“I am confident [this] will set the stage for even better and more fruitful cooperation between us,” Geoghegan-Quinn said at the signing ceremony at EMBL’s laboratory in Heidelberg. The European Commission is EMBL’s single largest external funding body, with a contribution of Euro 12.4 million in 2010.
“As the European intergovernmental institution for molecular life sciences, EMBL has extensive scientific and technical expertise, coupled with years of success empowering life scientists from European countries to conduct cutting-edge research at state-of-the art research infrastructures,” Mattaj said.
The agreement signed in Heidelberg, reinforces the aims of the 1995 administrative agreement between the Commission and EMBL, and updates it in keeping with the evolution of the European Commission and the research landscape in Europe over the past 15 years.
The two parties pledged to consolidate and further develop the European Research Area, notably in the areas of research programming, training and mobility of researchers, research infrastructures, management of intellectual property and international collaboration.
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