European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)

EMBL-EBI, founded in 1994, provides data services and training that help scientists realise the potential of ‘big data’ in the biological sciences, paving the way for discoveries that benefit humankind.

EMBL-EBI is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences. EMBL is an intergovernmental organisation funded by 22 member states, two associate member states and three prospect member states. Its main laboratory is located in Heidelberg, Germany. EMBL’s site in Monterotondo, Rome specialises in neurobiology, and its sites in Grenoble, France and Hamburg, Germany specialise in structural biology.

EMBL-EBI’s co-location with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute offers vital synergies. EMBL-EBI provides freely available data from life sciences research and maintains the world’s most comprehensive range of open access molecular databases, used by millions of researchers in academia and industry, globally.

EMBL-EBI data services

EMBL-EBI helps researchers to get the most out of publicly available data resources through its extensive user-training programme. EMB-EBI’s training, knowledge exchange and scientific engagement activities reach more than 10,000 people around the world every year. More than 200,000 people access EMBL-EBI online training annually.

EMBL-EBI Training Programme

EMBL-EBI has been leading computational biology research since its inception, with deep involvement in large-scale endeavours such as the Human and Mouse Genome Projects, and publishing seminal works in structural biology, chemical biology and single-cell genomics.

EMBL-EBI Research Programme

An important part of EMBL-EBI’s mission is to disseminate cutting-edge technologies to industry. Since 1996, EMBL-EBI’s Industry Programme has been helping companies make the most of advances in bioinformatics and cheminformatics. The programme’s 26 members include large pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic companies, agri-food companies and companies specialising in personal care. EMBL-EBI also encourages spin-outs with the help of its Technology Transfer office, EMBLEM.

EMBL-EBI Industry Programme

EMBL-EBI is supported by EMBL member states, the European Commission, the US National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust, the UK Research Councils led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and its 26 Industry Programme member companies.