European Molecular Biology Laboratory

The files in this sub-section relate to the creation of the EBI, the competition to host it and the successful British bid.

November 1989-March 1996

3 boxes

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1974 to conduct research into molecular biology. The main laboratory is in Heidelberg, Germany and there are five outstations.

In the early 1990s EMBL began to consider establishing the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), which would store EMBL's growing data library and develop tools for computational research. Bids to host the EMBL-EBI were sought through an open competition and a British bid to host the EMBL-EBI in Cambridge was put together, led by Michael Ashburner and John Sulston and supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council. To strengthen the bid the Wellcome Trust purchased the Hinxton site, which was being leased as a location for the Sanger Centre, to provide the EMBL-EBI with a permanent location next to the large sequencing centre. This bid was chosen by the EMBL Council in 1992 and in the following years activities were gradually moved to Hinxton, with the EMBL-EBI's inauguration taking place on 19 March 1996.

A video of Sulston being interviewed about the development of the EMBL-EBI can be found on the vimeo website