ANNUAL REPORT - Human Frontier Science Program · PDF file · 2015-04-24Annual...

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Human Frontier Science Program

The International Human FrontierScience Program Organization (HFSPO)

12 quai Saint-Jean – BP 1003467080 Strasbourg Cedex – FranceFax. +33 (0)3 88 32 88 97e-mail : [email protected]

HFSP info on JSF site : www.jhfsp.jsf.or.jp

HUMAN FRONTIER SCIENCE PROGRAM

Annual Report

FY 20078

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The following documents are available on the HFSP website www.hfsp.org

Joint Communiqués (Tokyo 1992, Washington 1997, Berlin 2002, Berne 2004, Ottawa 2007):

http://www.hfsp.org/about/AboutHistory.php

Statutes of the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization:http://www.hfsp.org/about/Aboutstatutes.php

Guidelines for the Participation of New Members in the HFSP:http://www.hfsp.org/about/AboutNew_Mem.php

General Reviews of the HFSP (1996, 2001, 2006-2007)http://www.hfsp.org/pubs/Pubs_reports_top.php

Updated and previous lists of awards, including titles and abstracts:http://www.hfsp.org/awardees/Awards-index.php

table of contents

Introduction 5

Human Frontier Science Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Message from the Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 1 - HFSP Fellowship Program 17

1.1 An effective funding chain for young researchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.2 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.3 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship Awards 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

1.4 Short-Term Fellowships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

1.5 Career Development Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

1.6 Career Development Awards 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.7 The 2008 Review Committee for Fellowships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 2 - HFSP Research Grant Program 29

2.1 Overview of the Grants Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.2 Young Investigator Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.3 Program Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.4 Research Grant Awards 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.5 The 2008 Review Committee for Research Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 3 - HFSP Awardees - Highlights 39

3.1 Scientific profiles of HFSP awardees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

3.2 HFSP Awardees Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

3.3 Honours and prizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Chapter 4 - Budget and Finance 55

4.1 Guidelines for HFSPO funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

4.2 Key financial figures for FY 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

4.3 FY 2007 financial summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

4.4 Activity budget for FY 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4.5 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Appendices 71

A.1 History of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

A.2 Joint Communiqué of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Human Frontier Science Program, 15 June 2007 . . . 74

A.3 Summary of decisions of the Board of Trustees in FY 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

A.4 Research Grants awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

A.5 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

A.6 Career Development Awards made in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

A.7 Short-Term Fellowships awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

A.8 Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

introduction

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) promotesfundamental research in the life sciences with specialemphasis on novel and interdisciplinary research, inter -national and in particular intercontinental collaboration andsupport for young investigators. Since its establishment in1989, HFSP has demonstrated the value of creating aframework for competitive, collaborative, internationalresearch of the highest caliber and of providing youngscientists with the opportunity to emerge as talentedresearchers capable of shaping the science of the future.

The International Human Frontier Science Program Organi -zation (HFSPO) implements the Program through the followingmechanisms of research support (more details can be foundin Chapters 1 and 2 of this report):

Long-Term Fellowships – for young scientists withinthree years of obtaining their PhD who wish to broaden theirscientific experience in a foreign laboratory.

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships – modeled on the Long-Term Fellowships but specifically for scientists with PhDs innon-biological disciplines who seek training in the life sciences.

Career Development Awards – for former HFSP Fellowswho return to their home countries to help them set up theirown independent laboratories.

Young Investigator Grants – grants for interdisciplinaryteams of young researchers within the first five years of theirfirst independent positions, who are located in differentcountries.

Program Grants – for interdisciplinary teams of researchersin different countries at any stage of their careers.

Since 1990, 763 Research Grants involving 2960 scientists,2266 Long-Term Fellowships, 39 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowshipsand 117 Career Development Awards have been awarded.Researchers from more than 60 countries have received HFSPfunding so far.

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Human FrontierScience Program

The HFSPO is governed by a Board of Trustees (Board)consisting of representatives of the MSPs. The Board isadvised by a scientific advisory body, the Council ofScientists (Council), and the Organization is run from theSecretariat in Strasbourg, France.

HIGHLIGHTS IN FY 2007

The 5th Intergovernmental Conference was held in Ottawa,Canada, on 15 June 2007.

The 2007 Awardees Meeting was held at Twin Waters, nearBrisbane, Australia, 15-18 July.

Norway joined HFSPO on 31 March 2008, increasing thenumber of MSPs to 14.

The focus of research supported by HFSP is on the complexmechanisms of living organisms, ranging from thebiomolecular level to that of behaving organisms. The lifesciences have undergone a revolution in recent years,emerging as a leading scientific area with a convergence ofinterest from other disciplines such as physics, mathe matics,chemistry, computer science and engineering on solvingbiological questions. HFSP aims to stay at the forefront ofresearch by involving scientists from outside the lifesciences as part of research collaborations and as post -doctoral fellows. To this end, the Young Investigator andProgram Grants are specifically geared to fostering inter -actions between scientists from different disciplines andthis is a major factor in the review of applications in theseprograms. In addition, HFSP has extended its commitment tointerdisciplinary research by introducing Cross-DisciplinaryFellowships to equip young scientists from outside biologywith the skills needed to tackle problems in the life sciences.

A program dedicated to the frontiers of science mustsupport the next generation of researchers, who are in thestrongest position to open new avenues of research. Severalof the HFSP programs are specifically targeted towards earlycareer scientists: the Fellowship programs, Career Develop mentAward and Young Investigator Grant. In addition, ProgramGrant teams are encouraged to include young scientistswith the result that a significant number of scientists underthe age of 40 participate in this program. Taking theseresearchers together, approximately 70% of HFSP funds areawarded to early career researchers.

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The HFSPO is financed and managed by representativesof the Management Supporting Parties (MSPs). TheMSPs are those countries that directly fund the HFSPPrograms plus the European Union, which represents theEU countries that do not contribute directly. The MSPs are:Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan,the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Swit zerland,the United Kingdom, the United States of America andthe European Union. Currently, Japan provides about53 % of the 59 million USD annual budget of FY 2007.

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

President:Prof. Masao ITO, Brain Science Institute, Riken, Japan

AustraliaMs. Sarojini MARTIN, National Health and MedicalResearch CouncilMs. Suzanne NORTHCOTT, National Health and MedicalResearch Council (until May 2007)

CanadaDr. Danielle MENARD, Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council Dr. Karl TIBELIUS, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

FranceMr. Antoine GRASSIN, Ministère des Affaires ÉtrangèresDr. Jean-Claude PERNOLLET, Ministère de l’ÉducationNationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche

GermanyDr. Ingrid OHLERT, Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftDr. Ulrich SCHLÜTER, BMBF, Forschungszentrum Jülich

IndiaProf. Avadhesha SUROLIA, National Institute of ImmunologyProf. Krishnaswamy VIJAYRAGHAVAN, National Centrefor Biological Sciences

ItalyProf. Piergiorgio STRATA, University of TurinProf. Glauco TOCCHINI-VALENTINI, National ResearchCouncil

JapanMr. Kaoru NAITO, Nuclear Material Control Centre

New ZealandProf. Graeme FRASER, Health Research Council of New Zealand

Republic of KoreaDr. Cha-Dong KIM, Ministry of Science and Technology(until February 2008)Dr. Un-Woo LEE, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (from March 2008)Prof. Yoo-Hun SUH, Seoul National University

SwitzerlandDr. Isabella BERETTA, State Secretariat for Education and ResearchProf. Pierre MAGISTRETTI, École Polytechnique Fédéralede Lausanne and Lausanne University

UKDr. Alfred GAME, Biotechnology and Biological SciencesResearch Council (from January 2008)Dr. Mark PALMER, Medical Research Council Dr. Doug YARROW, Biotechnology and Biological SciencesResearch Council (until January 2008)

USADr. Kathie OLSEN, National Science FoundationDr. Norka RUIZ-BRAVO, National Institutes of Health

European UnionMr. Wolfgang BOCH, Information Society and MediaDirectorate-General, European Commission Dr. Manuel HALLEN, Directorate-General Research,European Commission (from March 2008)Dr. Octavi QUINTANA-TRIAS, Directorate-GeneralResearch, European Commission (until March 2008)

Honorary MemberDr. Kozo IIZUKA, Japan Association for MetrologyPromotion

AuditorsMr. Brian GIFFORD, ENSERC, CanadaMr. Patrick PIERRAT, SEGEC, Audit et Conseil, FranceMr. Goro WATANABE, Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan

Prof. Masao Ito. President of HFSPO

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COUNCIL OF SCIENTISTS

Chair:Paul LASKO, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

AustraliaJudith BLACK, University of SydneyJohn MATTICK, University of Queensland, Brisbane

CanadaLorne BABIUK, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon(until November 2007) Leah KESHET, University of British Columbia, Vancouver(from November 2007)

FranceMarie-France CARLIER, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette Pascale COSSART, Institut Pasteur, Paris (from February 2008)Jean-François JOANNY, Institut Curie, Paris (until January 2008)

GermanyRudi BALLING, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research,BraunschweigHannah MONYER, University of Heidelberg

IndiaMadan RAO, Raman Research Institute, National Centre for Biological Sciences, BangaloreSajayit RATH, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi

ItalyFrancesco LACQUANITI, University “Tor Vergata”, RomeGiuseppe MACINO, University “La Sapienza”, Rome

JapanReiko KURODA, University of Tokyo Shigekazu NAGATA, University of Osaka

New ZealandRichard FAULL, University of AucklandWarren TATE, University of Otago, Dunedin

Republic of KoreaSeong Eon RYU, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, SeoulHee-Sup SHIN, Korea Institute of Science and Technology,Seoul

SwitzerlandYves-Alain BARDE, Biozentrum, BaselJean-David ROCHAIX, University of Geneva

UKAlan FERSHT, University of Cambridge Christopher LAMB, John Innes Centre, Norwich (until November 2007)Judith ARMITAGE, University of Oxford (from November 2007)

USALinda GRIFFITH, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge (until November 2007)Rae SILVER, Columbia University, New York (from December 2007)

European UnionGuy ORBAN, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium Luis SERRANO, Centre de Regulacio Genomica, Barcelona,Spain

Honorary Member:Masao ITO, Brain Science Institute, Riken, Japan

Prof. Paul Lasko, Chair of the Council of Scientists

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SECRETARIAT

III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III

Executive Office Torsten WIESEL (USA)Secretary GeneralKazuo SHIMOMURA (Japan)Deputy Secretary GeneralJill HUSSER (UK)Assistant

III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III III II

Scientific Affairs and CommunicationsMartin REDDINGTON (UK)


Research GrantsGeoffrey RICHARDS (UK) DirectorCarole ASNAGHI (France)AssistantArmelle KOUKOUI (Bénin)Assistant


Fellowships Guntram BAUER (Germany)DirectorMarie-Claude PERDIGUES (France)AssistantCarine SCHMITT (France)Assistant


Administration and FinancePatrick VINCENT (France) DirectorIsabelle HEIDT-COQUARD (France)ManagerSarah NAETT CAZAU (New Zealand)Assistant


IT Systems Xavier SCHNEIDER (France)


Administrative OfficerYasushi SAITO (Japan) until June 2007Shigeru SAKURAI (Japan) from June 2007


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The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) held in Ottawa onJune 15, 2007 was an important landmark for the HFSP. TheIGC is now held every three years and brings together repre -sentatives of the governments and research councils of theManagement Supporting Parties (“MSP”s - the countriesand the European Union, who contribute financially to theHFSP). It plays a crucial role in deciding on overall policy andthe framework for the contributions of the MSPs. The esta -blishment of a 3-year budget in Berne in 2004 has provedto be of considerable value in providing a clear strategy forfinancial planning and it is gratifying that most of the MSPsfulfilled the goals set at that time. The Ottawa meeting,generously hosted by the Canadian Institutes of HealthResearch (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council (NSERC), was superbly organised, thanksto the efforts of former Canadian Board of Trustees memberMark Bisby, and was led very effectively and charmingly bySuzanne Fortier, President of NSERC.

