About EMBL-EBI and our role in Europe

The roots of the EMBL-EBI lie in the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library (now known as the European Nucleotide Archive), which was established in 1980 at the EMBL laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany and was the world's first nucleotide sequence database. The original goal was to establish a central computer database of DNA sequences, rather than have scientists submit sequences to journals. What began as a modest task of abstracting information from literature soon became a major database activity with direct electronic submissions of data and the need for highly skilled informatics staff. The task grew in scale with the start of the genome projects, and grew in visibility as the data became relevant to research in the commercial sector. It soon became apparent that the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library needed better financial security to ensure its long-term viability and to cope with the sheer scale of the task.

There was also a need for research and development to provide services, to collaborate with global partners to support the project, and to provide assistance to industry. To this end, in 1992, the EMBL Council voted to establish the European Bioinformatics Institute and to locate it at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in the United Kingdom where it would be in close proximity to the major sequencing efforts at the Sanger Institute. From 1992 through to 1995, a gradual transition of the activities in Heidelberg took place, until in September 1995 the EMBL-EBI occupied its current location on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus.

When the EMBL-EBI moved to Hinxton it hosted two databases, one for nucleotide sequences (the EMBL Data Library, now known as the European Nucleotide Archive) and one for protein sequences (Swiss-Prot–TrEMBL, now known as UniProt). Since then, the EMBL-EBI has helped to lead the bioinformatics revolution: we have diversified to provide data resources in all the major molecular domains, expanded to include a broad research base, developed unique ways of supporting our users, and we offer advanced training in bioinformatics.