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ABSTRACT
This article reconstructs the complex diplomatic negotiations that led to the peculiar organization of molecular biology at the European level, by focusing in particular on the establishment of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), the intergovernmental structure founded in 1969–70 to support the scientific program of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). By combining the analysis of the informal decision-making kept in the Nobel Prize laureate John C. Kendrew’s personal papers (Oxford) with the in-depth exploration of the institutional documentation available in the EMBO and CERN archives (Heidelberg and Geneva) and the Swiss Federal Archives (Bern), the article sheds light on the importance of the EMBC not only for the construction of molecular biology as a scientific, social, and political field in the European context, but also for the broader process of definition of the European research policy. Far from being just a mere replica of CERN, the EMBO/EMBC inaugurated in fact an alternative and flexible ‘bottom-up’ model of science policy in the European context, based on competition, networking, and scientific excellence, which paved the way to the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) in the early 2000s.
Acknowledgements
The materials presented in this article have been partially explored in a shorter version, discussed as F. Cassata, B. Strasser, The Foundation of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), 1963-69, on the occasion of the EMBO-EMBL Anniversary Science and Policy Meeting, held in Heidelberg on 3 July 2014. I would like to express my gratitude to Bruno Strasser for his support, early revision, and comments on this article.
The 2023 Sidney Brenner Research Fellowship of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was essential for the completion of this research.
I extend my thanks to Colin Harris (Special Collections, Bodleian Library Oxford), Marlies Hertig (Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv BAR, Bern), Bettina Trueb (EMBO, Heidelberg), Tilmann Kiessling (EMBO, Heidelberg) and Maria Papanikolaou (EMBL, Heidelberg) for their excellent archival assistance. I am also indebted to Michele Garfinkel, Nikolai Krementsov, and Gerlind Wallon for their helpful and constructive feedback on earlier drafts of the article.
Finally, I am grateful for the insightful comments offered by the anonymous peer reviewers, which helped improve the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In April 1970, when the EMBC Agreement entered into force, the Conference included twelve western European states, Israel, and the Fonds National pour la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) for Belgium. National delegations included science administrators and leading molecular biologists (often EMBO members).
2 In the official documentation of the Swiss State, the correct reference is Federal Political Department (DPF). The office involved in the negotiations was the DPF Division of International Organizations. In EMBO correspondence they were referred to as the ‘Swiss Foreign Office’ or ‘Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs’.
3 EMBO Archive, Ceremony of Signing the Agreement Establishing the European Molecular Biology Conference, 13 February 1969 (CEBM 69/50 E), p. 9.
4 Kendrew Papers, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts (hereafter KP), MSS.Eng.c.2442, H. Voirier to J. C. Kendrew, M. F. Perutz, J. Wyman, and R. K. Appleyard, 30 January 1969.
5 KP. MSS.Eng.c.2422, J. Wyman, Memorandum of the meeting with Volkswagen in Hannover, December 3, 1965, 6 December 1965; R. K. Appleyard to M. L. Zarnitz, 26 July 1971. On the role of the Volkswagen Foundation in the creation of German molecular biology see Herbert Gottweis, Governing Molecules. The Discursive Politics of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States (Cambridge, MA, and London: The MIT Press, 1998), pp. 70–72; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, ‘Die Stiftung Volkswagenwerk und die neue Biologie: Streiflichter auf eine Förderbiographie’, in Impulse geben – Wissen stiften: 40 Jahre Volkswagenstiftung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002), pp. 197–235.
6 These contributions helped EMBO to survive administratively and to start its fellowships program on a small scale. In 1965, through the good offices of EMBO Council member E. Katchalski, the National Council for Research and Development, headed by the microbiologist Alexander Keynan, provided EMBO with a grant of $10,000: see EMBO Archive, Minutes of the EMBO Council meeting held on May, 8-9-10th, 1965, at CERN, Geneva, p. 1. The Italian National Research Council supported two EMBO postdoctoral fellowships for candidates wishing to work at the International Laboratory of Genetics and Biophysics in Naples: see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2423, A. Buzzati-Traverso to M. F. Perutz, 22 December 1964. Other two EMBO fellowships were granted by Swedish medical and natural research councils in 1966-67: see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2423, A. Engström to J. C. Kendrew, 4 October 1965.
7 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2423, M. F. Perutz to A. Buzzati-Traverso, 5 August 1964.
8 Kent Zetterberg, The Nordic Countries and EMBO, EMBC, EMBL. The decision-making process 1965–1973 on the participation in the European molecular biology research co-operation, FEK-Report 8, 1976.
9 EMBO Archive, Miscellaneous Correspondence A-K, L. Doughty to R. K. Appleyard, 5 May 1951. Part of the research was published in: Linda Drath, Michael Gibbons, and Jarlath Ronayne, ‘The European Molecular Biology Organisation: A Case-Study of Decision-Making in Science Policy’, Research Policy, 4 (1975), 56–78.
10 Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Inventer la biomédecine : la France, l’Amérique et la production des savoirs du vivant (1945-1965) (Paris: La Découverte, 2002); Soraya de Chadarevian, Designs for life: molecular biology after World War II (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ute Deichmann, ‘Emigration, Isolation and the Slow Start of Molecular Biology in Germany’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 33C.3 (2002), 449–71; María Jesús Santesmases, ‘National Politics and International Trends: EMBO and the Making of Molecular Biology in Spain (1960–1975)’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 33C.3 (2002), 473–87; Bruno J. Strasser, La fabrique d’une nouvelle science. La biologie moléculaire à l’âge atomique (1945-1964) (Florence: Olschki, 2006); Francesco Cassata, L’Italia intelligente. Adriano Buzzati-Traverso e il Laboratorio internazionale di genetica e biofisica, 1962–1969 (Rome: Donzelli, 2013). For a comparative perspective: Soraya de Chadarevian, Bruno J. Strasser, ‘Molecular Biology in Post-War Europe: Towards a “Glocal” Picture’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 33 C.3 (2002), 361–65.
