This was set up by Council in February 1974 to organise a series of EMBO Symposia to be held annually in Heidelberg. One of the aims was to help to establish the reputation of the laboratory at Heidelberg as a major centre for research and the dissemination of leading research ideas. The symposia were at first organised privately by EMBO outside its general scientific programme under EMBC and therefore relied on independent finance and on fees. The first symposium was held in 1975, and the first in the laboratory itself, in May 1978, coincided with its formal opening.

At its meeting in January 1980 the EMBO Council agreed that the Symposium Standing Committee should be dissolved and its responsibilities assumed by the Course Committee; the symposia were thus incorporated in the general programme and supported through EMBC.