The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI)
A New EMBL Outstation
EMBL Press Release
Heidelberg, 9 March 1993
The EMBL Council decided today that its recently announced Outstation,
the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) will be located near
Cambridge in the UK. Its goal will be to ensure that the growing body
of information from molecular biology and genome research is
conveniently accessible to all facets of the European scientific and
biotechnology community in ways which promote scientific progress and
global competitiveness. The EBI will expand on the work of the EMBL
Data Library, which was established more than a decade ago to build a
database of nucleotide sequences, and today supplies this and many other
kinds of biological information to scientists throughout the world.
Today's competitive biological research and biotechnology industries are
crucially dependent on up-to-date information. Modern research
scientists and biotechnologists are becoming intensive users of
electronic information resources - computers, software, networks and
databases, and the EBI will be a European focus for the development of
and access to products and services based on these technologies.
The EBI will continue the Data Library's work in preparing and
distributing databases of biological interest in collaboration with an
extensive network of other independent European centres. It will expand
in areas crucial to the long-term achievement of this service goal,
which include: technology tracking in biology and informatics, research
and development, training and user support. Specific areas for research
will include comparison algorithms, networked information resources, and
new database design.
Within two years the EBI will employ almost 70 scientific and technical
staff in a custom-designed building on the Genome Campus at Hinxton
Park, south of Cambridge. The site already houses the Sanger Centre,
directed by Dr. John Sulston, which specialises in genome-scale
sequencing.
After evaluation of very credible offers from Germany, Sweden and the
United Kingdom, the decision on the UK location was reached at the EMBL
Council meeting of March 9. Strong commitment from the UK Government
and scientific community resulted in a proposal from the Medical
Research Council in partnership with the Wellcome Trust to provide
excellent facilities for the new EMBL Outstation. The British
Government has furthermore committed itself to conclude an agreement
with EMBL such that the EBI will enjoy the same privileges as EMBL has
in Germany and France.
The major part of the EBI operating budget is expected to come from EMBL
and the Commission of the European Communities (EC) both of which
finance the present Data Library. DG XII of the EC has been a strong
supporter of bioinformatics throughout Europe and especially the work at
EMBL.
EMBL is an international, intergovernmental organisation dedicated to
basic research, advanced training and the provision of services in
molecular biology. It was founded in 1973 and has become one of the
premier biological research centres in the world. The EBI is the third
Outstation of EMBL; the other two, located in Hamburg, FRG, and
Grenoble, France, provide facilities for the analysis of biological
structures at the atomic level. The EBI like the other two Outstations
will be administered by EMBL.
