Leveraging National Investment

EMBL’s infrastructural excellence is a critical component of its success. Today’s EMBL Group Leaders have full access to in-house Advanced Light Microscopy, Genomics, Proteomics, Protein Expression and Purification, Electron Microscopy, Flow Cytometry, Monoclonal Antibody production, Chemical Biology and Mouse Transgenic Services. Given the fractured nature of European science over the past three decades, these infrastructural features had to be built from within EMBL, at great expense. Conversely in the EMBL Australia Scientific Program, capitalisation on existing national research infrastructural assets, established largely through recent NCRIS initiatives, constitutes an enormous advantage and is a tribute to the foresight of Australian research funding policy. To cite several examples, the availability of high throughput sequencing and analysis through AGRF, nanoscale characterisation and analysis at the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research facility (AMMRF), state-of-the-art synchrotron science at the Australia Synchrotron and supercomputing services through the proposed Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative at the University of Melbourne the proposed and supercomputing in Melbourne, and stem cell resources at the Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne and Queensland - all leverage national investment, minimize risk and avoid unnecessary redundancy in setting up the EMBL Australia Partner Laboratory Network. More locally, national and State governmental programs have provided ample accommodation for EMBL Australia Headquarters at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute. Thus the EMBL Australia Scientific Program takes full advantage of national investment in life science.