The European Drosophila Genome Project has its origins in 1988 when a consortium of laboratories came together with funding from what was then the European Economic Community with the objectives of building a physical map of the fruit fly genome.
The consortium consists of ten labs, which are involved in the sequencing with different responsibilities. The labs are:
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Old Medical School, University of Dundee
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee
- EMBL Outstation - The European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton Hall
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory
- Sanger Centre, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton
- IGH - Institut de Génétique Humaine - CNRS (CRBM)
- UPR 41 CNRS Recombinaisons Genetiques
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB)/Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FoRTH)
- Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,
Department of Molecular Developmental Biology