Set up in 1971, the EMRC evolved into the Standing Committee of the ESF in 1975. The Standing Committee covers a broad range of disciplines and the committee’s objectives range from promoting interactions between the biological, biomedical and clinical research communities to developing European scientific strategies and stimulating collaboration in emerging and interdisciplinary research areas.

The European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) has the overall responsibility for initiating and coordinating scientific activities in those fields and for providing expert advice on issues of science policy.

The Committee also works towards promoting European policy guidelines in biomedical ethics, animal care, human stem cells, and clinical research training, and patenting of genes and diagnostic tests is being investigated from the viewpoint of biomedical research practice.

The chair of  the Committee for the European Medical Research Councils is  Professor Liselotte Højgaard from the Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

This Standing Committee is composed of delegates with a high scientific profile nominated by their ESF Member Organisations involved in biomedical sciences, together with observers from the European Commission, the Wellcome Trust, Pasteur Institute, Standing Committee for Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences (LESC), COST (Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences (BMBS Domain); Canada, Who-Europe, Israel, Moldova, New-Zealand and the U.S.A.  The EMRC Core Group includes members from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and the U.K.

List of Members

European Science Foundation

Dr. Stephane Berghmans 
Head of Medical Sciences Unit

Mrs. Janet Latzel
Senior Administrator & Unit Coordinator 

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