11 See in particular: John Krige, ‘The Birth of EMBO and the Difficult Road to EMBL’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 33C.3 (2002), 547–64; Bruno J. Strasser, ‘Institutionalizing Molecular Biology in Post-War Europe: A Comparative Study’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 33C.3 (2002), 515–46; Bruno J. Strasser, ‘The Transformation of the Biological Sciences in Post-War Europe’, EMBO Reports, 4.6 (2003), 540–43; John Krige, ‘European Molecular Biology Organisation/Laboratory (EMBO/EMBL)’, in eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester (June 2013); F. Cassata, ‘“A Cold Spring Harbor in Europe”. EURATOM, UNESCO and the Foundation of EMBO’, Journal of the History of Biology, 48.4 (2015), 539–73. For a general overview, based on oral history interviews, see Georgina Ferry, EMBO in perspective. A half-century in the life sciences (Heidelberg: EMBO 2014).
12 History of CERN, ed. by John Krige and others, 3 vols (Amsterdam-New York: North Holland, 1987-1995).
13 John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space 1960–1973. From ESRO and ELDO to ESA (Noordwijk: ESA, 1994); John Krige, A History of the European Space Agency, 1958–1987 (Noordwijk: ESA, 2000).
14 For a discussion on Europeanization from a historical perspective, see Europeanization in the Twentieth Century: Historical Approaches, ed. by Martin Conway and Kiran Klaus Patel (New York: Palgrave, 2010). For the role of technology in the ‘hidden integration’ of Europe: Thomas J. Misa, Johan Schot, ‘Inventing Europe: Technology and Hidden Integration of Europe’, History and Technology, 21 (2005), 1–19; see also the six volumes in the book series Making Europe: Technology and Transformations, 1859–2000, edited by Johan Schot and Philip Scranton. www.makingeurope.eu; http://www.tensionsofeurope.eu/. For a synthesis focused mainly on nuclear physics and space research, see: John Krige, ‘The Politics of European Scientific Collaboration’, in Companion to Science in the Twentieth Century, ed. by John Krige and Dominique Pestre (London-New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 897–918. Cursory references to EMBO/EMBC/EMBL can be found in the literature on the origins of the EC/EU research policy as well as in studies on the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC): see, for instance, Towards European Science. Dynamics and Policy of an Evolving European Research Space, ed. by Linda Wedlin and Maria Nedeva (Cheltenham and Northampton: Edvard Elgar Publishing, 2015); Tim Flink, Die Entstehung des Europäischen Forschungsrates: Marktimperative – Geostrategie – Frontier Research (Weiserswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2016); Thomas König, The European Research Council (Cambridge, UK-Malden, US: Polity Press, 2017).
15 Pnina Abir-Am, ‘From Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Transnational Objectivity: International Space as Constitutive of Molecular Biology’, in Denationalizing science. The contexts of international scientific practice, ed. by Elisabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn and Sverker Sörlin (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993), pp. 153–86. The historiography on scientists as international policy makers and institution builders is vast. For an overview of this literature, see in particular: Simone Turchetti, Néstor Herran, Soraya Boudia, ‘Introduction: Have We ever been Transnational? Towards a History of Science Across and Beyond Borders’, British Journal for the History of Science, 45.3 (2012), 319–36.
16 How Knowledge Moves: Writing the Transnational History of Science and Technology, ed. by John Krige (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2019); Knowledge Flows in a Global Age. A Transnational Approach, ed. by John Krige (Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2022).
17 On the importance of bringing histories of science diplomacy into conversation with more general contemporary history, see Sönke Kunkel, ‘Science Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century: Introduction’, Journal of Contemporary History, 56 (2021), 473–84.
18 Peter M. Haas, ‘Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination’, International Organization, 46.1 (1992), 1–35.
19 De Chadarevian, Designs for Life, p. 335.
20 Claudia Hiepel, ‘Introduction’, in Europe in a Globalizing World. Global Challenges and European Responses in the ‘long’ 1970s, ed. by Claudia Hiepel (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2014), pp. 9–23.
21 In February 1964, when Eduard Kellenberger, a physicist himself, anticipated the first concrete steps required to ensure EMBO’s future, he clearly echoed the institutional structure of the CERN Council. See KP, MSS.Eng.c.2423, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 5 February 1964. On the role of the physicist Victor F. Weisskopf, CERN’s Director General, in endorsing the idea of an international laboratory of molecular biology modelled on CERN and located in Geneva, see Krige, ‘The birth of EMBO and the difficult road to EMBL.’
22 Krige, ‘European Molecular Biology Organisation/Laboratory (EMBO/EMBL)’, p. 5.
23 John Tooze, ‘The role of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) in European Molecular Biology’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29 (1989), S38–S46.
24 Two ‘preliminary’ sessions of the EMBC, respectively in April 1967 and January 1968, prepared the formal establishment of the EMBC in February 1969. The terms ‘preliminary’ (or ‘temporary’) and ‘permanent’ (or ‘standing’) are adopted in the archival documentation we consulted.
25 See on this: Cassata, ‘“A Cold Spring Harbor in Europe”’, pp. 541–43.
26 Strasser, ‘Institutionalizing Molecular Biology in Post-War Europe’, pp. 515–46.
27 Ibid., pp. 530–33.
28 See on this Pnina G. Abir-Am, ‘The Politics of Macromolecules: Molecular Biologists, Biochemists, and Rhetoric’, Osiris, 7 (1992), 164–91.
