The Legal Services support the Laboratory to fulfil its mission, enable EMBL scientists to focus on and deliver world-class science, while promoting and protecting EMBL’s interests in all legal matters, both internally and externally.
The range of areas on which the Legal Services advise is extensive and manifold, reaching from institutional matters, grants and consortia agreements, collaborative and commercial agreements, labour law, litigation and arbitration, to relations to host countries, Member States, and European Union institutions, and other national and international research actors/bodies.
The Legal Services are based at the headquarters in Heidelberg, providing legal support to all six EMBL sites, being assisted by legal officers at the UK sites in Hinxton, and in Barcelona, Spain.
EMBL was established by virtue of the “Agreement establishing the European Molecular Biology Laboratory”, which was concluded at Geneva (Switzerland) on 10 May 1973 – registered by the Government of Switzerland with the Secretariat of the United Nations in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations of 14 November 1974 (United Nations Treaty Series No. 13668, Vol. 954, I-13668).
Agreement establishing the European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The states in which EMBL is situated have concluded Host Site Agreements with the Laboratory. Those agreements relate to the status, privileges and immunities of EMBL and its staff, which are necessary for the fulfillment of its objectives and for the exercise of its functions.
EMBL Heidelberg Meyerhofstr. 1 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 6221 387-8302 E-mail: legal@embl.org
With more than 200 staff, in all support areas, ranging from caretakers and gardeners to senior management staff, EMBL Administration provides administrative support to more than 1600 members of personnel from in excess of 75 nations.