European Commission and EMBL Renew Cooperation

In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on March 4th, the European Commission (EC) and the European

Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) formalise their desire to maintain and further develop their cooperation.

“I am delighted to sign the renewed and strengthened Memorandum of Understanding between the European

Commission and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. I am confident that it will set the stage for even better and more fruitful cooperation between us. EMBL’s excellent research is fundamental to our understanding of life itself and will underpin many of the advances we will see in medicine and other domains in the years to come,” said Máire Geoghegan- Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. “As the European  intergovernmental institution for molecular life sciences, EMBL has extensive scientific and technical expertise coupled with years of success empowering life scientists from European countries to conduct cutting-edge research at state-of-the art research infrastructures,” added Iain Mattaj, Director General of EMBL. With a contribution of 12.4 million Euro in 2010, the EC is EMBL’s single largest external funding body.

The signing, which took place at EMBL’s main laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, reinforces the aims of the 1995

Administrative Agreement between the two parties.