29 EMBO Archive, Minutes of the meeting of Council held at CERN, Geneva, on February 2, 1964, p. 1.
30 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2437, J. Wyman to R. K. Appleyard, 15 July 1964.
31 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2437, R. K. Appleyard to Max F. Perutz, 23 November 1964.
32 On several occasions, Raymond K. Appleyard defined EMBO as an ‘elective-style academy’: see, for example, KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, R. K. Appleyard to J. Wyman, 23 January 1966.
33 Bruno J. Strasser, ‘The Coproduction of Neutral Science and Neutral State in Cold War Europe: Switzerland and International Scientific Cooperation, 1951–69’, Osiris, 24.1 (2009), 165–87 (p. 167).
34 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2424, M. F. Perutz to M. R. Pollock, 17 March 1964. Pollock was head of the Division of bacterial physiology at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London.
35 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 1 May 1964; emphasis in the original.
36 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2422, J. Wyman to M. F. Perutz, 9 March 1964.
37 KP, MSS. Eng.c.2422, C. Sadron to M. F. Perutz, 13 March 1964; E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 10 March 1964; O. Maaløe, 2 March 1964; A. Tiselius to M. F. Perutz, 4 March 1964.
38 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, M. F. Perutz to C. Sadron, 4 May 1964.
39 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 1 May 1964.
40 Between 1966 and 1969, Kendrew and Wyman engaged in preliminary discussions with representatives of the NIH and the Ford Foundation, but they did not yield any concrete results. See on this: KP, MSS.Eng.c.2423.
41 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, Minutes of the EMBO Council meeting held at CERN on January 15, 1966.
42 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, C. Sadron to M. F. Perutz, 29 April 1964.
43 CERN Archives, CERN/SPC/180/Draft, Minutes of the 29th meeting of the CERN Scientific Policy Committee (Geneva, 25 February 1964), p. 9: ‘Mr. Bannier [President of the Council] proposed that CERN should put at the disposal of the European biologists facilities for organizing conferences, but that it should not become involved in any possible negotiations with governments’. See also CERN/CC/548/Draft. Minutes of the 42nd meeting of the CERN Committee of Council (Geneva, 21 April 1964).
44 Peter Tindemans, ‘Post-War Research, Education and Innovation Policy-Making in Europe’, in European Science and Technology Policy: Towards Integration or Fragmentation?, ed. by Henri Delanghe, Ugur Muldur, and Luc Soete (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2009), p. 8.
45 See Matthias Schmelzer, The Hegemony of Growth. The OECD and the Making of the Economic Growth Paradigm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 208–14; Veera Mitzner, European Union Research Policy. Contested Origins (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 35–51; Benoît Godin, Measurements and Statistics on Science and Technology: 1930 to the Present (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 218–37.
46 The Committee comprised rectors of universities and civil servants from the State Departments of Education of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, West Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. Full list of representatives is available in KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420.
47 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, C. Sadron to M. F. Perutz, 8 April 1965.
48 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, A. Frank to M. F. Perutz, 12 January 1965.
49 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, M. F. Perutz, to H. A. Schwarz-Liebermann (head of the Committee for Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe), 27 July 1964; A. Frank to M. F. Perutz, 1 May 1964.
50 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 19 November 1964.
51 See, for instance, Maaløe’s report about the UK reaction at the Aarhus meeting of the Council of Europe: ‘It seems that, as so often before, the British representative was hesitant and worried in the usual way about possible ill effects in the universities’ (KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, O. Maaløe to M. F. Perutz, 24 October 1964.
52 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, F. Jacob to M. F. Perutz, 15 April 1964.
53 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2418, J. C. Kendrew to V. Weisskopf, 15 May 1963.
54 CERN Archives, B12, DG20683: Summary of a Project for a World Health Research Centre, 7 August 1963.
55 In May 1964, a meeting of the EMBO Laboratory Committee was held in Geneva, under WHO sponsorship, to discuss the WHRC project and its relationship with EMBO plans: see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2434, Minutes on a Meeting on an International Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Geneva 1–2 May 1964.
56 EMBO Archive, Meeting of EMBO Council at Geneva on 2 February 1964, p. 2.
57 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2418, J. C. Kendrew to A. Engström, 30 August 1963.
58 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, M. F. P. (Perutz), Meeting of Kendrew and Myself with Representatives of UNESCO and of the Princess Liliane Foundation at Brussels on May 3, 1964.
59 Dominique Pestre, The first suggestions, 1949 – June 1950, in History of CERN, v. 1 Launching the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, ed. by Armin Hermann, John Krige, Ulrike Mersits, Dominique Pestre (Amsterdam-New York: North Holland, 1987), pp. 63-95.
60 UNESCO Archive, 576,3 A01 ICRO/06 ‘_66’, Part I – up to 31/12/1962, Constitutive meeting of the International Cell Research Organization (Icro), Paris, 19–22 June 1962, Draft Report.
61 Nobel Prize winner in 1960, Medawar was director of the UK National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill (London); Louis Armand was President of the Council of the Ecole Polytechnique. The other members of the ILSI Executive Committee were: Hubert Ansiaux, governor of the Belgian National Bank; Fernand Collin, chairman of the Kredietbank and head of the Princess Lilian Foundation; Hugo Theorell, head of the Biochemical Department of the Nobel Medical Institute in Stockholm and chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee, For the ILSI project and the list of members of the Governing Board and the Executive Committee, see: KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, The ILSI Project. An outline of the project for the establishment in Belgium of an International Life Sciences Institute.