Nearly 20 years after the establishment of the Program, HFSPstill depends critically on Japan for slightly more than half ofits support. Japan has thus set an inspiring example with itsgenerous investment in the Program far outstripping anybenefit in terms of awards. This sustaining role of Japan waspositively acknowledged by the IGC delegates, who reaffirmedtheir support for the Program and the establishment of a newbudgetary framework for the Program until 2010, includinga 4% annual increase.

It has been most encouraging over the last few years to seethat HFSP has attracted new member states. Since 2004,the Organization has expanded with the membership ofAustralia, Republic of Korea, New Zealand and India. InMarch 2008, we were pleased to welcome Norway as the14th MSP. The Norwegian government has made majorefforts to increase its engagement in the internationalscientific community and to support the contributions of

Message from theSecretary General,

Torsten Wiesel

Representatives of the Management Supporting Parties at the 5th Intergovernmental Conference, Ottawa, Canada,15 June 2007

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before the participation of non-biologists in the researchteams became a major feature of the grants. However at thelast annual meeting of HFSP awardees, held in Australia inJuly 2007, there was a strong sense that the interdisciplinaryapproach fostered by HFSP had come of age and wasevident in results from a broad range of biological fields.Nevertheless, it is important for the Organization to carefullymonitor the relevance of this approach and to adapt itspolicies to remain at the frontier.

The HFSP Awardees Meetings have been held since 2001 andhave contributed to building a strong sense of communityamong the HFSP awardees. Significant numbers of membersof the Board of Trustees, Council of Scientists and ReviewCommittees also take the opportunity to appreciate thework being done under the auspices of HFSP. At the meetingin Australia the excellent quality of science supported by theProgram was evident and the high level of discussion madeeach presentation special. We were also pleased to see thefirst presentations from young scientists who obtainedCross-Disciplinary Fellowships. These fellowships are forscientists trained in the physical sciences and engineeringwho want to apply their skills to problems in the life sciences.Applications to this program have been judged by theReview Committee to be especially innovative and havestrengthened the interdisciplinary dimension of theFellowship program.

An indication of the impact of the HFSP in recent years hasbeen the success of HFSP awardees in obtaining inter nationaland national awards and honours. As can be seen from thelist of such honours presented in this report, our awardeeshave been successful in obtaining major prizes and awardsfor their research as well as being elected to scientificacademies. Last year saw the first round of awards to younginvestigators by the newly-established European ResearchCouncil (ERC), an important institution for funding excellencein a highly competitive context. The ERC is expected to havea substantial effect on the quality and competitiveness ofEuropean science. We were pleased that 11 early careerscientists in the HFSP community, many of them formerFellows and holders of Career Development Awards, weresuccessful in the very rigorous competition for ERC StartingGrants.

their scientists in many fields of research. We look forwardto seeing a greater participation of Norwegian scientists inHFSP. The willingness of new countries to contribute to theProgram is testimony to its health and importance in fosteringinternational training and collaboration. New membersopen up new prospects for collaboration and also raiseexpectations in their scientific communities. Nevertheless,as HFSPO’s budget remains relatively constant, furtherfinancial growth will be necessary to make sure that thesenew expectations can be fulfilled. The annual contributionsare related to GDP but the introduction of a minimumcontribution of USD 500,000 per year has become necessaryfor new member countries and will help ensure that furthergrowth of the Organization will also have a positive impacton our ability to sustain an adequate level of funding for ourawardees.

During my tenure as Secretary General special efforts havebeen made to strengthen the support provided to youngscientists. With the establishment of the Young InvestigatorGrant, the Career Development Award and strengtheningthe postdoctoral fellowship programs, as much as 70% ofHFSPO’s budget is now going to early career scientists. TheYoung Investigator and Career Development Award programshave been a resounding success. In the Research Grantprogram, reviewers have often commented on the high levelof innovation in the projects of these teams of young scientists,all of whom have to be within five years of obtaining theirfirst independent position. In this year’s competition, wemade a record number of Young Investigator Grant awardsand the success rate of this group was twice that of themore senior Program Grants. The Career Development Awardsfor former HFSP fellows returning to independent positionsin their home countries have also proved highly successfuland are attracting first rate applicants. Awardees in boththese programs continue to tell us how important theseawards have been for launching their independent scientificcareers.

On the day before the formal meeting of the IGC, delegateshad an excellent opportunity to meet first-hand four of ouryoung scientists. In a symposium hosted by the Universityof Ottawa, IGC delegates and members of the Universityheard talks on the innovative work being performed in areasof developmental biology, proteomics and neurobiology,including outstanding talks by biologist Andrew Murray andphysicist Paul Wiseman showing clearly the importance ofengaging scientists from the physical sciences in developingnew approaches to problems in the life sciences. The enhan -cement of support for interdisciplinary research has beenanother major initiative of the last years. This was, in fact,one of the key aims of HFSP at the inception of the Program.As the Chair of the Council of Scientists, Paul Lasko pointedout in his report to the IGC, it took a few rounds of reviews

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The HFSP community is thus clearly strong in life scienceresearch and has been successful in encouraging futureleaders in the academic scientific world. Interest in the HFSPprograms is evident from the accesses to the website andthe over 7000 subscribers to our occasional newsletter.However, although well known in some sectors of thescientific community, HFSP is still not a “household name”.With the encouragement of the Council of Scientists, theHFPSO Board of Trustees therefore launched the HFSPJournal, Frontiers of Interdisciplinary Research in the LifeSciences to broaden our contribution to interdisciplinaryresearch. The journal is published by a separate legal entity,HFSP Publishing, and has been set up with a rigorous peerreview system designed to cope with the demands ofreviewing interdisciplinary research. The first issue of thejournal appeared in August 2007 and it is now in its secondvolume. It has recently been accepted for indexing in theWeb of Science, an important step in establishing an impactfactor. The HFPSO Council of Scientists recently judged thatthe journal is setting high standards and is set to play asignificant role in disseminating the interdisciplinarymission of the HFSP.

Although the Program appears to be in good shape, one issueof concern should be mentioned here. It is important to HFSPthat our awards are seen as prestigious and that awardeesbenefit fully from the funds allocated to them. The declinein the value of the US Dollar, the reference currency of HFSP,is worrying since it has a significant impact on the ResearchGrants and Career Development Awards. Our Long-Termand Cross-Disciplinary Fellows are protected from suchcurrency trends since the awards are made in the currencyof the host laboratory. Nevertheless, other factors relatingto social security payments and the taxation of awardsthreaten to decrease the value of our awards (see Chapter 1).

I have begun my last year as Secretary General of the HFSPOand, even if there are budget restrictions and problems tosolve related to the postdoc stipends, overall the future forthe Program looks very good. Next year, HFSP will celebrateits 20th anniversary and this will no doubt energize theorganization under its new leadership to further strengthenthe scientific programs and to take new initiatives.

Dr. Hans Borchgrevink and President Ito after signing the Memorandum of Understanding

between the Research Council of Norway and HFSPO

HFSP Fellowship Program

Marie-Claude Perdigues, Guntram Bauer, Carine Schmitt

chapter 1

Fig. 1-1HFSP Career and Research support

18

The success of the HFSP funding chain, which offers up toeight years of support, was demonstrated again recently whenthe European Research Council (ERC) announced the firstaward winners of the competition for Starting IndependentResearcher Grants. Among the recipients of this well fundedgrant are six former Long Term Fellows, of whom five are alsoCareer Development Award recipients 1. The success of HFSPfellows in the ERC results and in other prestigious awards(see pages 51-53) provides independent and unequivocalproof that the HFSP programs for young resear chers aresupporting the right kind of person.

HFSP support facilitates two important career steps (Fig. 1-1).The first is the mandatory change in country when theawardee moves to a foreign country as a HFSP Long-Termor Cross-Disciplinary Fellow. The second is the esta blish mentof an independent laboratory on return to the home countrybecause the transition from postdoctoral researcher to inde -pendent investigator is a critical step in a young scientist’sacademic career. In recognition of this, former HFSP fellowsmay apply for a Career Development Award to seed theirfirst laboratory back in their home country. The exact timingof this development depends on the successful negotiationof a first independent position. In-between is a so called periodof deferral, during which HFSP offers maximum flexibilityfor career advancement. Deferral can be particularly valuableto Cross-Disciplinary Fellows, who can take advantage of thisopportunity to deepen their knowledge of the new researchfield while being supported by other financial resources.

1.1AN EFFECTIVE

FUNDING CHAIN FORYOUNG RESEARCHERS

* The option to defer the start of the third year is available to Long-Term andCross-Disciplinary Fellows

1 Among the 201 winners of theERC Starting Grants were also 4 awardees from the ResearchGrant Program. Another 11 HFSPawardees are placed on the waitinglist for the ERC grant.

HFSP Research

Grant

Other Grant

Support

Return to home country

New country

3 6 9 12

Y 1-2* DeferralFirst postdoc Y 3

HFSP CDA

Time since Ph.D. (Years)

Applications Awards Success rate

19

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships are intended for postdoctoralfellows with a Ph.D. degree in the physical sciences, chemistry,mathematics, engineering, computer sciences etc. who wishto receive training in the life sciences. The first awards in thiscategory were made in 2005 and since then the applicationsfor this program have remained stable at about 10% ofannual fellowship submissions (Table 1-1). Applicants for thisprogram are encouraged to propose a significant change indiscipline (e.g. from physics to cell biology), to demonstratehow their specific expertise will bear on the biological questionunder study and to indicate how the host laboratory willbenefit from their particular skills. The program mainlyattracts applicants from chemistry and physics representingabout 63% of the applications reviewed since the beginning.The remaining applications were sub mitted by engineers,biophysicists, mathematicians and computer scientists. Thisrange of expertise is exceptional for a fellowship programthat supports research in funda mental biological research.The broad acceptance of the Cross-Disci plinary Fellowshipsoutside the life sciences shows that HFSP’s aim to provide abridge across disciplinary boun daries is indeed being fulfilled.

The aim of the HFSPO Fellowship program is to providepostdoctoral training opportunities for talented youngscientists in the world's best laboratories and at the sametime to facilitate the mobility of young scientists betweencountries. Due to the increased complexity of science andscientific methodology, the process of learning new approachesrequires longer periods of research training before the younginvestigator can achieve independence. Therefore applicantsfor HFSP Fellowships are encouraged to seek training in newfields in order to broaden their scientific experience. Uponcompletion of the fellowship, these well-trained scientistsare expected to be able to promote truly interdisciplinaryresearch in the life sciences.

Long-Term Fellowships are intended to encourage youngresearchers with a background in the life sciences to seekadditional research expertise and training in other fieldswithin biology. Applicants who propose a significant changein research direction and whose research project is originaland represents a departure from their PhD work or previousresearch are particularly encouraged. Statistics relating toapplications to this program are shown in Fig. 1-2.

202

348

499

555

613

711

846

807

704 682652 665

567

639673

609629

614 580

95 957798

125147 159 160 160 160 160 159 144

81 94 90 90 89 83

1516

38

28

26

27

151314

17

12 13

2524

23

20

23

19

26

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

YEARS0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

1.2LONG-TERM AND

CROSS-DISCIPLINARYFELLOWSHIPS

Fig. 1-2Long-Term Fellowship applications, awards and successrate 1990-2008.

