Origin
Origin of EMBRC
Marine biodiversity constitutes the richest and most diverse source of organisms on Earth. Oceans and seas occupy approximately 70% of the surface of the planet.
But what do we know about all of the various ecosystems that constitute the entire marine environment? Can understanding them help to improve our lives? Do they produce useful molecules, substances, or could they yield new discoveries that would be useful for living populations?
EMBRC believes that marine environments promise new breakthroughs. This statement originates from 125 years of research tradition of marine biological research institutes in Europe which have contributed to increasing scientific knowledge. A great deal of new data can be closely linked to adapted infrastructures and renowned human expertise.
Now it's time for research teams to get together to share knowledge, competences, and high level technologies to better exploit marine resources. Better sharing means more intelligent exploitation and better care of sustainable resources.
21st marine biology
The marine biology of the 21st century
Marine biology is currently experiencing ground-breaking technological and theoretical advances, more particularly those associated with state-of-the-art omics approaches. Research is moving to a mechanistic and predictive phase, called “marine systems biology”, which provides new opportunities across the range of academy, industry and government user communities.The need for integrated study in marine biology is becoming increasingly compelling as global warming and ocean acidification start affecting whole environments. In parallel, the pressure on stocks of commercial marine bio-resources is rapidly escalating, thus increasing focus on aquaculture alternatives, and shedding light onto biotechnological interest in the extremely diverse pool of materials, molecules, and genes from marine organisms.
Based on these observations, numerous European marine biological stations have started to get organised in consortiums to offer answers and solutions to these issues. To share knowledge and mutualise human resources and facilities, some stations have built a transnational access infrastructure: ASSEMBLE (Association of European Marine Biological Laboratories).
EMBRC constitutes a step further in the creation of a coherent pan-European strategy to interconnect, harmonise, and upgrade the actual infrastructures and common services it can provide to society. Aside this benefit for the society, the objective is also to improve the European research and industrial competitiveness, thus answering the expectations of the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures).
The ESFRI mission consists in supporting “a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy-making on research infrastructures in Europe, and to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures, at EU and international level”.
EMBRC & BMS
EMBRC, an answer to the ESFRI and BMS-RI challenges
Marine organisms become more and more important for Research and Technological Development (RTD) and Innovation in the life-sciences as biological models and sources of innovative products and services with applications across society. However, marine biodiversity constitutes an under-used resource within the ERA (European Research Area). This statement has initiated the preparation of EMBRC.
EMBRC is integrated in the Biological and Medical Sciences (BMS) Thematic Working Group of the ESFRI. It is based on rapid progress in the field of genomics, which has transformed the nature of European marine laboratories over the last 10 years by opening up new opportunities and model organisms for basic and applied research.
BMS Grand Challenges © BMS, RI
In 8 European countries, 13 partners institutes founded in the 19th century are now developing and applying new technologies and facilities to provide services to the society.