62 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, A. Kepes to J. Kendrew, 11 December 1963. In May 1964, Jeffries Wyman endorsed the UNESCO solution on the grounds of the previous experience of CERN: ‘My friend Waterfield, who acted as one of the negotiators when CERN was being launched, tells me UNESCO really was of very considerable help’: see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Wyman to M. F. Perutz, 4 May 1964.
63 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, C. H. Waddington to J. Kendrew, 21 September 1963. In Waddington’s words: ‘Some of the ICRO people wanted to absorb EMBO, and there was some feeling that EMBO was a rival organisation. (…) In my opinion it would be a mistake to try to act in opposition to it, or quite independently of it, and better to set up EMBO as an independent regional organisation which could become affiliated to ICRO’.
64 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, J. Kendrew to O. Mühlbock (ICRO), 2 March 1964.
65 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, B. Keil to J. Kendrew, 2 April 1964.
66 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2422, J. Wyman to M. F. Perutz, 9 March 1964.
67 See on this KP, MSS.Eng.c.2418, J. Brachet to J. C. Kendrew, 8 November 1963: ‘I expect difficulties from the American side: American Foundations are expected to support financially the project, and I doubt that their final objectives are the same as yours’.
68 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, P. Medawar to the members of the Governing Board of the International Life Sciences Institute (without date, but between May and July 1964).
69 KP.MSS. Eng.c.2419, J. Brachet to M. F. Perutz, 6 and 14 February 1964. In February 1967, the Swiss embassy in Brussels confirmed that ILSI ‘never saw the light of the day’ (my translation from French). See: see BAR, E 2200.44(-), 1984-117, 656.1, Cooperation européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire, 1966/1968: letter of the Swiss embassy in Belgium to the Division of international organizations of the Swiss DPF, 10 February 1967.
70 BAR, E 2200.44(-), 1984-117, 656.1, Cooperation européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire, 1966/1968: Report of the Swiss embassy in Belgium to the DPF Division of international organizations after meeting with Jacques Spaey, newly appointed secretary of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, 24 May 1966.
71 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, J. C. Kendrew to M. F. Perutz, 24 June 1964.
72 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Wyman and J. C. Kendrew, ‘Personal statement of views’, without date.
73 Ibid..
74 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, Abstract from minutes of EMBO Council meeting held in Geneva on 12 July, 1964.
75 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, UNESCO, Department of Advancement of Science, Division of International Co-operation in Scientific Research, Document on the guiding principles of the action to be undertaken in common by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), 3 September 1964.
76 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, A. Kepes to M. F. Perutz, 7 September 1964.
77 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, Minutes of the First Meeting of the Expert Committee, 19 October 1964.
78 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, J. Wyman, Summary of the UNESCO meeting in Paris, October 19th, and other talks in Paris.
79 Ibid.
80 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, J. Wyman, Memorandum of the First meeting of the UNESCO Committee ‘to supervise the study of the present needs for international co-operation in the field of the basic biological sciences’, 20 November 1964.
81 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Wyman to M. F. Perutz, 4 May 1964.
82 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 19 November 1964.
83 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 19 November 1964; italics added.
84 Swiss Federal Archives (from now on, BAR), o.191-194, Organization Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964-1966, E. Kellenberger to F. T. Wahlen, 27 April 1964.
85 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2422, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 10 March 1964.
86 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, E. Kellenberger to M. F. Perutz, 4 July 1964.
87 Bruno J. Strasser, Fréderic Joye, ‘L’atome, l’espace et les molécules. La coopération scientifique internationale comme nouvel outil de la diplomatie helvétique (1951-1969)’, Relations Internationales, 121 (2005), 59–72.
88 In June 1964, Bernard Barbey, the Swiss delegate to UNESCO, wrote to Burckhardt: ‘This is how we proceeded, through the mediation of Prof. Scherrer, when UNESCO launched the idea of CERN’ (see BAR, o.191-194, Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964-1966, B. Barbey to J. Burckhardt, 26 June 1964, my translation from French).
89 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, M. F. Perutz to J. Wyman, 20 October 1964.
90 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. F. Perutz, to J. Burckhardt, 4 February 1965.
91 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire (EMBO), Organisations internationales 1964/1966: EMBO Council Meeting held on 2 February 1965 at the CERN Laboratory, Geneva. Reports on Governments Attitudes.
92 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, Proposal for international scientific co-operation in the life sciences, CSP (65) 24, quoted in Kendrew, Notes on the European Molecular Biology Organization proposal, 4 May 1965. On the consultations leading to the DES position, see also KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, M. F. Perutz, To Members of EMBO Council, 22 April 1965.
93 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, O. Maaløe to J. Wyman, 17 February 1965, with report attached.
94 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. A. Cohen to J. Wyman, 19 February 1965.
95 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, A. Tiselius to J. Wyman, 4 February 1965; A. Engström to J. C. Kendrew, 19 February 1965. See also KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, A. Tiselius to M. F. Perutz, 24 March 1965.
96 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Brachet to M. F. Perutz, 8 March 1965.
97 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, M. F. Perutz to J. Burckhardt, 31 July 1965. KP, MSS.Eng.c. 2422, J. C. Kendrew to R. Kerscher, 14 September 1965. See also: BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire (EMBO), Organisations internationales 1964/1966: Note de dossier, E. Vallotton, Téléphone avec le Professeur Tissières, 28 Octobre 1965.
98 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, Report on EMBO by the Committee for Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe (sent to the Chairman of EMBO by Dr. Schwarz-Liebermann). Discussing this resolution with Perutz, Charles Sadron stressed the asymmetry between the position of the Council of Europe and the ‘Swiss initiative’ at that point: ‘Everything would be nice and our Swiss colleagues would be satisfied since we can tell Mr. Burckhardt that everybody is willing to help, if there was not a slight discrepancy: the European officials agree definitively with the EMBO first and only second with the CERB project; and our Swiss friends promote first the CERB project’ (see: KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, C. Sadron to M. F. Perutz, 8 April 1965).
