Professor Harald Schwalbe has been renewed as Director of Instruct-ERIC, confirmed at the Instruct Council Meeting in Helsinki, 15 October 2025.
Prof. Schwalbe has been Instruct-ERIC Director since January 2022, and as per Instruct statutes their first term was due to end in December 2026. The term of the Director is five years and is renewable by Council for a further five years.
As a result of the decision of the Instruct Council, Prof. Schwalbe shall continue as Director until December 2031.
Prof. Schwalbe commented, “I was surprised and happy that the re-election took place so quickly. I am happy to serve for a second term to continue promoting integrated structural biology. I am supported by the hub team in Oxford in a fantastic way and feel tremendous support within the European Instruct community.”
The Council is chaired by Professor Jose Maria Carazo of CNB-CSIC, Madrid. Prof. Carazo said, “The time towards the quinquenial renovation of Instruct-ERIC is approaching, and with it the opportunity to present a truly renewed and impacting strategic planning for its future. I am very pleased to know that we will count on Prof. Schwalbe to lead this future with a clear long-term mandate.”
Prof. Schwalbe has served in coordinating scientific consortia including the DFG-funded cluster of excellence “macromolecluar complexes”, German collaborative research centres focused on RNA research and numerous European infrastructure initiatives including EU-NMR, EAST-NMR as well as the technology development project on fragment-based drug discovery. He leads a large group at Goethe University Frankfurt (GUF), specialising on NMR of RNA, proteins, DNA, also for drug discovery and in the context of time-resolved studies.
The renewal ensures that focus can now be made on growing Instruct and aligning the future of the research infrastructure with the needs and developments within the structural biology community.