NUMBER SUCCESS RATE

20

Awardees in both programs are required to be within threeyears of receiving their Ph.D. at the time of application. Theyare expected to have at least one first author publicationand must not have worked in the host institution for morethan 12 months at the start of their fellowship.

Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships receive identicalsupport for three years. Fellows who wish to extend theirresearch training have the possibility to defer the start oftheir third year for up to two years while being supportedthrough other funding sources. The third and final year ofsupport can either be used in the host laboratory or for afinal year of postdoctoral training in a laboratory in the homecountry. The fellowship provides an annual living allowance2,a research and travel allowance, and in the first year, ifrequested, an allowance for language training. Fellows whoare accompanied by family members may also qualify for afamily support and child allowance.

The lists of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellows whostarted their project in FY 2007 are given in Appendix 5.

Table 1-1: Annual number of reviewed fellowship applications andawards since 2002. (Numbers for award year 2008 maystill be subject to change).

Long-Term Fellowships

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships

Award Number of Success rate Female awardees

year applications awards (%) Number (%)

2002 567 94 17 27 29

2003 639 90 14 29 32

2004 673 90 13 29 32

2005 609 89 15 22 25

2006 629 83 13 29 35

2007 614 95 15 32 34

2008 580 95 16 34 36

TOTAL 4311 636 15 202 32



2005 65 12 18 1 8

2006 55 10 18 2 20

2007 54 5 9 0 0

2008 56 12 21 1 8

TOTAL 230 39 17 4 10

2 A table summarizing the allowances for differentcountries is included in the application guidelines. These can be downloaded from the HFSP website(www.hfsp.org).

21

For the coming fiscal year, the Board recommended 107awards at its meeting in March 2008. Of the 636applications for award year 2008, 42% of the applicationswere made by female candidates. Tables 1-2 and 1-3 give anoverview of the distribution of the 2008 applicants andfellows according to nationality and host country.

The call for applications is announced annually in majorscientific journals. The electronic newsletters of scientificsocieties and organizations and internet lists are also usedto publicize the call. The deadline for the electronic sub missionof fellowship applications was 30 August 2007. All applications were screened by the Secretariat for compliancewith formal criteria and with the scientific scope of theProgram. Each application was assigned to two members ofthe Review Committee for a first evaluation during which thecommittee members each ranked around 50-60applications. The Secretariat then ranked the applications onthe basis of this evaluation. In the discussions during theReview Committee meeting on 14-16 January 2008, the topapplications were scored again by the entire committee andthe most highly qualified candidates were recommended forfunding.

1.3LONG-TERM AND

CROSS-DISCIPLINARYFELLOWSHIP

AWARDS 2008

22

Long-Term Fellowship awardees:

(a’) EU:1 Austria, 1 Bulgaria, 1 Finland, 1 Greece, 1 Poland, 2 Portugal, 1 Romania, 1 Slovakia, 4 Spain, 3 The Netherlands

(b’) Others:1 Argentina, 1 Brazil, 1 Georgia, 6 Israel, 2 Norway, 1 Thailand, 1 Turkey, 5 multi nationality (1 Australia/Hungary/New Zealand, 1 Canada/UK, 1 France/Morocco, 1 Germany/USA, 1 Israel/Switzer land)

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship awardees:

(c’) EU:1 Sweden

(d’) Others:1 Israel, 1 Turkey, 3 dual nationality (1 Australia/UK, 1 Canada/Colombia, 1 Germany/USA)

Long-Term Fellowship applicants:

(a) EU:7 Austria, 4 Belgium, 1 Bulgaria, 2 Czech Republic, 3 Denmark, 3 Finland, 4 Greece, 3 Hungary, 1 Lithuania, 9 Poland, 9 Portugal, 1 Romania, 2 Slovakia, 39 Spain, 7 Sweden, 13 The Netherlands

(b) Others:1 Albania, 9 Argentina, 1 Armenia, 1 Bangladesh, 7 Brazil, 13 China, 3 Chinese Taipei, 1 Colombia, 1 Croatia, 1 Georgia,1 Guatemala, 28 Israel, 1 Lebanon, 4 Mexico, 2 Nigeria, 2 Norway, 1 Puerto Rico, 3 Russia, 1 Thailand, 3 Turkey, 2 Ukraine, 1 Uruguay, 1 Uzbekistan, 24 dual nationality

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants:

(c) EU:1 Hungary, 2 Lithuania, 4 Poland, 1 Romania, 2 Spain, 1 Sweden, 1 The Netherlands

(d) Others:1 Albania, 1 Cameroon, 4 China, 1 Croatia, 1 Iran, 6 Israel, 1 Russia, 1 Turkey, 6 dual nationality

Table 1-2: Nationality of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships applicants and awardees for FY 2008 as decided by the Board in March 2008

Nationality

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Others

TOTAL

Total applicants

19

24

120

87

65

30

27

63

8

2

8

22

27

134

636

Totalawardees

2

2

17

12

23

2

2

12

2

0

1

1

8

23

107

LTFapplicants

18

23

108 (a)

82

62

30

25

60

8

1

8

19

24

112 (b)

580

LTFawardees

2

2

16 (a’)

10

22

2

2

11

2

0

1

1

6

18 (b’)

95

CDF applicants

1

1

12 (c)

5

3

0

2

3

0

1

0

3

3

22 (d)

56

CDFawardees

0

0

1 (c’)

2

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

2

5 (d’)

12

23

EU host countries of:

(a) Long-Term Fellowship applicants:6 Austria, 2 Belgium, 1 Cyprus (EU part), 4 Denmark, 2 Greece, 1 Ireland, 1 Luxembourg, 4 Portugal, 19 Spain, 6 Sweden, 6 The Netherlands

(a’) Long-Term Fellowship awardees:1Austria, 1 Belgium, 1 Spain, 2 Sweden

(c) Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants:1 Denmark, 1 Spain, 3 Sweden, 2 The Netherlands

(c’) Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship awardees:2 Sweden, 1 The Netherlands

Other host countries of:

(b) Long-Term Fellowship applicants:2 Israel, 2 Norway

(b’) Long-Term Fellowship awardee:1 Israel

(d) Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicant:1 Singapore

Table 1-3: Choice of host country of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants and awardees for FY 2008 as decided by the Board in March 2008

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Others

TOTAL

Host Country

Total applicants

22

35

59

33

26

1

8

3

0

3

28

86

327

5

636

Totalawardees

0

7

8

1

5

0

0

0

0

0

9

9

67

1

107

LTFapplicants

21

32

52(a)

26

21

1

8

3

0

2

26

82

302

4(b)

580

LTFawardees

0

7

5(a’)

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

9

7

62

1(b’)

95

CDFapplicants

1

3

7(c)

7

5

0

0

0

0

1

2

4

25

1(d)

56

CDFawardees

0

0

3(c’)

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

5

0

5

24

Because the Short-Term Fellowships are a rolling programwithout a specific submission deadline, the date of application,selection for award and payment of award may not occur in thesame fiscal year. Thus, it is possible to apply, to be awardedthe fellowship and be paid in the same fiscal year (in thecase of a submission at the beginning of the fiscal year) or toapply in one fiscal year but be awarded the fellowship and bepaid in the following fiscal year (in the case of a submissionat the end of the fiscal year).

The number of applications received during each fiscal yearsince 1994 and the number of awards made among theseapplications is shown in Fig. 1-3. The figure also indicates thesuccess rate for this program. The average female successrate is about 36%.

In fiscal years 1990 to 1993, a total of 89 Short-Term Fellowshipswere awarded. The exact number of eligible applications isnot available for this period, since in 1989 and 1990 onlyawardees were registered in the database.

Fig. 1-3: Short Term Fellowship applicants, awardees and successrate from the same fiscal year (1994-2007) as of 31 March2008. A further 17 applications are still under review andsome of them may be awarded the fellowship in FY 2008.Thus, it is not yet possible to calculate a success rate for applicants of FY 2007.

The Short-Term Fellowship program enables researchersearly in their career to spend two weeks to three monthsworking in a laboratory in another country to learn newtechniques or establish new collaborations. The objective ofthe fellowship is to enable successful applicants to developnew techniques or to use instruments or techniques notavailable in their home country. Preference is given to youngresearchers early in their career. Applicants are expected tohave a doctoral degree or equivalent research experience.Former Long-Term or Cross-Disciplinary Fellows can use thissupport to complete work initiated under their past HFSPfellowship. The fellowship provides travel and per diemsupport.

Short-Term Fellowship applications are accepted throughoutthe year. Each application is examined by several externalmail reviewers. The final decision is taken by the Chair of theReview Committee for Fellowships (a list of FY 2007 Awardeesis given in Appendix 7). The main criteria are the scientificoriginality and excellence of the proposal, the accom plish mentsand potential of the candidate, the quality of the hostenvironment, and the training potential of the fellowshipexperience. The overall benefit of international exchange inthe achievement of the aims of the research project is alsoconsidered.

6974

64

39 40,535,8

44,5 43,8 45,3 45,843,5

21,8

3742,6

73

95

69

7873

6872

49

63 62

2730

34 2832

29

20

3330

17

27 2931

22

40,8

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 20070

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

58

50

1.4SHORT-TERM

FELLOWSHIPS

Applications Awards Success rate in %

25

The Career Development Award provides 300,000 USD ofsupport over three years and is open only to former HFSPFellows who have completed at least two years of tenure inthe host laboratory. Applicants must either be in the processof obtaining or already hold a position in the home countryin which they are able to conduct independent research.

Since the inception of this award, 266 fellows from 26 differentcountries have applied to this program. The first CareerDevelopment Awards were made in March 2003. Since then,117 young scientists have received the award and each yearthis network expands as more and more fellows continuetheir career in the home country (Table 1-4). The list ofaward recipients for FY 2007 is given in Appendix 6.

Table 1-4: CDA applications and awards since the beginning of the program

It is often difficult for young investigators to obtainindependent funding to pursue their own line of researchearly in their career. To this end, HFSPO initiated the CareerDevelopment Award which facilitates the fellow’s transitionfrom postdoctoral researcher to independent scientist, providingfurther prospects for becoming an established investigator inthe home country. The support enables young inves ti gatorsto develop their own research program, thus building a cultureof independent young researchers worldwide who are opento new ideas and international collaboration.

The objective of the award is to enable former Long-Termand Cross-Disciplinary Fellows to establish their ownindependent research team after return to the homecountry. Award holders have the opportunity to intensifytheir international collaborations and experimentalendeavors on emerging subjects in the life sciences bydrawing on their experience of neighboring disciplinesduring their HFSP fellowship. Unlike fellowship stipends thatare awarded to outstanding candidates to carry out aspecific project, this award is meant to support the initiationof an independent research program that builds on theaccomplishments of the fellowship tenure but also includesnew elements of international collaboration.



2003 22 8 36%

2004 41 17 41% 5 29%

2005 47 18 38% 2 11%

2006 51 29 57% 6 21%

2007 48 24 50% 6 25%

2008 57 21 37% 5 24%

TOTAL 266 117 44% 24 21%

1.5CAREER

DEVELOPMENTAWARDS

26

Table 1-5: Nationality of CDA applicants and awardees for FY 2008 as decided by the Board in March 2008

Current fellows receive the information about the call forapplications by email. By the deadline for the coming year(8 November 2007), a total of 57 applications were received.Former fellows from award years 2001-2005 were eligible toapply. Applications were assigned for review to two membersof the Council who ranked and commented according to theselection criteria set out in the application guidelines. Eachapplication was also sent to at least two external mail reviewerswho were asked to provide written comments. After initialranking by the two Council members and further discussionsduring the meeting on 3-4 March 2008, 21 applicationswere recommended for funding. The Board approved thefunding of 21 applications. Table 1-5 gives an overview ofthe nationality of 2008 applicants and awardees.