99 Ministerial Meeting on Science-Interim Committee, International co-operation in biology. The problem of choice, Paris, 26 April 1965 (CMS-CI/65/35, 26 April 1965).
100 The experts were scientists (including several EMBO Council members) and public servants. For Belgium: Brachet and Massart; for France: E. Aujaleu (first Director General of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, INSERM), P. Bonet-Maury (Radium Institute, Paris), P. Piganiol and A. Maréchal, as representatives of the DGRST, M. Tubiana (Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif) and F. Jacob (Pasteur Institute); for West Germany: H. Autrum (vice-president of the DFG), F. Schneider (secretary-general of the German Council for Science and Humanities), P. Starlinger (Institute of Genetics, University of Cologne), and Butenandt; for Italy: A. Giacomini (National Research Council, CNR) and J. Wyman; for Sweden: B. Rexed (secretary-general of the government Science Advisory Council), H. Theorell, Tiselius, and Engström; for UK: Ronald W. J. Keay (Royal Society) and Perutz; for the US: A. Cournand (Columbia University), H. Kaplan (Stanford University), and E. Palade (Rockefeller Institute). Officials of international organizations came from CERN (Weisskopf and J. Baarli), Council of Europe (H. A. Schwarz-Liebermann), ESRO (P. Auger), EURATOM (R. K. Appleyard), OECD (A. King and J. Gass), and UNESCO (Keil, Kepes, and A. Pérez-Vitoria).
101 Ibid., p. 21.
102 Ibid., p. 22.
103 UNESCO, Study on the present needs for international cooperation in the basic biological sciences, p. 31 (UNESCO/AVS/LS/445; CEBM 67/5).
104 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, M. F. Perutz to A. Engström, 11 March 1966.
105 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2420, M. F. Perutz to C. Sadron, 15 April 1965.
106 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, To members of EMBO Council. Memorandum of conversations at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Berne, 22 November 1965.
107 Ibid.
108 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, To members of EMBO Council. Memorandum of conversations at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Berne, 22 November 1965. In January 1966, Wyman reassured Katchalski about the intentions of the Swiss government: ‘It is only in view of the highly delicate situation involving the relations of Israel and other Mediterranean countries that the Swiss government feel they must proceed cautiously at the start’ (KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to E. Katchalski, 26 January 1966).
109 Ibid.
110 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman, Notes on discussions at Swiss Foreign Ministry, January 17, 1966, 18 January 1966; KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Wyman, Minutes of the EMBO Council meeting held at CERN on January 15, 1966; KP, MSS.Eng.c.2422, J. Wyman to R. Kerscher, 23 February 1966. See also KP.MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to A. Tissières, 28 March 1966, referring to a telephone call between Butenandt and Perutz: ‘It seems that the attitude of Minister Stoltenberg arose from a complete misunderstanding on his part of the attitude of German scientists towards EMBO. He was under the impression that they were opposed to the project and wished to remain aloof from any such international undertaking. Now that it has been explained to him that they are strong in favour of EMBO, he will completely change his tune’.
111 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, Notes on discussions at Swiss Foreign Office, 17 January 1966.
112 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, J. Wyman to EMBO Council Members, 30 March 1966.
113 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. F. Perutz to all EMBO Council members, 4 April 1966.
114 BAR, E 2200.44(-), 1984-117, 656.1, Cooperation européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire, 1966/1968: Swiss Embassy to the DPF Division of International Organizations, 24 May 1966. See also, Ibid., Hartmann, Entretien téléphonique avec le Dr. Jacques Spaey: ‘C’est bien là, dans un pays de la CEE, une opinion plus proche de l’Europe des Patries que de l’Europe communautaire !’.
115 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, o.191-194 Organisation européenne de biologie moléculaire, E. G. Willan (Head of the Scientific Relations Division of the British Foreign Office) to Swiss Embassy in London, 18 May 1966.
116 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to R. K. Appleyard, 29 July 1966, reporting Buzzati-Traverso’s opinion.
117 On the Belgian reaction, see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, H. Chantrenne to M. F. Perutz, 24 May 1966: ‘The fellowship scheme is cheaper, and our present government has one major point on its program: to save money. On the other hand, I got the impression that for some reason they want to kill ILSI; to refuse any international laboratory is an easy way of dropping ILSI’.
118 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185: Note of the Swiss Federal Political Department, 8 July 1966.
119 BAR, E 2210.6 (B), 1981/53, 1966/68 731-9c.2.4 ‘Biologie Moléculaire’: Conseil de l’Europe et recherches en biologie moléculaire, 27 July 1966. France, West Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and Ireland had accepted the Council of Europe’s proposal, although pointing out the necessity to prevent any overlap with the Swiss diplomatic action; the reaction of Sweden (and those of Malta and Cyprus) had been negative; Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland had not sent any reply.
120 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, G. Burkhardt to M. Perutz, 16 February 1966. See also BAR, E 2200.4 (-), 1984/117, 656.1, Cooperation européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire, 1966/1968 : Hartmann, Note sur les arguments à utiliser vis-à-vis des interlocuteurs éventuels de l’UNESCO, 15 April 1966.
121 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, E. Vallotton to M. Perutz, 11 May 1966.
122 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. Perutz to E. Vallotton, 17 May 1966. See also: KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, J. Wyman to M. Perutz, 6 June 1966.
123 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, W. Spühler to R. Maheu, 29 August 1966.
124 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, G. Burkhardt and A. C. J. Burgers to M. Perutz, 20 October 1966.
125 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2419, M. Perutz to A. Engström, 21 November 1966.
