Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

What Federation of European Neuroscience Societies does

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) is a non-profit professional federation headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, representing more than 20,000 European neuroscientists through its national member societies across over 20 European countries. The organization operates as the unified voice of European neuroscience, providing advocacy, training, scientific exchange, and community infrastructure for the field. Its core offerings include the well-known European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN), published in partnership with Wiley; a portfolio of conferences comprising the biennial FENS Forum (Barcelona 2026, Paris 2022), FENS Regional Meetings, and the specialized Brain Conferences; a training ecosystem anchored by FENS Schools, the CAJAL Advanced Neuroscience Training Programme (run with IBRO, Gatsby, University of Bordeaux, and Champalimaud), and the NENS network of 200+ graduate programs across 28 countries; career services including the FENS Job Market and exchange fellowships up to EUR 4,000; awards and recognition programs (Peter Seeburg Prize, ALBA-FKNE Diversity Prize, FKNE Thesis Prize); and outreach initiatives such as Brain Awareness Week and the FENS Voices podcast.

FENS generates revenue through a combination of membership dues from individuals and national member societies, conference registration fees, EJN journal publishing royalties shared with Wiley, and modest job posting fees (waived for members, EUR 80 per entry for non-members, free for Ukraine-support positions). Its go-to-market is community-led: national societies act as the downstream distribution layer, and partnerships with IBRO, the European Brain Council (EBC), the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), and others extend reach into global, clinical, and policy audiences. The federation is governed by an Executive Committee, Governing Council, and functional committees including the Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET, formed in 2014 by merging the School and NENS committees). The organization is structured as an independent non-profit with no parent company, no external investment, and no disclosed revenue figures.

Name

Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Legal name

Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Website

https://fens.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FENS is a Brussels-based non-profit federation representing more than 20,000 European neuroscientists through national member societies. It delivers conferences, the EJN journal, training programs, career services, grants, and policy advocacy for the European neuroscience community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Scientific Society / Neuroscience Research Federation

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Book Publishers (51313)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarly Society & Association Publishing (EDAGAFAK)

Keywords

• Neuroscience professional society
• Scientific conference services
• Academic research grants
• Neuroscience training programs
• Peer-reviewed journal publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Brussels

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership dues: Individual and society membership fees supporting federation operations
2. Job market postings: Job submission fees: waived for FENS members, €80 per entry for non-members, waived for Ukraine support positions
3. Conference and event revenue: Registration fees for FENS Forum, FENS Regional Meetings, and other neuroscience events
4. Journal publishing: The European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN) is published by FENS in partnership with Wiley

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

FENS is a non-profit professional federation that advances and promotes neuroscience in Europe and beyond. It organizes scientific conferences (FENS Forum, Regional Meetings, The Brain Conferences), publishes the European Journal of Neuroscience in partnership with Wiley, runs training programs (FENS Schools, CAJAL Training Programme) and networks (NENS, FKNE, ALBA), and provides grants, fellowships, and career services (Job Market) to individual neuroscientists and member societies across Europe.

Product overview

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) operates as a professional membership organization rather than a software product company. Its offerings consist of scientific conferences and events (FENS Forum, FENS Regional Meetings, The Brain Conferences), publications (European Journal of Neuroscience), training programs (FENS Schools, CAJAL Training Programme, NENS network), career development resources (Job Market, Exchange Fellowships, Grants), professional networks (FKNE, ALBA Network, NENS), and public outreach initiatives (Brain Awareness Week, FENS Voices podcast). These services support the advancement and promotion of neuroscience research and education across Europe.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN)
• FENS Forum
• FENS Regional Meeting
• The Brain Conferences
• FENS Schools
• CAJAL Training Programme
• FENS Job Market
• NENS (Network of European Neuroscience Schools)
• FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence (FKNE)
• The ALBA Network
• FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships
• NENS Exchange Grants
• FENS Voices Podcast
• Brain Awareness Week
• European Neuroscience Conference by Doctoral Students (ENCODS)
• Core Competencies in European Graduate Neuroscience Training

Quantifiable outcome

• 20,000+ neuroscientists represented across Europe
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and important.

