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People, Processes, & Places

EMBL is a community of hard-working individuals – each essential to pursuing organisational missions.

As an intergovernmental organisation that delivers world-class life sciences research, training, and services, EMBL is committed to further modernising operations to ensure its operating model, systems and processes, and facilities support EMBL’s innovative, collaborative culture.

In 2023, EMBL’s diverse personnel spanned roles involving research, scientific services, technical or scientific support, training and outreach, administrative support, and other general support, such as communications. 

The EMBL community goes far beyond those currently working and studying here. Our alumni, who go on to have wide-ranging impacts around the world, are the greatest evidence of the unwavering strength and influence of EMBL as a world-class scientific institute. EMBL supports and celebrates its alumni, updating them on EMBL opportunities, resources, and networks to benefit our special community and European life sciences.

EMBL is apt to lead in many areas, making it an exemplary place to work, study, or do world-class research. 

This page is devoted to some of the highlights from 2023 related to people, processes, and places that make EMBL the successful organisation that it is.

“I’ve been very lucky to work with such brilliant minds every day at EMBL-EBI….The launch of ELIXIR was the first step towards building a distributed infrastructure for biological information throughout Europe.”

– Janet Thornton, EMBL-EBI Director 2001-2015, reflecting on her leadership roles at EMBL-EBI, which included establishing ELIXIR, an intergovernmental organisation that brings together life science data resources from across Europe. She retired from EMBL-EBI as a senior scientist in 2023.

How we do science

Scientific excellence thrives when the organisation thrives. EMBL continues to prioritise and advance many initiatives, including those in sustainability; equality, diversity, and inclusion, and bioethics.

Sustainability Report 2023

EMBL staff continued to reduce the organisation’s environmental impacts. The Sustainability Office helped roll out the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), setting and achieving the goal of having all wet research and service labs signed up to LEAF in 2023 – 82 in total. Of those, 70% achieved a certification. Additionally, EMBL set a target to reduce energy use by 15% in 2023, compared to 2021, and ultimately reduced total energy consumption by 18%.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion at EMBL in 2023

EMBL continued to further implement its Gender Equality Plan. Internally, the EDI team offered guidance to more than 120 EMBL colleagues. It also established an EDI resource collection in Szilard Library. Externally, EMBL provided EDI-themed panels for scientific conferences; it served as consultant to European partners with less mature EDI structures, and it exchanged EDI knowledge and experience among European scientific networks.

Bioethics Services: 2023 in focus

A new EMBL Ethics Academy will now provide a range of courses within the broad areas of bioethics, data and tech ethics, and workplace ethics. Additionally, EMBL’s 23rd Science and Society Conference looked at the historical context of the intersection between research and ethics, as well as the fast pace of emerging ethical challenges in life sciences. The conference used two case studies – technology ethics and organoid research – to spur discussion.

Names and faces

EMBL’s alumni are a network of highly trained scientists and other professionals, 82.5% of whom live in EMBL member states or associate member states. These alumni bring the EMBL model of research to member state institutions and help to connect local scientific communities with EMBL’s research, services, and training. In 2023, approximately 1,335 alumni engaged in approximately 2,500 activities across EMBL sites as ambassadors, participants, volunteers, and donors.

Anne Ephrussi looks ahead at next chapter

From leading EMBL’s developmental biology research unit to setting new directions for the organisation’s training offerings, Anne Ephrussi made an indelible mark on European life sciences.

EMBL Alumni Awards Announced for 2023

Two former EMBL scientists were recognised for outstanding contributions to the fields of science communication and multiple sequence alignment research, respectively.

EMBL evolving

Among other indicators of EMBL’s continued growth were two important milestones from our sites in 2023: celebration of EMBL Barcelona’s fifth anniversary and the groundbreaking for the futuristic and environmentally sustainable Thornton Building at EMBL-EBI.

People, Processes, & Places in Numbers

Gender Distribution at EMBL

EMBL aims to be transparent about its gender distribution. While gender distribution is balanced across the organisation as a whole, the EDI strategy aims to balance the inequalities seen in some staff categories.

