The Nordic EMBL Partnership congratulates Emmanuelle Charpentier, and collaborator Jennifer A. Doudna, on receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2020. Here, Directors of the Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes past and present, alongside the former Director General of EMBL, recall Professor Charpentier’s appointment as one of the Partnership’s first group leaders, and discuss why the 'EMBL model' is so important for driving research innovations in the life sciences.