• European Stroke Organisation (ESO)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2025FENS and ESO co-host webinars on topics of mutual interest such as 'Stroke and dementia – From the clinical question to neuroscientific background' (June 2025).
• IBRO (International Brain Research Organization) / IBRO-PERCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFENS partners with IBRO through the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) to deliver the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowship programme offering up to EUR 4,000 for short-term laboratory visits within Europe. Also collaborates on training stipends and NENS course support.
• European Brain Council (EBC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFENS is a founding member of EBC which unites neurologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, basic neuroscientists, patient organizations and industry. Through EBC membership, FENS engages with European institutions and supports the EBRA project.
• CAJAL Training Programme Partners (Gatsby Charitable Foundation, University of Bordeaux, Champalimaud Foundation)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe CAJAL Advanced Neuroscience Training Programme is a partnership between FENS, IBRO, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, University of Bordeaux, and Champalimaud Foundation to establish a high-level neuroscience training hub in Europe.
• Society for Neuroscience (SfN)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFENS collaborates with SfN on joint schools (FENS-SfN Summer/Winter Schools), training programs, the Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize, and provides ISM slot codes for FENS members to attend SfN annual meetings.
• EBRA (European Brain Research Area)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFENS supports EBRA through EBC membership. EBRA aims to consolidate and facilitate collaboration in the European brain research landscape and includes clusters like BRAINFOOD, EPI-CLUSTER, PSMD, PREMOS, TRISOMY-21, and ECIB.
• The ALBA NetworkimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerALBA Network is a partner initiative focused on promoting equality and diversity within brain sciences. FENS supports the network and co-sponsors the ALBA-FKNE Diversity Prize.
• FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence (FKNE)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerFKNE is a network of early-career neuroscientists supported by FENS and the Kavli Foundation. Provides mentoring prizes, PhD thesis prizes, and career development support.
• European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN) - WileycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEJN is the official journal of FENS, published in partnership with Wiley. FENS Communication Committee works with EJN Editorial Board on initiatives like the EJN Image Competition.
• European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB)importantStrategic or Co-development PartnerFENS collaborates with EDAB through the Brain Campaign initiative to raise public awareness of neuroscience and support Brain Awareness Week activities with grants up to EUR 1,000.
• Lundbeck FoundationimportantOthersLundbeck Foundation awards The Brain Prize annually - the world's largest neuroscience prize. FENS promotes nominations and highlights this award.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• International Brain Research Organization (IBRO): Global counterpart federation with which FENS jointly runs the IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships and CAJAL Training Programme. Both serve as umbrella organisations for neuroscience societies, run training programmes, and represent the field in policy forums — making IBRO FENS's natural global-scope peer.
• Society for Neuroscience (SfN): The US-based learned society and largest direct peer to FENS: both are federation/society models serving neuroscience researchers through conferences (SfN Neuroscience annual meeting vs. FENS Forum), journals (JNeurosci vs. EJN), training programmes, and advocacy. SfN's larger scale (~130k members vs. FENS's 20k+) makes it the structural benchmark for FENS's growth path.
• British Neuroscience Association (BNA): National UK neuroscience society that is itself a FENS member society, serving the same neuroscientist persona through conferences, awards, and training. BNA is the closest national-society parallel and a useful microcosm for what FENS aggregates at European scale.
• European Brain Council (EBC): Brussels-based coalition that FENS co-founded and supports through the EBRA project. EBC operates in the same EU advocacy space as FENS but with a broader clinician/industry/patient remit, making it the most direct peer on European brain-research policy and a partner/competitor for influence over EU research budgets.

Broad incumbents

• Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS): The structurally analogous federation for biochemistry in Europe, operating a near-identical model: national member societies, a flagship journal (FEBS Journal, FEBS Letters), the FEBS Congress, summer schools, and grants. FEBS is the cleanest structural peer for benchmarking FENS's operating economics and scale.
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Much larger US scientific society publishing Science, running advocacy, and convening across disciplines. AAAS is a relevant broad-incumbent peer for the scale and governance model of a mega learned society, even though its disciplinary remit is far wider than FENS's.

Others

• Allen Institute for Brain Science: Non-profit US neuroscience research organisation that funds, trains, and convenes brain researchers with a different model (institute-based rather than federation-based). Comparable in non-profit, mission-driven, neuroscience-community scale and useful as a reference for alternative organisational structures FENS members interact with.

Regional players

• Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS / EuroPhysiology): A European federation for physiology, structurally identical to FENS: national member societies, conferences, training schools, and a European identity. Useful as a same-continent, structurally-aligned peer for benchmarking FENS member services against a directly adjacent life-science federation.

Emerging players

• Nature Neuroscience (Springer Nature): Premium neuroscience journal published by Springer Nature that competes directly with FENS's EJN for author submissions and institutional subscriptions. As EJN's primary commercial competitor in the European neuroscience publishing market, Nature Neuroscience is a relevant peer on the journal side of FENS's portfolio.
• Elsevier Neuroscience Journals (Cell Press/Elsevier): Portfolio including Neuron, Cell Reports, and Trends in Neurosciences that overlaps with EJN's submission base. Functions as both a publishing competitor (for EJN submissions) and a downstream channel where FENS-affiliated researchers publish, making Elsevier a peer on FENS's publication revenue model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/FENS
• Xx.com/FENSorg
• Facebookfacebook.com/FENSorg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/federation-of-european-neuroscience-societies---fens

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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