126 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, o.191-194 Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964/66: DPF report, La Conférence générale de l’UNESCO (25 octobre – 30 novembre 1966) et le projet suisse de convocation d’une conférence européenne de biologie moléculaire (Genève, avril 1967), 8 December 1966. Italics added.
127 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, o.191-194 Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964/66: Déclaration de la délégation suisse à la Conférence Générale de l’UNESCO (5 Novembre 1966).
128 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. W. (Wyman), Notes on discussions at the Swiss Foreign Office in Berne, held on January 13, 1967, and on the Council meeting held in Geneva (CERN), on January 14, 1967.
129 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, o.191-194 Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964/66: Note de dossier. Coopération Européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire. Statut d’observateurs de la Pologne, de la Turquie et de la Yougoslavie au CERN, 29 September 1966.
130 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, o.191-194 Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 1964/66: E. Vallotton, Réponses reçues par l’UNESCO à la lettre de M. Maheu du 1 février 1966, 26 September 1966.
131 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire (EMBO), Organisations internationales 1964/1966: Note au Représentant permanent de la Suisse auprès du Conseil de l’Europe (confidentiel), 20 décembre 1966.
132 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, Aide-Mémoire ‘Coopération Européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire’, 25 August 1966; BAR, E.2200.40(-), 1986/25, 656.1, Conférence Européenne de Biologie Moléculare (Correspondence), 1966/68: Swiss Federal Political Department, Aide-Mémoire, 25 August 1966.
133 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. C. Kendrew to E. Vallotton, 16 September 1966.
134 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. F. Perutz to EMBO Council Members, 29 September 1966.
135 BAR, E 2003 A, 1978/29, BD: 185, Organisation Européenne de Biologie Moléculaire (EMBO), Organisations internationales 1964/1966: E. Vallotton to P. Guggenheim, 17 October 1966.
136 EMBO Archive, Heidelberg (from now on EMBO Archive), Preliminary Draft of Constitutional Instruments, submitted by EMBO, CEBM 67/8, p. 2.
137 Ibid.
138 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Recapitulation of attempts made to bring about international co-operation on molecular biology and on views expressed on the subject. Document submitted by the Swiss delegation, EMBO, CEBM 67/9, p. 17 (italics added).
139 EMBO Archive, Minutes of the meeting of EMBO Council, held at CERN, January 14, 1967, p. 4.
140 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, R. K. Appleyard to M. F. Perutz, 24 January 1967; see also, R. K. Appleyard to M. F. Perutz, 23 January 1967. FEBS was the acronym of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.
141 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to E. Thalmann, 2 February 1967.
142 National Archives, DGRST Papers, Bureau des Organisations Internationales (Quai d’Orsay). Note pour le Secrétaire Général. Organisation européenne de Biologie Moléculaire, 13 February 1967, quoted in John Krige, Paper prepared for the Workshop Molecular Biology in Postwar Europe, Annecy 29/6–1/7/2000, pp. 15–16 (unpublished), p. 16.
143 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, H. Friedrich-Freksa to M. F. Perutz, 18 March 1967 (in German).
144 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to J. C. Kendrew, 18 February 1967. See also KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, J. Wyman to J. C. Kendrew, April 1966: ‘Yesterday, I had a long talk with Rossi-Fanelli about EMBO and Italy. He is a strong partisan of ours, but tells me that Caglioti, a chemist who is head of the National Research Council, is hostile to the idea of such international undertakings’.
145 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, R. K. Appleyard to J. Wyman, 20 June 1966.
146 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. F. Embling to M. Perutz, 17 March 1967; P. M. S. Blackett to M. Perutz, 13 March 1967.
147 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2461, J. A. Gray (member of the MRC Standing Committee on International Scientific Relations) to M. F. Perutz, 22 May 1967.
148 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. Wyman, Notes on talk with François Jacob, December 22, 1967. Wyman referred to Jacob’s and Manfred Eigen’s reactions against the ‘instigation of England’. For the Swedish context, see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, A. Tiselius to J. Wyman, 12 May 1967. Perutz strongly opposed the approach of British science policy advisors, particularly the Royal Society, in March 1967 (see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, M. F. Perutz to H. W. Thompson, 13 March 1967.
149 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, R. K. Appleyard to J. C. Kendrew, 24 February 1967.
150 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. Perutz to E. Katchalski, 27 February 1967.
151 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Definitive Summary Records of the five meetings held at CERN, Geneva, on 4, 5 and 6 April 1967, CEBM 67/SR. 1, p. 7.
152 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR. 1, p. 18.
153 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR 2, p. 6.
154 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR. 1, p. 18.
155 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR 2, p. 8.
156 EMBO suggested the Swiss DPF to invite ESRO observers in order to take advantage of Pierre Auger’s support. As Perutz wrote to Thalmann, in January 1967: ‘Prof. Auger would indeed be helpful because he was the man who brought CERN into being at the time he was Director of the Natural Sciences section of UNESCO, and his enthusiasm was crucial for persuading the powers-that-be of the usefulness of the CERN scheme; I am sure that he could be of great help to us’: see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2440, M. Perutz to E. Thalmann, 23 January 1967.
157 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Definitive Summary Records of the five meetings held at CERN, Geneva, on 4, 5 and 6 April 1967, CEBM 67/SR. 1, p. 11.
158 Ibid., p. 9.
159 Ibid., p. 11.
160 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR.3, p. 2.
161 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR. 3, p. 3.
162 Ibid., CEBM 67/SR.3, p. 4.
163 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. Wyman, Notes on EMBO Conference, April 1967, 10 April 1967.
164 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. Wyman, Notes on EMBO Conference, April 1967, 10 April 1967.
