discuss life, the universe and everything (sometimes even biology :). Naturally the phylosophy behind SymBioSE goes a lot deeper:
SymBioSE was founded in 1996 by the German student association. The basic idea was to connect all European biology students, allowing for the exchange of ideas, perspectives and experiences about student concerns. This led to the first meeting in Berlin in 1997.
After a successful start with 12 European nations it was continued as an annual event to be held in the different participating countries. Since then, every host country has built upon the initial framework and upgraded it with aspects of their own cultural background. Thusfar, this has resulted every time in a unique and enriching symposium.
Today, SymBioSE meetings have three major goals: to broaden the horizons of the participating students by excursions and lectures, to connect the people by discussions and cultural exchange and to inform everybody about current university matters. The biological topics presented always rely upon the trends in research that complement both local institution.
Basically this means, that since 1997 SymBioSE has been hosted by a different country each year:
- 1997. Berlin, Germany
- 1998. Arrabida, Portugal
- 1999. Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2000. Edinburgh, Scotland
- 2001. Murcia and Granada
- 2002. Freiburg, Germany
- 2003. Oslo, Norway
- 2004. Croatia
- 2005. Finland
- 2006. Ancona, Italy
And finally, the host of this years SymBioSe was Latvia and next years organizer is Portugal. Personally, I’ve been to Italy and Latvia, and I am definitely planning to go to Portungal.
SymBioSE is generally held in the first two weeks of august, so it’s easy to plan ahead for the next year and make sure you have nothing else planned for that period. Also, the price of the meeting has (as far as I know) never been more than 150 Euros. This price includes housing and food and all the excursions, so you really get value for money. Also, most organizers get independent funding to ensure scholarships and reductions for people who could otherwise not participate. That’s good news for poor students like me, who could otherwise not take part.
Another nice thing about SymBioSE is having a different host country each year. This means that each symposium has a different highlight, since every organizing team puts an emphasis on the topics and issues they think most important in their country or at their university. This way you can get a nice insight into how multi-facetted biology is in Europe.
As for the programme, there are invited speakers (usually professors and phd students from the organizing countries), student presentations, workshops and excursions. Apparently, in previous years, there were also practicals and courses for which you could get credits, but that was before my time. During the last two years the science part has been mostly l’art pour l’art, albeit still interesting.
Finally, I’d just like to mention the social aspect of SymBioSE. Having so many people (80-120) from various countries together means you always make a lot of friends. You just can’t get around chatting to people and in the evening/night there is always lots of talking/drinking/partying. This way you get to know different people, different cultures, student policies across Europe etc. Of course 10 days of socializing is extremely tiring, but it’s worth it!
