Human Frontier Science: the Program, the Organization, and the Journal

Abstract

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) was founded in 1989 on the initiative of the government of Japan, and indeed, Japan’s foresight and subsequent sustained support of the program is remarkable and a cause for deep gratitude from all those who have benefited from HFSP funding. Together with Japan, eleven nations and the European Union now contribute financially to the Human Frontier Science Program Organization, which operates the Program. It is a unique research funding program, supporting innovative, interdisciplinary, intercontinental research projects, with an emphasis on the support of young teams, and providing training opportunities for the brightest young researchers in some of the world’s best laboratories. All well and good, but what does this have to do with the introduction of a new journal, bearing the HFSP name and logo? Under the leadership of Torsten Wiesel, who took office in 2000 as Secretary-General of the international Human Frontier Science Program Organization, and Masao Ito, its President, the HFSP has focused increasingly on the support of interdisciplinary research: its research grants “are now designed to bring together scientists from fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, bioinformatics, nanoscience, engineering and biology to open up new approaches to understanding complex biological systems. Fellowship programs are aimed specifically to support young scientists who wish to change their field of research either within the life sciences or across major disciplines.” (http://www.hfsp.org/about/AboutAreas.php) The percentage of HFSP-funded researchers who say that their work draws extensively on more than one discipline has risen from the pre-2000 level of 55% to 93% in 2005. (http://www.hfsp.org/pubs/reports/NIFU_STEP_Working_%20paper_%2026-2006.pdf). Interdisciplinary research is tough: it is safer and easier, particularly for young scientists, to stay within the bounds of the traditional disciplines. Departments and their associated reward structures are usually organized on disciplinary lines, and so are the academic journals. There are many barriers to interdisciplinary research, and when HFSP surveyed applicants for its grants in 2005, difficulty in finding a journal for publication of multi disciplinary studies was noted by over 50% of respondents. (http://www.hfsp.org/pubs/reports/NIFU_STEP_Working_%20paper_%2026-2006.pdf) This finding echoes the conclusion of the 2004 report of the Committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research of the US National Academies that “Journal editors . . . should actively encourage the publication of interdisciplinary research results through various mechanisms, such as including researchers with interdisciplinary experience on editorial boards and establishing special interdisciplinary theme issues or sections.” (http://fermat.nap.edu/books/0309094356/html/201.html) There is therefore, a good rationale for a new, wholly interdisciplinary journal, completely aligned with the philosophy of excellence and values of HFSP, that would provide a forum for reporting and discussing innovative, even unorthodox, research results where approaches from the physical and chemical sciences, mathematical and computer sciences provide new insights into fundamental problems in the life sciences. We hope that this journal will add momentum to the acceptance and encouragement of interdisciplinary research that is emerging in many funding agencies, universities and institutes around the world. By disseminating the results of high-quality interdisciplinary research, we believe that the Journal will help the Human Frontier Science Program to further its goal “to promote, through international cooperation, basic research focused on the elucidation of the sophisticated and complex mechanisms of living organisms, and to make the fullest possible utilization of the research results for the benefit of all humankind”. (http://www.hfsp.org/about/Aboutstatutes.php)