165 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, M. Perutz to B. P. Gregory, 10 May 1967.
166 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, A. Tiselius to J. Wyman, 12 May 1967.
167 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard, Brief Note on Second Meeting of EMBO Working Group, Geneva, September 12-14, 1967, p. 1.
168 Ibid.
169 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard to M. F. Perutz, 21 September 1967.
170 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard, Notes of conversation with Vallotton, Voirier and Delauche, later with Hampton, Geneva, 4th August 1967, p. 2.
171 EMBO Archive, Federal Political Department Bern I, R. K. Appleyard to E. Vallotton, 21 June 1967; see also KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard to M. F. Perutz, 21 September 1967.
172 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard, Brief Notes on Second Meeting of EMBO Working Group, Geneva, September 12–14, 1967, p. 3.
173 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2426, M. F. Perutz to EMBO Members of Council, 4 December 1967. See also J. Wyman, Memorandum of discussions in Cambridge and Paris, 22–27 November 1967, 28 November 1967.
174 EMBO Archive, Working Group of the European Conference on Molecular Biology, Definitive summary record of the third meeting (CERN, Geneva, 7 June 1967), CEBM 67/21, p. 26.
175 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard, Note of conversation with M. Haunschild, 14 December 1967.
176 Ibid.
177 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, A. Keynan to J. C. Kendrew, 7 December 1967.
178 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441. M. F. Perutz to E. Katchalski, 4 December 1967; J. C. Kendrew to E. Katchaski, 12, December 1967. See also BAR, E 2200.170 (-), 1980-92: Swiss Embassy in Tel Aviv to the Federal Political Department, 19 December 1967.
179 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, A. Keynan to J. C. Kendrew, 7 December 1967.
180 Ibid.
181 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, R. K. Appleyard, Brief Notes on Second Meeting of EMBO Working Group, Geneva, September 12-14, 1967, p. 4. Emphasis in the original.
182 EMBO Archive, Proposal for a European Laboratory of Molecular Biology prepared by the Council of the European Molecular Biology Organization, CEBM 68/31, November 1967. A detailed reconstruction of the elaboration of this document would require a separate treatment, focused on the documentation preserved in KP.MSS.Eng.c.2434. On April 19, 1967, John C. Kendrew sent a letter to the EMBO Laboratory Committee members, asking their opinion about ‘research projects which could only, or could much more efficiently, be done in a central laboratory’. Based on the replies that Jacob, Tissières, Porter and Wyman sent to Kendrew, a first draft of the new Laboratory project was prepared by Appleyard, in July-August 1967. Thanks to Appleyard, Marc Delauche, from the EURATOM Staff, was appointed at EMBO’s disposal for some months to provide material and data relevant to the laboratory plan (costs, equipment, personnel, etc.). At the beginning of September 1967, Kendrew and Wyman sent a second draft of the project, which incorporated the observations regarding the Appleyard’s paper sent by the members of the Laboratory Committee. During a meeting of the EMBO Laboratory Committee in Nice (23-24 September 1967) the Kendrew-Wyman paper was modified, including a short summary for politicians and non-technical people and a text divided in the following sections: Biology at the Molecular Level and its Prospects; Why an International Laboratory; Scientific Program; Staffing Principles and Policy; a Blueprint for the Laboratory; Practical considerations (environment, site, etc.); Annexes.
183 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2434, J. C. Kendrew to V. F. Weisskopf, 28 November 1967.
184 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Second session, Definitive Summary Records of the Meetings held at CERN, Geneva, on 22, 23, 24 and 25 January 1968, CEBM 68/45, II session/PV 1, pp. 13-15. For the text of the proposal, see EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, United Kingdom proposal for an intergovernmental agreement relating to the financing of certain activities of the European Molecular Biology Organization, CEBM 68/40. The UK delegation included John Francis (Jack) Embling, deputy under-secretary of State, Department of Education and Science; Edwin Charles Appleyard, head of International Scientific Relations Division, Department of Education and Science; K. J. Chamberlain, legal adviser, Scientific Relations Department; John A. B. Gray, second secretary, Medical Research Council.
185 Ibid., p. 15.
186 Ibid., p. 14.
187 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Draft Agreement establishing a European Conference on Molecular Biology. Note from the British Government, CEBM 68/38, 21 December 1967. See also United Kingdom proposal for an intergovernmental agreement relating to the financing of certain activities of the European Molecular Biology Organization, CEBM 68/40.
188 EMBO Archive, European Conference on Molecular Biology, Second session, Definitive Summary Records of the Meetings held at CERN, Geneva, on 22, 23, 24 and 25 January 1968, CEBM 68/45, II session/PV 2, p. 20.
189 Ibid., p. 21.
190 Ibid., p. 20.
191 Ibid., p. 21.
192 Ibid., p. 79. A third laboratory project will be published in February 1970. It was the result of an important international symposium held at Konstanz on 27–30 November 1969 ‘to discuss the present and future development of molecular biology with special reference to a European laboratory’. Attendance was by invitation and was not confined to EMBO member. The success of the ‘Konstanz’ meeting was such that it became a generic term for intensive research meetings of this kind: the similar occasion at Haarlass, near Heidelberg, in 1971 was referred to as ‘Konstanz II’ and there were plans for a ‘Konstanz III’. See on this the vast documentation in KP, MSS.Eng.c.2435.
193 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. W. [Wyman], Comments on EMBO Conference, Geneva, January 1968, 26 January 1968.
194 Ibid., p. 78.
195 Ibid., p. 80.
196 EMBO Archive, Interim European Molecular Biology Conference, Programme, Budget and Financial Arrangements 1969, June 2-3, 1969 (CEBM/int 5), p. 12. West Germany was followed by UK (20,86), France (20,17), and Italy (12,38).
