What Is EMBL, Where Is It Headquartered, and What Does Each of Its Six Sites Study?
EMBL (the European Molecular Biology Laboratory) is an intergovernmental molecular biology research organisation founded in 1974, headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, and supported by more than 30 countries. It operates six sites across Europe, each with its own research focus. If you want to know what EMBL is as an institution and what distinguishes its locations, the key facts are below.
What EMBL is
EMBL describes itself as "Europe's life sciences laboratory." Its stated mission has three parts:
- Promoting molecular biology research in Europe
- Training young scientists
- Developing new technologies
It is an intergovernmental organisation rather than a single university or company, which is why it is funded and supported by more than 30 countries and staffed by thousands of scientists and engineers working across its sites.
Where EMBL is headquartered
The headquarters is in Heidelberg, Germany, where the organisation was founded in 1974. Heidelberg is also one of the six EMBL sites, so the headquarters and a research location are in the same city.
EMBL's six sites and what each one studies
EMBL's work is distributed across six locations in Europe. The site pages on EMBL.org group research by location, and each site has a distinct specialisation.
| Site | Country | Research focus (as described by EMBL) |
|---|---|---|
| Heidelberg | Germany | Headquarters; core molecular biology research and central services |
| Barcelona | Spain | How tissues and organs develop and function in health and disease |
| Other four sites | Across Europe | Additional specialised research areas listed on EMBL's site pages |
For Barcelona specifically, EMBL states: "At EMBL Barcelona we study how tissues and organs develop and function in health and disease." This makes it the site to look at if your interest is tissue and organ development, or the mechanisms behind health and disease at that level.
The remaining sites cover other areas of molecular biology, including fields such as cell biology, biophysics, developmental biology, and chemistry. EMBL's own site pages list the current research focus for each location, and those pages are the most reliable place to confirm a specific site's direction, since research priorities can evolve.
How to use this if you are deciding where to look
- If you want the institutional overview, funding structure, and history, start with the Heidelberg headquarters information.
- If your interest is tissue and organ development in health and disease, Barcelona is the relevant site.
- If your interest is another subfield, check the individual site pages on EMBL.org, because each of the six sites specialises rather than duplicating the same work.
EMBL also runs events across its six sites, so if you are looking for talks, training, or conferences rather than research groups, the events listings are organised by location as well.