1.6CAREER

DEVELOPMENTAWARDS 2008

Argentina

Australia

Australia/UK

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

France

Germany

Hungary

Israel

Israel/USA

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Spain

Switzerland

The Netherlands

UK

USA

TOTAL

APPLICANTS

1

2

1

2

2

4

8

6

1

6

1

2

6

1

7

1

3

2

1

57

AWARDEES

1

1

3

2

2

1

5

1

3

1

1

21

27

AustraliaPeter CURRIE, The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute,SydneyPaul GLEESON, University of Melbourne

CanadaPaul DE KONINCK, Laval University Robert-Giffard,Beauport, Quebec

European UnionBarry DICKSON, Research Institute of MolecularPathology, Vienna, AustriaMaarten VAN LOHUIZEN, The Netherlands CancerInstitute, AmsterdamIsabelle VERNOS, Centre for Genomic Regulation,Barcelona, Spain

FranceLudger JOHANNES, Institut Curie, ParisMarcel KNOSSOW, C.N.R.S., Gif-sur-Yvette

GermanySuzanne EATON, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, DresdenFrank JÜLICHER, Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, DresdenChristoph SCHMIDT, Georg-August University, Göttingen

IndiaVijayalakshmi RAVINDRANATH, National Brain ResearchCentre, Manesar

ItalyMaria Pia COSMA, Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, Naples

JapanThomas KNOPFEL, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, SaitamaOsamu NUREKI, Tokyo Institute of Technology, KanagawaYoko YAMAGUCHI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Saitama

Republic of KoreaHong Gil NAM, POSTECH, Pohang

New ZealandJoanna PUTTERILL, University of Auckland

SwitzerlandEd PALMER, University Hospital, Basel

UKLaurence HURST, University of BathBonnie WALLACE, Birkbeck College, London

USABarbara FINLAY, Cornell University, IthacaMichel NUSSENZWEIG, The Rockefeller University, New YorkPeter WOLYNES, University of California, San Diego

OtherRuth SPERLING, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelMingjie ZHANG, Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology, Hong Kong China

Delegate from the Council of ScientistsLuis SERRANO, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona,Spain

1.7THE 2008 REVIEW

COMMITTEE FORFELLOWSHIPS

chapter 2

HFSP Research Grant Program

Carole Asnaghi, Geoffrey Richards, Armelle Koukoui

30

Cutting edge research - a moving target

The biggest challenge to the Review Committee is toidentify novel frontier research applications incorporatingdiverse expertise from both the biological and physicalsciences. For this the committee must include membersfamiliar with disciplines such as chemistry, physics,mathematics and engi neering in addition to the moretraditional biological sciences. Furthermore, the range ofapplications is such that the committee may lack theexpertise necessary to assess the contribution of some ofthe team members. For this we often need to solicitopinions from mail reviewers working in departments thatare unfamiliar with the Program. Fortu nately, not only do weobserve the same willingness to help in the review processfrom such experts as those in more traditional biologicaldepartments, but also we often receive spontaneousremarks confirming the originality and interest of theproject. In some cases however these specialist reviewerspoint out that the ‘innovative’ approach is routine in theirdiscipline and that furthermore the applicants are notfamiliar with important literature in that area!

The concept of novelty is related to the speed at whichcertain fields or techniques advance. A project consideredcutting-edge one year may be considered as routine a coupleof years later. Equally a novel technology (microscopy, labeling,bioinformatics programs etc.) may become commerciallyavailable within two or three years. Committee members musthave sufficient stature so as to decide whether an approachis innovative or standard. A perfect illustration of thisproblem was seen during the Selection Committee this yearwhere we heard ‘this is a routine molecular tweezers project’.

Finally there appears to be a new willingness to collaborateat the international level. Teams now have every oppor tu ni tyto exchange on a daily basis via the web to ensure that thecollaboration is effective. With the expansion of HFSPmember ship in recent years the possible combinations haveincreased considerably (notably because of the role of thePrincipal Applicant in choosing team members) and weexpect to see significant changes in the profiles of colla bo -rations in the coming years. Successful teams seem moreinclined to organize regular meetings to discuss problems faceto face. The overall impression is that scientists are learningthe interest of making such collaborations reality (rather thancontinuing their ongoing projects in parallel). This aspect isconsidered very seriously by the Review Committee whichgives considerable importance to the details of interactionsbetween the team members that are presented in the fullapplication.

Research Grants are awarded for collaborative projects offundamental research carried out by a team of two to fourscientists from different countries. Research teams must beinternational and preferably intercontinental. In addition tothese basic criteria, emphasis is placed on the inter disci plinarynature of the collaboration. Grants are awarded for a periodof three years to teams who wish to combine their expertiseto approach problems in the life sciences that could not beanswered by individual laboratories. Priority is given to novelcollaborations that bring together scientists from differentdisciplines (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics,computer science and engineering). To stimulate novel, daringideas and innovative approaches, preliminary results are notrequired and applicants are expected to develop new linesof research. The Principal Applicant’s laboratory must belocated in one of the member countries while the otherteam members may be situated anywhere in the world.

Two types of grant were awarded in FY 2008: Young Inves -tigator Grants for groups of young scientists establishingtheir research groups, and Program Grants for scientists atany stage of their career. The applications are processed inparallel but the grant Review Committee in Januaryexamines and ranks each group separately.

OVERVIEW OF THEGRANTS PROGRAM

2.1

31

The Young Investigator Grant scheme was introduced in the2001 award year to encourage collaboration between youngscientists who are within five years of obtaining their firstindependent positions. In 2005, to make the Young Inves -tigator program equally attractive and provide a realisticamount for three and four member teams to carry out theirprojects, the Board decided to bring the amount awarded toYoung Investigators in line with the Program Grants. YoungInvestigator Grant teams receive 250 thousand USD per yearfor two members, 350 thousand USD for three members,and 450 thousand USD for four or more. Local collabo rationsin the same country are permitted but teams only receivefunds equivalent to 1.5 team members if the collaborationis truly interdisciplinary. This measure aims to facilitate theformation of teams involving scientists from different disci -plines since it is often difficult for scientists, especially youngerinvestigators, to find appropriate partners internationally. Inthe 2008 award year, applications from Young Investigatorsrepresented about 24% of the letters of intent received (anincrease from an average of 17.5% between 2004 and 2007).While initially these applications had a comparable successrate to those submitted for Program Grants, since the 2006award year they have been consistently more successful.

2.2YOUNG

INVESTIGATORGRANTS

PROGRAM GRANTS

2.3

These are awarded to teams of independent researchers atany stage of their career. The research team is expected todevelop new lines of research through the collaboration.Applications including independent investigators early in theircareer are encouraged. Priority is given to new, innovativeresearch projects for which preliminary results may notnecessarily be available. Since 2004, the amount awardeddepends on the size of the team and is currently 250 thousandUSD for two members, 350 thousand USD for three members,and 450 thousand USD for four or more team members. Therules concerning team members from the same country arethe same as for the Young Investigators.

32

Invitations were sent out immediately after the SelectionCommittee meeting with the deadline for submission of fullapplications as 11 September 2007. 88 teams submitted fullapplications, although one was withdrawn shortly prior tothe Review Committee meeting as the imminent relocationof one of the team members eliminated the internationalelement. Each full application was evaluated by mail(external) reviewers who submitted a written report and bytwo members of the Review Committee for ResearchGrants. Scientific merit, innovation and interdisciplinaritywere the most important criteria in the evaluation of theprojects. Internationality, and especially intercontinentality,and the participation of researchers early in their careersalso ranked highly, not only in the case of Young Investigatorbut also in Program Grant applications. The Young Inves -tigators’ applications were reviewed separately in the samemanner as Program Grants. The Review Committee met on21-23 January 2008 in Strasbourg to discuss the 87 fullapplications and recommended 32 for awards, 14 YoungInvestigator and 18 Program Grants. The selection of awardswas confirmed by the Council of Scientists and financialconsiderations (budgetary restrictions) were taken intoaccount by the Board of Trustees before the recom men -dations were approved. Both awardees and unsuccessfulapplicants received feedback from the committee in theform of a short summary.

Fig. 2-1 shows the number of applications and awards sincethe beginning of the Program until award year 2008. Withan average success rate of c.13% between 1990 and 2001,the procedure was simplified for applicants from 2002 onwardsby the introduction of shorter Letters of Intent outlining thecollaboration and the project. Following initial review bymembers of the Grant Review Committee, a smallerSelection Committee meets in the summer to invite fullapplications for the more promising proposals. The numbersof applications and awards using this two step procedurefrom 2002 onwards are shown in Table 2-1.

Table 2-2 and Table 2-3 present an analysis of genderdistribution in award year 2008.

Awardees starting their research work in FY 2008 wereselected among the applications received in reply to the callpublished in the international scientific journals Science andNature and on the HFSP website. The call was also publi cizedvia the websites or newsletters of relevant scientific societies.A two-step review process was used. Guidelines and appli cationforms for both the letter of intent (the first step) and for fullapplications (the second step) were provided on the web, andthe submission and review of applications were entirely elec-tronic. The deadline for letters of intent was 3rd April 2007.

The 774 letters of intent received were initially screened onthe basis of formal eligibility. Only a few letters of intentwere rejected on these grounds. Since 2005, triage has beenintroduced to reduce the response time for inappropriateapplications; a small scientific committee including the Chairand Vice-Chair of the Review Committee screened the lettersof intent and those that did not meet the scientific aims ofthe Program, 78 applications in all, did not enter the fullreview process. The Principal Applicant was informed assoon as possible so that the team might apply for fundingelsewhere. Each remaining letter of intent was evaluated bytwo Review Committee members. The top-scoring projectswere examined by a Selection Committee consisting ofpresent and past members of the Review Committees. TheSelection Committee met on 18-20 June to discuss aboutone third of the original submissions (262 applications) andfollowing these discussions, 88 applicants were invited tosubmit a full application. Teams that were not asked tosubmit full applications were given brief feedback con ce rningthe selection procedure, the evaluation criteria and thegeneral classification of their application.

2.4RESEARCH GRANT

AWARDS 2008

33

Fig. 2-1:Research Grant applications and awards

Table 2-1: Research Grant applications and awards each year since 2002 (2 step procedure)

Table 2-2: Gender distribution in award year 2007

Table 2-3: Distribution of female scientists in awarded applications

Applicants Awardees

439

315

386

31 33 34 32 3235

756*

774*

749*719*

548* 549*

733*

235 239

281

332351

389 385 381365

5229 32 37 42 40 45 48 47 50 54 53

37

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Award year Letters Full Awards Success rate Total cost inof intent applications invited (%) their 1st year (USD million)

2002 548 72 37 51.4* 12.35

2003 549 80 31 39.0* 10.85

2004 733 67 33 49.2* 11.75

2005 719 86 34 39.5* 12.75

2006 749 80 32 40.0* 11.05

2007 756 80 35 44.3* 12.70

2008 774 88 32 36.8* 10.65

TOTAL 763**

* based on full applications ** grand total of awards (1990-2008)

Female Nb. scientists 343 94 35 14

% 17.2 21.0 16.7 19.7

Male Nb. scientists 1648 354 174 57

% 82.8 79.0 83.3 80.3

TOTAL Nb. scientists 1991* 448* 209 71

Program Young Program Young

*2 Program Grants and 1 Young Investigator Grant: information refused

Letters of intent Invited applications

Program Grant 61 10 16.4 15.9 4 4

Young Investigator 38 5 13.2 20.7 2 2

TOTAL 99 15 15.1 17.1 6 6

Total Female % Female (2007) Female PI (2007)

Fig. 2-3: Countries in which awardees are working

34

The largest number of applications came from principalinvestigators in the USA and almost one third of successfulapplicants (all team members) were working in the USA.