197 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, M. F. Perutz to J. C. Kendrew, J. Wyman, F. Jacob, J. A. Cohen, Note on a telephone conversation with Butenandt on 8th April 1968 concerning the German refusal to sign the draft Agreement (confidential), 8 April 1968.
198 BAR, E 2200.44(-), 1984-117, 656.1, Coopération européenne dans le domaine des recherches en biologie moléculaire, 1966/1968. E. Vallotton to the Swiss embassies of Athens, Copenhagen, La Haye, London, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, 26 July 1968.
199 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. W. (Wyman), Memorandum regarding the signing of the EMBO document, 16 July 1968.
200 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. W. [Wyman], Conversation with M. F. P. [Perutz] by telephone, 12 September 1968; see also Ibid., J. Wyman to J. Kendrew, 13 September 1968.
201 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, M. F. Perutz to H. Tuppy, 18 November 1968.
202 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2442, E. Vallotton to J. C. Kendrew, 7 January 1969.
203 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, T. Dalyell to R. Jenkins,8 February 1968.
204 KP, MSS. Eng.c.2441, G. Brown to T. Dalyell, 7 March 1968.
205 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2442, H. Chantrenne to M. F. Perutz, 3 February 1969; H. Chantrenne to J. C. Kendrew, 28 April 1969.
206 John Krige, The Birth of EMBO and EMBL, Paper prepared for the Workshop Molecular Biology in Postwar Europe, Annecy 29/6–1/7/2000, pp. 15–16 (unpublished).
207 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2441, J. Wyman to O. Maaløe, 12 April 1967.
208 EMBO Archive, Folder ‘Miscellaneous Correspondence’, D. Bryce-Smith to R. K. Appleyard, 22 September 1970.
209 Ibid., R. K. Appleyard to D. Bryce-Smith, 24 September 1970.
210 EMBO Archive, D. W. van Bekkum to H. Voirier, 20 March 1972 (CEBM/72/18). See also the documentation included in the the fourth ordinary session of the EMBC 1973 meeting (CEBM/73/9).
211 See the letters from ECBO included in the 4th ordinary session of the EMBC 1973 meeting (CEBM/73/8).
212 The final reports of the working groups concerning ETPBBR and ECBO were included in the proceedings of the 4th and 5th ordinary sessions of the EMBC meetings, respectively in 1973 and 1974 (see CEBM/73/7 and CEBM/74/2).
213 Named after the surname of the Chairman, the Swiss delegate E. Andres (head of the diplomatic sector of the Division of international organizations – Federal Political Department), the ‘Andres Working Group’ included the following members: P. Ecker and C. Schwartz (Austria); N. O. Kjeldgaard (Denmark); P. Richer, R. Monier and J. P. Ebel (France); C. Zelle, H. Brieskorn, and N. Binder(West Germany); P. Papadimitropoulos (Greece); Y. Saphir (Israel); A. Borsellino (Italy); A. Sandbo (Norway); A. Rörsch and F. L. Hes (Netherlands); A. Duran Miranda and A. M. Municio (Spain); I. Agrell (Sweden); C. Favre and J.- C. Richard (Switzerland); S. G. Owen, J. G. Duncan, A. E. Turner, and R. C. Norton (UK); P. Levaux and G. Traest (FNRS); N. Jerne, and J. Wyman (EMBO). H. Voirier and P. Fasella (presidents of EMBC), Kendrew (secretary general of EMBC), and John Tooze (executive secretary of EMBO) participated to the meetings. Nominated in May 1973, the plenary working group met on July 3, 1973, and on October 24, 1973. For the minutes of the meetings, see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2449.
214 Corinna R. Unger, ‘Making Science European. Towards a History of the European Science Foundation’, in Contemporanea, Rivista di storia dell’800 e del ’900, 3 (2020), 363–83.
215 EMBC 5th ordinary session, 1974, Summary report to the Conference of the Working group established to evaluate the application from the European Cell Biology Organization (ECBO) for affiliation to the EMBC. The report was discussed by the EMBC on July 4, 1974. The EMBO Committees were respectively the Fund Committee and the Course Committee.
216 The conference was dedicated to European technological collaboration. For the program, see EMBO Archive, Folder ‘Miscellaneous Correspondence’.
217 Ibid., R. K. Appleyard, Note Form, 15 September 1969.
218 Ibid., R. K. Appleyard, Talk on Collaboration in Molecular Biology and its Technological Significance, 16 September 1969.
219 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2418, Private comments by Dr. R. K. Appleyard (Head of the Biology Division of the EURATOM, Bruxelles) on the documents prepared by Dr. J. C. Kendrew and Prof. C. H. Waddington for a European Organization of Fundamental Biology, September 1963.
220 Krige, ‘European Molecular Biology Organisation/Laboratory (EMBO/EMBL)’, p. 5.
221 For the definition of the upcoming EMBO as an international ‘pressure group’, see KP, MSS.Eng.c.2418, J. C. Kendrew to V. Weisskopf, 13 February 1963,
222 KP, MSS.Eng.c.2449, A. Rörsch, Working Paper on the Philosophy of the Enlargement of the Scope of the European Molecular Biology Conference, August 1, 1973 (second draft), p. 7.
223 Ibid., p. 8.
224 EMBO Archive, ERC Correspondence: F. Gannon, EMBC/EMBO as a prototype a European Research Council (abstract for the Danish conference, 7–8 October 2002).
225 EMBO Archive, European Molecular Biology Conference, 33rd ordinary session (second part), Planning document on the future of the EMBC/EMBO; Building on a record of achievement, CEBM/01/8 Rev 5 E (23 October 2022), p. 24.