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The European Cell Biology Organisation was founded in 1969 to promote the advancement of cell biology in Europe through international collaboration, training, and scientific exchange. It organised congresses, meetings, and training activities to strengthen the discipline and provide a platform for researchers across national boundaries.
ECBO applied to become affiliated with the EMBC in December 1974. A working group of the EMBC was established to evaluate this proposal, which recommended that two representatives of ECBO be represented on the EMBO course committee, which was accepted.

EMBO’s women in science program began in the early 2000s, with a special meeting called “The Glass Ceiling for Women in the Life Sciences being held in June 2001, and Gerlind Wallon producing a position paper highlighting the issues facing women in the life sciences in December of the same year.
In 2002, EMBO established Re-Start Fellowships, the purpose of which was to support women scientists who wanted to return to the bench after having taken a break (eg. Maternity leave), with 2 year fellowships.
In 2006, the Set-Routes initiative was established. For a period of 3 years, The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the European Organization for Particle Physics (CERN) managed an initiative to increase the visibility of women in science in education by mobilising “successful women in science, engineering and technology (SET) to go into schools and universities throughout Europe and beyond.” This project was funded by the European Commission.
In October 2008, EMBO council stated that all EMBO programmes were to keep statistics and have established rules and guidelines that highlight and address the under-representation of women in science, and in that same year the first EMBO/FEBS Women in Science awardee was chosen.
The Women in Science programme has engaged in other activities, including holding meetings, publishing reports on the issues facing women in science in scientific journals, and funding lectures by prominent women scientists.

With EBNIC-2 not being accepted for funding, EMBO Council decided to establish a working party to establish a strategic focus for a World Programme, analysing how much emphasis to give to different actions, different geographic areas that should be targeted, and how to interact with other national and international activities.

The World Programme was ratified by council in 2003. It initially offered 6-9 month “Medium Term” fellowships, with a focus on training, acquiring new techniques, and building relationships which should continue after the scientists’ return to their home labs. They also offered Practical courses to allow students from different continents to interact with each other and to learn new methods together, workshops to allow scientists from different countries to meet, discuss, and plan to collaborate, and plenary lectures to build the profile of European scientists internationally.

Additionally, the World Programme reached an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to work with EMBO to establish a screening service in order to improve the flow of high-quality scientists to Europe, and in return to provide fellowships and the organisation of courses and workshops in China.

It also created a Mobility Consultancy initiative in collaboration with HFSP, the Wellcome Trust, and The World Academy of Sciences, the purpose of which was to provide information on European funding sources and grant application procedures to interested scientists outside of Europe.

In conjunction with these organisations, EMBO also coordinated a project to research information on educational opportunities, research accomplishments, and science policy in a selection of resource-constrained countries. Together they presented a meeting entitled “Promoting Life Sciences in Developing Countries”, bringing together representatives of major international organisations supporting the sciences in resource-constrained countries, and published a report off the back of this meeting.

In 2008 council decided to establish a working party to advise on future strategies related to developing a policy strategy to inform EMBO’s relationships with Non-European countries, and a year later the program was renamed “EMBO Global Exchange Programme”. The purpose was not to teach basic research, but instead to establish high-level scientific interactions/partnerships with countries where good science and scientific infrastructure had already been established. A committee was established to oversee its activities. In 2012 the name was changed once again, this time to “Global Activities”.

In 2005 the EMBC began to formalise its relationships with countries outside of the European area, initiating a cooperation status with South Africa, which expired in 2016. Following this, the EMBC established its first full cooperation agreement with Singapore in 2011, with Singapore subsequently become EMBO’s first Associate Member State in 2015. India became an Associate Member State a year later in 2016. Taiwan entered a cooperation agreement with EMBO in 2012, Chile signed one in 2018, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency signed one in 2023.

The Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) is an independent association of various research organisations and scientific groups that was founded on 25th October 2004. It was initiated to promote science in the formulation of European policy making. Its first efforts were coordinated by the European Life Sciences Forum (another organization EMBO played a crucial role in founding in 2000), but EMBO also joined as a founding member. Maria Leptin (EMBO Director 2010-2021) served as the ISE’s president and Fiona Watt (EMBO Director 2021-) currently serves on the executive committee.

In December 1965 EMBO secured a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation to fund their activities for 3 years. EMBO was keen that it’s financial support from the VW foundation not be permanent, as it wished for its long term funding to come from all participating nations, rather than organisations belonging to just one in order to ensure its independence.

EMBO, alongside its Swiss partners, organized two “temporary” conferences attended by governmental representatives to establish a consensus for an inter-governmental organization. The two focus points of these meetings were the long-term management of EMBO’s programs, and the question of establishing a European Laboratory.

Through these two conferences the constitution of the European Molecular Biology Conference was established, and in 1970, 14 governments officially established the EMBC, which to the present day supports EMBO’s General Programme. Over the years this programme has expanded through the EMBC creating “special projects” to allow new activities to be performed. It was through this process that the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) was created.

The AIMBN was founded in 1997 with a mission to promote molecular biology and biotechnology in the Asia-Pacific region. The organisation was modelled after EMBO, and EMBO took an advisory role during the AIMBN’s early period, in particular in the screening of potential membership candidates. By 2007, they had 300 members in 16 participating ‘economies’ (so-called due to the political situations in Taipei and Taiwan), and 16 supporting institutes across the region. They held conferences and courses in participating economies.

The European Life Sciences Organisation was created to administer and organise an annual meeting regarding European Biology. Following the annual conference in Nice in 2008, ELSO fused with EMBO and therefore ceased its functions as an independent organisation.

Basel Life was an annual life sciences congress held in Basel, Switzerland, active from 2016 to 2019. Established as a continuation and expansion of the earlier MipTec conference, BASEL LIFE brought together academic researchers, clinicians, and representatives from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. It combined scientific sessions with an industry exhibition and hosted the annual meeting of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) during its run. The event aimed to foster exchange between basic research and applied innovation in the life sciences.