(b) EU Invited1 Austria, 1 Belgium, 4 The Netherlands, 4 Spain, 2 Sweden

(c) EU Awarded

1 Austria, 2 The Netherlands, 2 Spain, 1 Sweden

Distribution of awards per country

Fig 2-2 shows the distribution of the principal investigator forthe 2008 awards among various countries and Fig. 2-3shows the total number of scientists in different countriesparticipating in the international teams.

Fig. 2-2: Countries in which principal investigators are working

(a) EU Letter of Intent3 Austria, 7 Belgium, 6 Denmark, 3 Finland, 5 Greece, 2 Hungary, 2 Ireland, 1 Lithuania, 23 The Netherlands,

3 Poland, 1 Portugal, 3 Slovenia, 21 Spain, 14 Sweden

Principal Investigators: 32 Co-Investigators: 67

Letter of intent: 774 Full applications: 88 Awardees: 32

34

52

27

45

94

40 42

70

37

9 83 3 7 712

51 2 5

12 4 3 1 16

0

50

100

150

200

250

AU CA CH DE EU FR IN IT JP KR NZ

57

11

29

411

UK USA

259

11

16

4

9

2

4

6

3

1 1

5

3

6

12

3

8

5

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

AU CA CH DE EU FR IN IT JP KR NZ USAUK Others

Principal investigatorsEU : 1 Austria, 2 Spain, 1 Sweden, 2 The Netherlands

Co-investigatorsEU: 1 Czech Republic, 2 Finland, 1 Poland, 1 Slovenia, 4 Spain, 3 The NetherlandsNon MSPs : 1 China, 1 Chinese Taipei, 2 Israel, 1 Russia

35

(a) Others from EU Letter of IntentPG: 13 Austria, 27 Belgium, 1 Cyprus (EU part), 8 Czech Republic, 18 Denmark, 2 Estonia, 18 Finland, 11 Greece, 8 Hungary, 6 Ireland, 2 Lithuania, 10 Poland, 2 Portugal,1 Romania, 2 Slovakia, 8 Slovenia, 50 Spain, 34 Sweden, 50 The NetherlandsYI: 4 Austria, 1 Belgium, 3 Czech Republic, 2 Denmark, 1 Finland, 2 Greece, 2 Hungary, 1 Ireland, 1 Lithuania, 2 Poland, 3 Portugal, 13 Spain, 9 Sweden, 18 The Netherlands

(b) Others from EU InvitedPG: 2 Austria, 2 Belgium, 1 Denmark, 1 Finland, 1 Greece, 1 Slovenia, 13 Spain, 1 Sweden, 7 The NetherlandsYI: 2 Czech Republic, 1 Finland, 1 Poland, 2 Spain, 1 Sweden, 4 The Netherlands

(c) Others from EU AwardedPG: 1 Austria, 1 Finland, 1 Slovenia, 6 Spain, 3 The NetherlandsYI: 1 Czech Republic, 1 Finland, 1 Poland, 1 Sweden, 2 The Netherlands

(a’) Non MSPs Letter of IntentPG: 11 Argentina, 10 Brazil, 1 Chile, 16 China, 2 Chinese Taipei, 1 Croatia, 2 Cuba, 2 Egypt, 2 Hong Kong China, 50 Israel, 1 Kenya, 1 Liechtenstein, 3 Mexico, 1 Nigeria, 4 Norway, 1 Panama (Republic of), 1 Puerto Rico, 9 Russia, 3 Serbia and Montenegro, 8 Singapore, 4 South Africa, 1 Sultanate of Oman, 1 Thailand, 3 Turkey, 3 Ukraine, 2 UruguayYI: 1 Brazil, 6 China, 1 Croatia, 1 Egypt, 13 Israel, 2 Mexico, 2 Russia, 3 Singapore, 1 South Africa, 1 Thailand, 1 Turkey, 1 Uruguay

(b’) Non MSPs InvitedPG: 1 Argentina, 1 China, 1 Chinese Taipei, 2 Israel, 1 Panama (Republic of), 1 Puerto Rico, 4 Singapore, 2 South AfricaYI: 3 Israel, 1 Russia, 1 South Africa, 1 Uruguay

(c’) Non MSPs AwardedPG: 1 China, 1 Chinese TaipeiYI: 2 Israel, 1 Russia

Table 2-4: Number of applicants and awardees listed by country of institution

80

93

271(a)

97

147

64

119

170

18

19

57

160

555

143(a’)

1993

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Non MSPs

TOTALS

13

22

62(a)

23

35

14

24

27

7

6

8

38

137

33(a’)

449

93

115

333(a)

120

182

78

143

197

25

25

65

198

692

176(a’)

2442

12

6

40(b)

19

22

2

8

30

1

1

9

33

78

19(b’)

280

5

5

18(c)

6

10

0

1

9

0

0

0

13

27

5(c’)

99

9

4

29(b)

15

12

2

8

23

0

1

9

29

55

13(b’)

209

3

2

11(b)

4

10

0

0

7

1

0

0

4

23

6(b’)

71

3

3

12(c)

4

4

0

1

6

0

0

0

11

15

2(c’)

61

2

2

6(c)

2

6

0

0

3

0

0

0

2

12

3(c’)

38

Letter of intent Invited Awardees

PG=Program GrantsYG=Young Investigators PG YG TOTAL PG YG TOTAL PG YG TOTAL

Fig. 2-4: Interdisciplinarity in Research Grants

% scientists from non-biological disciplines participatingin Research Grants

Since 2001 HFSP has emphasized the importance of inter -disciplinarity in the grants program, an idea which at thattime was novel for both applicants and Review Committeemembers. In order to follow changes in the skills of partici -pants each year, the analysis of interdisciplinarity was basedon the titles of the institutions of individual applicants andawardees and for consistency this approach has been retained(although if one looks at the career of the awardees it is clearthat even more have entered life sciences either after theirinitial, or their doctoral degree). Amongst all applicants thepercentage of scientists coming from institutes outside thelife sciences has steadily increased from 7.1% in 2001 to17.3% in 2008 while in the awarded category this group hasaveraged 26.7% over the last four award years, up from3.1% in 2001.

It appears that the idea of interdisciplinarity is now firmlyestablished in the grant programs. The Review Committeedeals with this at an early stage in the selection procedure(letters of intent and/or Selection Committee) and rela tivelylittle time is spent on this issue at the January committeethat considers the full applications.

36

Awarded All applicant

10,9%

20,4%21,7%

29,4%

24,8%26,3%

7,1%

3,1%

16,8%15,7%

14.2%

11,0%10,7%

10,0%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

26,3%

17,3%

2008

37

AustraliaPerry BARTLETT, University of Queensland, St LuciaJennifer STOW, University of Queensland, St Lucia

CanadaGabrielle BOULIANNE, University of TorontoPaul WISEMAN, McGill University, Montreal

FranceBurkhard BECHINGER, Louis Pasteur University, StrasbourgMichael SEAGAR, University of Marseille

GermanyMichael BRECHT, Humboldt-Universität, BerlinWinfried DENK, Max-Planck Institute for MedicalResearch, Heidelberg

IndiaGautam DESIRAJU, University of Hyderabad

ItalyElisabetta DEJANA, IFOM-IEO Campus, MilanAllesandro TREVES, International School for AdvancedStudies, Trieste

JapanAkihiro KUSUMI, Kyoto UniversitySatoru MIYANO, University of Tokyo

Republic of KoreaYoung-Joon KIM, Yonsei University, Seoul

New ZealandEdward BAKER, University of Auckland

SwitzerlandJerzy PASZKOWSKI, University of Geneva

UKAnthony WATTS, University of OxfordRose ZAMOYSKA, University of Edinburgh

USADora ANGELAKI, Washington University, St LouisHerbert LEVINE, University of California San DiegoErin O’SHEA, Harvard University, CambridgeClaire WALCZAK, Indiana University, Bloomington

European UnionBror ALSTERMARK, Umea University, SwedenRyszard KIERZEK, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan,PolandFrederick MACKINTOSH, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

Delegate from the Council of ScientistsPaul LASKO, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

THE 2008 REVIEWCOMMITTEE FOR

RESEARCH GRANTS

2.5

chapter 3

HFSP Awardees - Highlights

40

Program Grant Awardee:

Tarun Kapoor

HFSP Program Grant team principal investigator Tarun Kapoor,a chemist and cell biologist at The Rockefeller University inNew York, likes to show the strange, cathedral-like image ofa termite mound to illustrate a deep principle underlying thecomplex cell division process he studies. A “termite cathedral”emerges through the local interactions of thousands of insectswith limited intelligence and no architect or blueprint. Theprocess by which duplicated chromosomes are pulled apart byspindle fibers into two daughter cells during mitosis appearsbeautifully choreographed: yet, rather like termites buildingtheir cathedrals, the steps followed by spindle fibers are notchoreographed in advance. Spindle fibers are composed ofmicrotubules whose tubulin subunits assemble, grow andattach to chromosome centers by a random, exploratoryprocess of dynamic tubulin assembly and disassembly. Theyare part of a “self-organizing system,” says Kapoor, “a processin which multiple agents follow behavioral rules locally, withno master plan followed by the agents or imposed on themby a leader.”

By means of the range of awards available, HFSP makes acareer-long commitment to researchers worldwide, providingthem with opportunities for training, repatriation and inter -national, interdisciplinary collaboration. Since the beginningof the Program in 1989, HFSP has built up an internationalconstituency of imaginative scientists who put into practicethe interdisciplinary approaches that are unraveling thecomplex mechanisms of living organisms. Examples of theirresearch are given in the profiles that follow:

SCIENTIFICPROFILES OF HFSP

AWARDEES

3.1

41

In separate experiments, Kapoor used single-moleculefluorescence imaging to visualize the processive movementof the kinesin-5 motor along microtubule fibers—a movementthat requires ATP. “But our movies also revealed somethingquite striking and unexpected,” says Kapoor. “The motor didnot simply walk in a directional mode; it made some curiouspauses as if making a decision whether to step forward or not.”Indeed, the kinesin-5 “termite” appeared to have a second,diffusive mode of motility, that did not require ATP, and thatmight be involved in recruiting microtubules into bundles.

This surprising discovery has led to a new set of fascinatingquestions regarding the behavioral rules followed by theself-organizing agents of mitotic spindles. “How does themotor make decisions to pause and sit around and diffuseversus actively step forward and generate [cell-division]forces?” asks Kapoor.

Kapoor and his collaborators aim to “build up the complexity”of this minimal spindle system by adding other kinds ofmolecular motors thought to be involved in this self-organizing cell division process. In addition, the kinesin-5/Eg5 cell division motor is a major target for thedevelopment of new anti-cancer drugs that, like Monastrol,can arrest the growth of dividing cells. Kapoor’s minimalspindle offers a new assay system to test these drug’sprecise mechanism and specificity of action.

Geoffrey Montgomery

Understanding complex self-organizing systems is a centralconceptual challenge in 21st century life science research,and Kapoor’s laboratory fuses three experimental strategiestowards this goal. First, he uses state-of-the-art live-cellimaging methods to follow spindle fiber dynamics at thehighest possible resolution. Second, he uses his specialchemical expertise to design new approaches to perturbingspecific aspects of cell division with cell-permeable, small,organic molecules. Third, he tries to reconstitute funda -mental aspects of cell division in the test tube using purifiedcomponents. Indeed, Kapoor’s HFSP funded team maderemarkable progress in this last experimental domain: takingcrucial first steps towards creating a “minimal spindle” thatrecapitulates key aspects of spindle dynamics in vivo.

