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The governments of Australia and South Korea have agreed to become contributors to the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO), the organization said last week (January 5). The expansion means that researchers in those countries can now initiate projects through the organization, which funds international research at the frontiers of the life sciences.
HFSPO was established in 1989 on the initiative of Japan, and is currently funded by contributions from the G7 countries—France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada—the European Union and Switzerland.
Total annual funding for HFSPO is currently $53 million, 60% of which comes from Japan, said the organization's director of scientific affairs and communications, Martin Reddington.
The two new entrants are expected to bring in roughly $1 million extra, although they may be net earners from the deal, as grant money is not distributed according to how much each country contributes, but according to scientific quality determined by peer review.
The two Asia-Pacific countries represent the first new members since 1992, when Switzerland joined. "The organization has for some time wished to expand membership, and with Australia and the Korean Republic joining, we hope that it might stimulate other countries, like the People's Republic of China and India, to consider membership," HFSPO secretary general and Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel told The Scientist.
"Looking into the future, one would predict more of a balance in scientific activities between the East and the West, and the new memberships in the HFSPO may reflect the initial phase of such a change," Wiesel said.
Scientists from the new member countries will be able to take part fully in the coming research grant award cycle, the application deadline for which is March 31. In recent times, the HFSPO has emphasized interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms.
The aim is to encourage collaborations that bring biologists together with scientists from physical sciences fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering, Reddington told The Scientist.
Encouraging such collaboration isn't always easy, Wiesel acknowledged, "but we have had a steady progress, and currently over 50% of a grants have members from different fields of natural science, even if the main focus of all projects remains on life sciences."
Collaborative research grants and postdoctoral fellowship programs run by HFSPO over the past 15 years have funded more than 4000 scientists from 64 countries, the organization said.
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