Staff total: Female 49% Male 51% Area distribution by percentage (Female to Male): 50:50 Research 39:61 Scientific services 32:68 Scientific or technical support 79:21 Training and outreach 74:26 Administrative support 54:46 General support

Footnote: One personnel member identified as non-binary

A more sustainable EMBL

EMBL-wide energy-saving measures significantly reduced total energy usage compared to 2019 – the baseline year for EMBL’s sustainability strategy. The results reflect EMBL’s commitment to reduce its environmental impact and embrace sustainability practices. Additionally, 100% of its labs have adopted energy-saving measures as ‘LEAF’ labs.

18% reduction in energy related carbon footprint 70% reduction of CO2 from business travel 30% reduction in residual waste

EMBL Alumni Relations 

Of EMBL’s 6,423 alumni with known location, 82.5% live in EMBL member states or associate member states. 

81.5% residing in Europe 12.2% residing in North America 3.6% residing in Asia 1.8% residing in Oceania 0.7% residing in South America 0.2% residing in Africa

Personnel

Total 1,996 in full-time equivalents (FTE)

Personnel categories
261 Postdocs 240 PhD students 122 Supernumeraries and ancillaries 98 Diploma students and trainees
Staff classification
783 Research 537 Scientific services 259 Scientific or technical support 122 Training and outreach 161 Administrative support 134 General support
Staff nationalities
1349 EMBL member or associate member states 6 EMBL prospect member states 641 Non-member states

Financial report

Member states provide the majority of EMBL funding, with additional external support from a wide range of grant-endowing bodies and philanthropic contributions.

EMBL total income

€345 million

40% Member state contributions 9% Member state special contributions-1 21% External grant funding 4% Other external grant funding-2 26% Other receipts3
External grant funding

€72.4 million

21% NIH 23% EC 7% ERC 14% Wellcome Trust 7% BBSRC 7% BMBF 5% DFG 15% Others

1. Includes additional contributions from the UK government for the Technical Hub and European Data Centre on the EMBL-EBI campus.
2. Includes ELIXIR member state contributions.
3. Includes items such as philanthropic donations, contributions from EMBO, course and conference fees, internal tax, and income from the Heidelberg canteen, cafeteria, and guesthouses.

Member state contributions
Ordinary contributions X €1,000 % Austria 2,966 2.2 % Belgium 3,604 2.7 % Croatia 381 0.3 % Czech Republic 1,538 1.2 % Denmark 2,461 1.8 % Estonia 61 <0,1% Finland 1,759 1.3 % France 18,622 13.9 % Germany 27,690 20.7 % Greece 1,360 1.0 % Hungary 989 0.7 % Iceland 176 0.1 % Ireland 1,744 1.3 % Israel 2,867 2.2 % Italy 13,812 10.3 % Lithuania 307 0.2 % Luxembourg 328 0.3 % Malta 100 0.1 % Montenegro 34 <0.1 % Netherlands 6,282 4.7 % Norway 2,816 2.1 % Poland 3,247 2.4 % Portugal 1,491 1.1 % Slovakia 704 0.5 % Spain 9,751 7.3 % Sweden 3,822 2.9 % Switzerland 4,990 3.7 % United Kingdom 19,819 14.8 % Total 133,721 100 Currency adjustment X €1,000 For sterling adjustments (1,311) Entry fees Estonia 45 Lithuania 66 Poland 733 Total 844 Associate member state contributions Australia 3,507 Total 3,507 Additional contributions United Kingdom Total 31,238

EMBL total expenditure

EMBL’s expenditure prioritises research, scientific services, and training activities – all of which are geared towards collaborating with, scientifically supporting, or training member state scientists.

€347 million

Expenditure
Expenditures 61% Staff costs 32% Operating costs 7% Equipment expenditures, including depreciation
Expenditure by area of activity
32% Research 28% Scientific services 11% Scientific or technical support 7% Training and outreach 10% Administrative support 12% General support
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