Advanced imaging methods, such as Fluorescent SpeckleMicroscopy, show that as a cell divides, the tubulin subunitsof adjacent spindle fibers move in opposite directions. Itseems, says Kapoor, that “we are seeing the movement oftwo microtubule filaments slide relative to each other,”helping to push the two future daughter cells apart.

As a candidate “molecular termite” underlying this bipolarspindle movement, Kapoor’s team focused on the motorprotein kinesin-5 (also called Eg5). Mitotic spindles fail toform if kinesin-5 is inhibited by the drug Monastrol or byRNAi. Moreover, kinesin-5 has a quite intriguing structure.Unlike classical kinesin motors, which have only two headsattached to a stalk region, kinesin-5/Eg5 has two heads oneach end of this stalk, forming a dumbbell-like structurethat could be well-adapted to binding simultaneously totwo different microtubules of opposite orientations in thebipolar spindle.

Reconstituting bi-directional microtubule movement in vitropresented a number of challenges. Team member ChristophSchmidt, a physicist now at the University of Goettingen inGermany, developed methods for treating microtubules withhydrophobic polymer brushes that enabled one microtubuleto stick to a surface and the other to be bound only throughthe kinesin-5 motor; the two microtubules could bedifferentially visualized by red and green fluorescent protein.The team also used optical tweezers to control microtubuleorientation so that a red and green microtubule, coupled by anEg5 motor, had their plus-ends pointed in opposite directions,as in the bipolar mitotic spindle. Remarkably, they found thatthis in vitro “minimal spindle” slid microtubule fibers apart atrates comparable to spindle separation in living cells.

42

Long-Term Fellow:

Philipp Selenko

While an undergraduate student in chemistry in his nativeVienna, HFSP Long-Term Fellow Philipp Selenko remembersstaring at the atomic portrait of a protein structure on thecover of a magazine. Before choosing chemistry, Selenkohad thought seriously about becoming an architect. Andhere, in the shape of this intricate biomolecule, “wassomething like a micro-architecture that Nature has builtitself. I looked at this protein machinery almost from anarchitectural point of view, and I thought: ‘This is beautiful.I want to do structural biology.’” This meant choosing betweentwo experimental methods of structure determination: X-raycrystallography and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectro -scopy (NMR). “And I felt that NMR was a much youngerfield than X-ray crystallography, and there was a lot moregoing on in terms of new method development.”

43

Selenko’s GB1 pilot studies, published in Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences in 2006, were hailed in anaccompanying commentary as “an important advance inendeavors [to gain atomic-level knowledge of molecules inliving cells] by providing the first high-resolution glimpseinto how the cytoplasm of a higher eukaryotic cell can affectthe properties of a folded protein.” More recently, Selenkohas used his new method to visualize how critical enzymescalled kinases regulate the function of substrate proteins byadding phosphate groups to particular amino acid residues,work published in February 2008 in Nature Structural andMolecular Biology. Phosphorylation changes the chemicalenvironment of an amino acid; and it is precisely the chemicalenvironment of a labeled atom that NMR spectro scopydetects. Selenko’s in-cell NMR method for visualizing suchpost-translational protein changes operates at spatial andtemporal resolutions impossible by conventional methodssuch as mass spectrometry. “And I’m now getting a lot ofquestions from hard-core biologists asking whether wecould look at the phosphorylation regulatory domains ofthe proteins they’re studying.”

But rather than simply apply proven procedures to moreproteins, Selenko’s focus in his new well-funded lab in Berlinwill be to expand his pioneering in-cell NMR method intonew molecular and cellular arenas, such as visualizing theprotein modifications (acetylation and methylation) thatregulate the activity of chromosomes. “What we really wantto ask is: how many kinds of protein-modification eventscan we observe happening at the same time in the sameexperiment? And can we eventually adapt this method tomammalian cells, such as neurons?”

Geoffrey Montgomery

Indeed, during his HFSP fellowship in Gerhard Wagner’slaboratory at Harvard Medical School, Selenko has advancedNMR methods to achieve a true breakthrough in structuralbiology: the ability to observe structural modifications ofproteins inside living eukaryotic cells engaged in complexbiological processes. In November 2007, Selenko moved backto Europe to head his own laboratory at the Leibniz Institutefor Molecular Pharmacology in Berlin, where he will continueto develop his pioneering new method of in vivo structuralbiology.

Selenko’s eureka moment occurred during a beer hour atHarvard, stimulated by cross-disciplinary interactions withcell biologists who worked on the unfertilized eggs (oocytes)of Xenopus frogs. Xenopus oocytes are gigantic cells, onemillimeter in diameter, fifty times the size of an averagebody cell. Selenko had attended many Xenopus talks atHarvard and became accustomed to descriptions of howXenopus biologists micro-injected compounds of all kindsinto these huge oocytes in order to probe complex cellularbehaviors. At the Harvard beer hour surrounded by Xenopusbiologists, he suddenly had what he calls a “crazy idea.” NMRspectroscopy depends on labeling biomolecules with NMR-active atomic isotopes, such as Nitrogen-15. “And I thought:Why not inject a labeled protein into a Xenopus oocyte andjust look at it by NMR, and see what you get?” Such “in-cellNMR” methods had just been developed by Volker Dötsch’slab for E. coli bacteria, which could be genetically engineeredto produce high quantities of NMR-visible proteins; but no onehad successfully applied in-cell NMR to higher, eukaryotic cells.

“The only reason I could pursue this wild idea was because Ihad independent funding from HFSP,” says Selenko. Thework was not along lines being pursued in Gerhard Wagner’slaboratory. “But I had my own fellowship funding, and Gerhardwas generous enough to allow me to do whatever I wantedto do.”

Selenko began by injecting into Xenopus eggs a labeledbacterial protein domain called GB1, which is completelyinert inside eukaryotic cells. These frog eggs were thenstacked inside an NMR tube and scanned by a spectroscopefor forty-five minutes. “It was late at night, and I came backafter 45 minutes and began processing my data on thecomputer screen, and I was just amazed.” The NMR spectraof the GB1 inside Xenopus oocytes was perfectly super -imposable on the NMR spectra of pure GB1 samples, just aswould be expected for an inert protein. Every point on thespectra could be assigned to a specific amino acid residue inthe GB1 protein sequence, and “the pattern of points is likea fingerprint of the three-dimensional conformation of thatprotein.”

44

“Chalkboard sessions”, more specialized thematic sessions,which enabled scientists in specific fields to get to knoweach other early in the meeting, and a special session inoptical imaging methods. The hot scientific topics keptparticipants in good spirits despite the coldest week in 60years of meteorological records!

The meeting featured HFSP awardees who had receivedtheir awards between 2004 and 2006. During this period theinterdisciplinary orientation of HFSP’s scientific priorities,especially in the grant program, has been significantlyenhanced and it was clear from the presentations in Australiathat this aspect of the HFSP’s programs has really come of age.The program of talks is presented at the end of this section.Some highlights from the awardees’ talks are included here.A full report of this meeting is available on the HFSPwebsite at:http://www.hfsp.org/awardees/Awardees_Meetings.php

In an exemplary interdisciplinary collaboration, zoologistRoswitha Wiltschko and physicist Thorsten Ritzpresented their studies on the mechanisms underlyingthe avian magnetic compass. Two main theories arecurrently being investigated: one involves the participationof magnetite particles, the other depends upon thesensitivity of pigment molecules to weak magnetic fieldsdue to the formation of radical pairs. Their combinedexperimental and theo re tical studies point strongly to theexistence of radical pair mechanisms underlying orientationpreference in robins and lead to identification of thecryptochromes as candi date molecules with appropriatebiophysical properties.

In his poetically titled talk “The THz dance of water withproteins”, grant holder Martin Gruebele from theDepart ment of Chemistry and Center for Biophysics andCompu ta tional Biology at the University of Illinoisdescribed how the use of far red IR radiation of THzfrequencies can provide information about the contributionof surface water to the structure and energetics ofproteins. Together with Martina Havenith and DavidLeitner, the team has found that the motion of watermolecules around protein molecules is constrained as faras 0.2 nm from the protein surfaces. Given the highconcentration of protein in living cells, this implies thatvirtually all the water molecules in the cell are constrainedand form a shell of hydration that might affect the way inwhich smaller molecules can approach proteins.

The annual Awardees Meetings have now become ahighpoint in the HFSP calendar, bringing together ResearchGrant awardees, Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowsand Career Development Award holders. The aim is tostimulate interactions between HFSP awardees in the hopethat this will encourage new collaborations and build agreater sense of community among those who have beenfunded by the Program. The meeting is hosted in a differentmember country each year. The first seven were held inTurin, Italy (2001), Ottawa, Canada (2002), Cambridge, UK(2003), Hakone, Japan (2004), Washington, USA (2005)Paris, France (2006) and Twin Waters, near Brisbane,Australia (2007). The eighth meeting is being organized inBerlin, Germany from 6-9 July 2008.

All current awardees are invited to participate while otherawardees, for instance from the host city or country, areinvited if space permits. The meetings have been welcomedenthusiastically by the awardees and have providedmembers of the HFSPO Board, Council, Review Committeesand staff with an excellent opportunity to appreciate thework being funded and to increase the visibility of the HFSPin the host country.

For the seventh meeting in 2007, the HFSP awardeesventured for the first time into the southern hemisphere tothe Twin Waters resort on the Sunshine Coast near Brisbane,Australia. The meeting was generously supported by theAustralian National Health and Medical Research Council.The meeting featured 25 talks and 98 posters by HFSPawardees. Two excellent plenary lectures were given byAustralian neuroscientist, Mandyam Srinivasan and NobelPrize winner, Roger Kornberg. The program also included

HFSP AWARDEESMEETINGS

3.2

45

Two talks by young HFSP awardees showed howchemistry can be brought to bear on biological problems.Mathieu Pucheault, one of the first HFSP Cross-Disciplinary Fellows, described his work on the use ofchemical biology to investigate intracellular signallingpathways. He has developed a system using smallmolecules to induce specific protein degradation. Thisopens up exciting possibilities to investigate the biologicalconsequences of removing proteins selectively from cellsin a “knock down” strategy. Another young scientistcoming from organic chemistry is Gonen Ashkenazy,currently a Career Develop ment Awardee in Israel.Ashkenazy’s interests are in molecular networks and hisapproach is to start from a simple synthetic system. Hiswork on peptide-based non-linear networks will give anunderstanding of the conse quences of subtle changes inchemical bonding on the overall function of molecularnetworks.

To round off the meeting, in an entertaining and infor ma tiveafter-dinner speech, Jenny Graves showed how genomicstudies of unconventional species can give profound insightsinto biological processes. As she put it, for some evolutio narystudies “Kangaroos are just right”. One provocative implicationof her studies is that the Y chromosome may not be asenduring as some like to believe and that in humans itmight be completely eliminated in the next 9 million years.

Several talks concerned the ways in which the brains ofhigher mammals, including man, respond to and processsensory stimuli. Two will be mentioned here. Long-TermFellow Amir Amedi presented a fascinating account ofhis research with Alvaro Pascual-Leone, William Stern andPeter Meijer into cross-modal sensory processing. Hepresented a sophisticated combination of hardware andsoftware that transforms visual images into patterns ofsound and showed that a part of the lateral occipitalcortex known as LOtv is involved in processing such “soundshapes” as well as shapes detected from visual or tactilestimuli. Such sensory substitution devices might prove ofgreat benefit to blind individuals. In a second talk,Alessandro Treves presented work of his grant team withRay Dolan and Bharathi Jagadeesh on the way the brainprocesses the emotional content of facial expressions. Theircombined compu ta tional, functional imaging and singlecell studies on adaptation to emotional facial expressionsprovide insights into the mechanisms we use for interpretingemotional content.

In many of the talks and posters it was evident that therewere exciting developments in the field of optical imagingof cells and molecules, prompting a special workshop inadvanced imaging techniques. In his talk in the mainmeeting, Paul De Koninck reported on his work withPaul Wiseman and Benoit Dubertret using quantumdots to track the movement of neurotransmitter receptorsvia lateral diffusion and trapping. In this study it wasevident that new methods were needed for analysing thedata to allow accurate tracking of quantum dots due totheir complex physics. This was taken up during theworkshop by physicist Paul Wiseman, who described hownew methods of analysis involve a departure from “realspace” vector analysis and involve calculations in “reciprocalspace”. This allows the separation of photophysical factorssuch as QD blinking or probe photobleaching from thetransport fluctuations of the molecules being followed soas to allow analysis of the movements themselves ratherthan ‘artifacts’ that come from the complex emissionphotophysics. In another approach to tracking singlemolecules, Daniel Choquet described the use of the newmethod of photo-thermal imaging of gold nanoparticles.In a close collaboration between the groups of Choquetand Brahim Lounis, their colleague Laurent Cognet hasused GPS-style triangulation methods to track labelledparticles rather than scanning the whole field. Althoughthere are still technical problems to overcome, this methodhas the exciting potential of tracking 2-3 nm stable metalparticles.

46

Wednesday 18 July

Registration and reception at the Twin Waters Resort

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15:00-19:00 Registration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18:00-21:00 Welcome reception Lily’s Restaurant

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SEVENTH AWARDEES ANNUALMEETINGTWIN WATERS RESORT, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, 18-21 JULY 2007

PROGRAMME

47

Thursday 19 July

8:45-9:00 Opening remarks/Welcoming address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:00-10:00 Plenary Lecture (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)Small brains, smart minds: vision, navigation and 'cognition' in honeybees, and applications to roboticsMandyam V. Srinivasan, The Queensland Brain Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Oral Session 1 (Chair: Fred Mackintosh). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:05-10:25 A radical pair sensor underlies the magnetic compass of birdsRitz, T., Wiltschko, R., Hore, P., Thalau, P., Rodgers, C., Timmel, C., Stapput, K., Wiltschko, W.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10.25-10.45 Computational and experimental analysis of signaling proteins – elucidating function and specificityKosloff, M., Honig, B., Arshavsky, V.Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:45-11:15 Coffee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Oral Session 2 (Chair: Jennifer Stow). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:15-11:35 Imaging synaptic development and plasticity of adult-born neurons in the mouse olfactory bulbRaday, G., Livneh, Y., Mizrahi, A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:35-11:55 In vivo selective protein degradation induced by a small moleculePucheault, M.T, Gough, J.D., Smith, A.R., Crews, C.M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:55-12:15 Molecular mechanics of bilateral symmetry in vertebrate embryos Vermot J., Fraser S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12:15-12:35 The dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus as a putative food-entrainable circadian pacemakerMieda, M., Williams, S.C., Richardson, J.A., Tanaka, K., Yanagisawa, M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12:35-14:00 Lunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14:00-15:30 Chalkboard Sessions1. Issues and techniques in macromolecular structure and function (Moderators: Daniela Rhodes, Joe Howard)

2. Genes, proteins, signals and cells (Moderators: Jenny Stow, Jonathon Pines)

3. Self and non-self: interactions between cells and organisms (Moderators: Frances Brodsky, Avadhesha Surolia)

4. Neuroscience: from molecules to systems (Moderators: Guy Orban, Barry Dixon)

5. Developments in development (Moderators: Peter Currie, Paul Lasko). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15:30-18:00 Poster Session I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18:00-19:00 Open discussion on HFSP and the HFSP Journal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.30 Dinner (beach buffet). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

Friday 20 July

Oral Session 3 (Chair: Frances Brodsky). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8:45-9:05 Probing synaptic remodeling with quantum dots and image correlation spectroscopyDe Koninck, P., Labrecque, S., Carion, O., Durisic, N., Kolin, D. L., Bachir, A. I., Dubertret, B., Wiseman, P. W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:05-9:25 Rap1 regulates growth factor-induced epithelial cell migration and focal adhesion dynamicsLyle, K., Raaijmakers, J., Bruinsma, W., Bos. J.L., de Rooij , J.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:25-9:45 The THz dance of waters with proteins: Studies of sub-psec dynamics of solvation water around proteins Gruebele, M., Leitner, D., Havenith, M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:45-10:05 Extracting shape and location information conveyed by visual-to-auditory sensory substitution activates the lateral occipital complex and dorsal visual stream respectively in blind and sighted individualsAmedi A., Stern W., Pascual-Leone A.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:05-10:25 Constructing and characterising an affordable multi-photon microscopy for imaging living cells and investigating remote modulation of cortical growth conesCormack, I.G., Mathew, M., Amat-Roldan, I., Andres, R., Artigas, D., Soriano, E., Loza-Alvarez, P.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:25-10:55 Coffee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Oral Session 4 (Chair: Christopher Lamb). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:55-11:15 Identification of a novel aspect of cellular asymmetry through the study of the endosomal TGFbeta signalling adapter SARA*Fürthauer, M., Coumailleau, F., Gonzalez-Gaitan, M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:15-11:35 Surface proteins and the predatory “bite” of BdellovibrioSockett, L., Aizawa, S., Maddock, J., Chang, C-Y., Kanna, M., Jagtap, P., Hosking, E., Hobley, L... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:35-11:55 Activated dMoesin controls cell shape and spindle positioning throughout mitosisFoussard, H., Roubinet, C., Kouranti, I., Szafer Glusman, E., Fuller, M.T., Echard, A., Payre, F., Carréno, S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:55-12:15 Unmasking context-dependent nonlinearities from the MSE estimate of the linear kernel of VI receptive fieldsValerio, R., Fournier, J., Monier, C., Frégnac, Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12:15-12:35 Self-organized peptide networksAshkenasy, G.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12:35-18:30 Packed lunch and excursions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18.30-19.30 ”What would you like to see?” Workshop on new molecular imaging technologies (Moderators: Paul De Koninck, Daniel Choquet). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.30 Dinner (Outback barbeque). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

Saturday 21 July

Oral Session 5 (Chair: Daniela Rhodes). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8:45-9:05 Locating genes for cognitionMartin, N.G, Wright, M.J, Luciano, M, Hansell, N.K, Geffen, G.M., Posthuma, D, De Geus, E.J.C, Boomsma, D.I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:05-9:25 An NB-LRR protein functions as a positive regulator of programmed cell death in Arabidopsis thalianaBonardi, V., Tang, S., Epple, P., Dangl, J.L.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:25-9:45 Categorical face perception reveals cortical adaptive dynamicsTreves, A., Akrami, A., Dolan, R.J., Furl, N., Jagadeesh, B., Liu, Y., van Rijsbergen, N.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9:45-10:05 Dynamics of self-assembly and energies involved in SNARE induced membrane fusionLi, F., Pincet, F., Perez, E., Melia, T., Rothman, J.E., Tareste, D.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:05-10:25 Molecular physiology and pathology of the ribbon synapseMoser, T., Glowatzki, E., Safieddine, S., von Gersdorff, H.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:25-10:55 Coffee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Oral Session 6 (Chair: Joe Howard). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10:55-11:15 Analysis of an oxygen sensing neural circuit in C. elegansZimmer, M., Gray, J., Chronis, N., Bargmann, C.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:15-11:35 Organ size control during development and disease Bennett, F.C, Harvey, K.F.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:35-11:55 Mirror properties of single cells in human frontal and temporal lobeMukamel, R., Ekstrom, A.D., Kaplan, J., Iacoboni, M., Fried, I.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11:55-12:15 Evolvability and protein divergence in the evolution of Homo sapiensDe, S., Teichmann, S.A., Lopez-Bigas, N. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12:15-14:00 Lunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14:00-16:30 Poster Session II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17:00-18:00 Plenary Lecture (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)Thirty years of eukaryotic gene transcriptionRoger Kornberg, Stanford University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19:30 Farewell dinnerAfter-dinner speaker: Jenny Graves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

HFSP Fellowships, Career Development Awards and ResearchGrants are awarded after a rigorous process of internationalpeer review. The high quality of HFSP awardees is indicatedby the many awards and honours they receive from nationaland international bodies. In the 19 years since the beginningof the Program, 12 grant awardees have gone on to win theNobel Prize, testimony to the exacting standards of the reviewcommittees. In addition, awardees have been honoured byelection to national academies such as the NationalAcademy of Sciences (USA), The Royal Society (UK) and tointernational bodies such as EMBO. Early career scientistssupported within the HFSP have also been successful inobtaining prestigious national and international awards,including those awarded by the European Research Council.HFSP is now moni toring the success of its awardees; thefollowing list documents major awards that have come toour attention in 2007.

HONOURS AND PRIZES

3.3

51

Award Name Nationality Current affiliation HFSP award year

2007 Awards to HFSP-funded Scientists

American Academyof Arts and Sciencesmembership(biological sciences)

AmericanAssociation for theAdvancement ofScience Fellowship(biological sciences)

AmericanAssociation for theAdvancement ofScience Fellowship(chemistry)AmericanAssociation for theAdvancement ofScience Fellowship(neuroscience)

Titia DE LANGE

Douglas HANAHAN

Avram HERSHKO

Barry HONIG

Lily JAN

Alexander JOYNER

Christof KOCH

Terry MAGNUSON

Gail MANDEL

Helen NEVILLE

Michel NUSSENZWEIG

John SPUDICH

Pamela BJORKMAN

Jef BOEKE

Titia DE LANGE

Claude DESPLAN

John DIFFLEY

William EARNSHAW

Yale GOLDMAN

Laurinda JAFFE

Robb KRUMLAUF

Greg LEMKE

James ROTHMAN

Gottfried SCHATZ

Randy SCHEKMAN

Kenneth ZARET

Linda HSIEH-WILSON

Carol BARNES

Howard EICHENBAUM

John HEUSER

Gordon SHEPHERD

THE NETHERLANDS

USA

ISRAEL

USA

USA

Canada

USA

USA

USA

Canada

BRAZIL/USA

USA

USA

USA

THE NETHERLANDS

FRANCE

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

Austria/Switzerland

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

Rockefeller University, New York, USA

University of California,

San Francisco, USA

Technion-Israel Institute of Techology,

Haifa, Israel

Columbia University, New York, USA

University of California,

San Francisco, USA

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer

Centre, New York, USA

California Institute of Technology,

Pasadena, USA

University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill, USA

Oregon Health and Science University,

Portland, USA

University of Oregon, Eugene, USA


University of Texas, Houston Medical

School, USA


Pasadena, USA

Johns Hopkins University,

Baltimore, USA


New York University, USA

Cancer Research UK, London Research

Institute, UK

University of Edinburgh, UK

University of Pennsylvania, USA

University of Connecticut,

Farmington, USA

Stowers Institute for Medical Research,

Kansas City, USA

The Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA

Columbia University, New York, USA

Biozentrum,

Basel, Switzerland

University of California, Berkeley, USA

Fox Chase Cancer Center,

Philadelphia, USA


Pasadena, USA

University of Arizona,

Tucson, USA

Boston University, USA

Washington University, USA

Yale University, New Haven, USA

Research Grant 1997

Research Grant 1994

Research Grant 1998

Research Grant 1992

Research Grant 1997

Research Grant 1996

Research Grant 1990

Research Grant 1995

Research Grant 1992

Program Grant 2002

Research Grant 1996

Program Grant 2002

Research Grant 1993

Research Grant 1991

Research Grant 1997

Research Grant 1996

Program Grant 2001

Research Grant 1991

Program Grant 2002

Research Grant 2000

Research Grant 1991, 2000

Research Grant 1998

Research Grant 1990,

1994, Program Grant 2005



Research Grant 2000

Young Investigator Grant

2002

Research Grant 1992

Research Grant 1992

Research Grant 1994

Long-Term Fellowship 1999

52


American

Association for the

Advancement of

Science Fellowship

(medical sciences)

Balzan Prize for

Immunology

(International Balzan

Prize Foundation)

Marcel Benoist Prize

(Marcel Benoist

Foundation)

Daiwa Adrian Prize

2007

EMBO Gold Medal

EMBO Young

Investigator Award

EMBO Members

ERC: Starting

Independent

Investigators 2007

Thomas RAPOPORT

Jules HOFFMANN

Ari HELENIUS

Shin-Ichi AIZAWA

Renee Elisabeth SOCKETT

Jan LOWE

Marco MILAN

Uri ALON

Naama BARKAI

Nils BROSE

Anthony CARR

Mario DE BONO

Ueli GROSSNIKLAUS

Frank HOLSTEGE

Laszlo NAGY

Bernd NILIUS

Tom OWEN-HUGHES

Ben SCHERES

Boris TURK

Magdalena ZERNICKA-GOETZ

Michael KARIN

Ami AHARONI

Yohanns BELLAICHE

Sigal BEN-YEHUDA

Assaf FRIEDLER

Niko GELDNER

David HOLCMAN

Adi MIZRAHI

Hélène PUCCIO

Benjamin SCHULER

Robert SCHNEIDER

André VERDEL

GERMANY

FRANCE

FINLAND

JAPAN

UK

GERMANY

SPAIN

ISRAEL

ISRAEL

GERMANY

UK

MALTA

SWITZERLAND

THE NETHERLANDS

HUNGARY

BELGIUM

UK

BELGIUM

SLOVENIA

UK

USA

Israel/USA

FRANCE

ISRAEL

Israel

Germany

France

Israel

France/USA

Austria

GERMANY

FRANCE

Harvard Medical School,

Boston, USA

Université Louis Pasteur,

Strasbourg, France

ETH, Zurich, Switzerland

Hiroshima Prefectural University

University of Nottingham, UK

Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK

Institute for Research in Biomedicine,

Barcelona, Spain

Weizmann Institute of Science,

Rehevot, Israel


Rehovot, Israel

Max Planck Institute for Experimental

Medicine, Goettingen, Germany

Sussex University, Brighton, UK

Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK

University of Zurich, Switzerland

University Medical Center, Utrecht,

The Netherlands

University of Debrecen,

Hungary

Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

University of Dundee, UK

Utrecht University, Belgium

Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

WellcomeTrust/Cancer Research UK

University of California, La Jolla, USA

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,

Beer-Sheva, Israel

Institut Curie, Paris, France

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,

Israel


Israel

University of Lausanne, Switzerland


Rehovot, Israel


Israel

IGBMC, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France

University of Zurich, Switzerland

University of Freiburg,

Germany

Centre de Recherche INSERM UJF823,

La Tronche, France

Research Grant 1993

Research Grant 1995

Research Grant 1993

Program Grant 2005

Program Grant 2005

Program Grant 2003

Long-Term Fellowship

1997

Research Grant 2000, Young

Investigator Grant 2004

Program Grant 2003

Research Grant 2000

Research Grant 2000

Program Grant 2005



1997


2001

Program Grant 2004

Program Grant 2001

Research Grant 1995

Program Grant 2006

Research Grant 2000

Research Grant 1996


2004

Research Grant 2007


2000, Career Development

Award 2004, Young

Investigator Grant 2007



Award 2004


Program Grant 2006



Award 2005, Program

Grant 2007


Young Investigator Grant 2004

Long-Term Fellowship 2001,

Career Development Award

2005



2007

53


ESF-EUROHORCS

EURYI Award

Gairdner Award for

Medical Research 2007

Japan Academy Prize

Japan Academy Medal

Körber Stiftung Euro-

pean Science Award

Krill Prize (Wolf

Foundation)

Lasker Foundation

Basic Research Award

Leibniz Award 2007

(Deutsche Forschungs -

gemeinschaft)

Max-Planck Society

Research Prize

Max-Planck Society

Otto-Hahn Medal

McArthur Fellow -

ship Award 2007

National Academyof Sciencesmembership

National Academy of

Sciences (Foreign Associates)

NIH Director's

Pioneer Award 2007

NIH Director's New

Innovator Award 2007

Royal Society

membership

Sonia GAREL

C. David ALLIS

Kim NASMYTH

Harry NOLLER

Yasushi MIYASHITA

So IWATA

Peter SEEBERGER

Amir ORIAN

Ralph STEINMAN

Magdalena GOETZ

Raymond DOLAN

Ralf KITTLER

Michael ELOWITZ

Moungi BAWENDI

Sean CARROLL

Jeffery DANGL

Stephen KOWALCZYKOWSKI

Eve MARDER

Clifford TABIN

Masatoshi TAKEICHI

Takao HENSCH

Mark SCHNITZER

Michael RAPE

Derek TOOMRE

Gillian BATES

Samuel BERKOVIC

Richard COGDELL

George COUPLAND

Barry EVERITT

Anthony HYMAN

Andrew McMAHON

France

USA

UK

USA

JAPAN

JAPAN

GERMANY

ISRAEL

USA

GERMANY

IRELAND

GERMANY

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

JAPAN

USA

USA

GERMANY

USA

UK

AUSTRALIA

UK

UK

UK

UK

UK

INSERM, Ecole Nationale Supérieure,

Paris, France

The Rockefeller University,

New York, USA

University of Oxford, UK

University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

University of Tokyo, Japan

Imperial College, London, UK

ETH, Zurich, Switzerland

Technion Institute of Technology,

Haifa, Israel

The Rockefeller University, New York,

USA

Ludwig-Maximilians Universität,

Munich, Germany

University College London, UK

University of Chicago, USA

Caltech, Pasadena, USA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Cambridge, USA

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

University of California, Davis, USA

Brandeis, Waltham, USA

Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

RIKEN, Kobe, Japan

Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Stanford University, USA

University of California, Berkeley, USA

Yale University, New Haven, USA

Guy’s Hospital, London, UK

University of Melbourne, Australia

University of Glasgow, UK

Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding

Research, Cologne, Germany

University of Cambridge, UK

Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell

Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

Harvard University, Cambridge, USA



Award 2005



Research Grant 1995

Research Grant 1991


Young Investigator Award

2002



2004


Program Grant 2006


1993

Program Grant 2004


2007


2004

Program Grant 2007

Research Grant 1998

Program Grant 2007

Research Grant 1997


Research Grant 1993


Research Grant 1995

Program Grant 2002, 2007



2003


Research Grant 1999

Research Grant 1995

Research Grant 1994

Research Grant 1997


Program Grant 2001


Research Grant 1993

In the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO), the fiscal year ends in March; FY 2007 therefore extends

from 1 April 2007 until 31 March 2008.

chapter 4

Budget and Finance

Shigeru Sakurai, Isabelle Heidt-Coquard, Sarah Naett Cazau, Patrick Vincent

56

Figures are reported in million USD unless stated otherwise.Different exchange rates are used in this report for differentpurposes (Table 4-1):

IGC reference rates: for the monitoring of IGC budgetaryguideline implementation over extended periods of timewithout distortion resulting from exchange rate variations,HFSPO budget rate: for the annual budget and activityreport to compare actual costs with those budgeted,FY 2007 actual rates: these are updated daily from theEuropean Central Bank and are used for consolidation inHFSPO’s legal accounts.

These rates usually diverge little, except during periods ofhigh volatility, such as FY 2007.

Table 4-1: Exchange rates used in FY 2007 report

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is supportedby contributions from its Management Supporting Parties(MSPs): Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan,Republic of Korea (Korea), New Zealand, Switzerland, UnitedKingdom, United States of America and the EuropeanUnion 3. Norway joined the HFSP in April 2008 and willcontribute financially for the first time in FY 2008.

MSPs’ contributions to HFSPO are voluntary. The intendedlevel of contribution is decided by MSPs’ representatives atHFSP Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) and is reco gnisedin the Joint Communiqué of each IGC as a guideline forcontri butions. This provides a general framework for repre -sentatives of the MSPs on the HFSPO Board of Trustees.

At the IGC held in Berne in June 2004, MSP’s representativesagreed “to adopt an indicative three-year budgetary plan(FY 2005- FY 2007)”. This plan is based on an annualincrease by all MSPs, although “in an effort to achieve abalance between the contributions of Japan and the otherIGC Members, Japan is exempt from this annual increase”.

Australia, India, Korea and New Zealand joined HFSPO afterthe Berne IGC. Conditions for membership, including thefinancial contribution, were formalised by means of a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU), detailing contri bu tions atthe time of membership and establishing the principle of anannual increase, as adopted by other MSPs to maintain theProgram’s awarding capacity.

GUIDELINES FORHFSPO FUNDING

4.1 4.2KEY FINANCIAL

FIGURES FOR FY 2007

3 Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007 adding about 2.5%to the European Union’s GDP. The possible adjustment of the EUcontribution following thisenlargement has not yet beendiscussed.

Exchange rates FY 20071 USD =

Berne IGC

Budget FY 2007

Actual FY 2007 (average)

CAD

1.30

1.30

1.03

CHF

1.24

1.24

1.16

EUR

0.80

0.80

0.71

GBP

0.55

0.55

0.50

JPY

108

108

114

57

Contributions received from MSPs during FY 2007 are shownin currencies in Table 4-2 and consolidated in USD in Table4-3. Most MSPs paid the contribution stated in the budgetaryguideline for FY 2007. For several, this meant a significantincrease from FY 2006. Japan maintained its high level ofcontribution, as did Switzerland. Italy paid one million EURinstead of 700 thousand EUR budgeted.

Table 4-2: Contributions received in FY 2007 in currencies(thousand)

Contributions

The adoption, for the first time, of a three-year budgetaryguideline at the Berne IGC and its conversion into currenciesof contribution, have improved visibility on income fromcontri butions, with a direct impact on HFSPO’s ability tomaximise the number of awards.

Because of the voluntary nature of MSPs’ contributions, theBoard members were contacted in the Fall 2006 to confirmtheir contributions for FY 2007 in time for the ReviewCommittees in January 2007. When no response was received,it was assumed that the contribution would remain at thesame level as in FY 2006.

NHMRC

CIHR

NSERC

DG RESEARCH

DG INFSO

MAE

MER

CUS

Région Alsace

BMBF

DOB

CNR

METI

MEXT

MOST

MRC

SER

BBSRC

MRC

NIH

NSF

USD

CAD

CAD

USD

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

EUR

USD

EUR

USD

USD

USD

USD

USD

CHF

GBP

GBP

GBP

USD

USD

USD

504

1 356

1 017

216

3 901

2 401

1 500

2 088

900

749

265

174

3 339

780

1 000

31 248

11 582

19 666

591

99

841

1 076

205

871

9 000

7 000

2 000

Note

1

2

2-3

4

5

6

7

Note MSP Organization Contribution Contribution Guideline (for abbreviations see page 69) Currency (CC) FY 2007 in currency

Australia

Canada

European Union

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Notes

1 - Payments consolidated in CAD at budget rate (1,3 CAD / USD)

2 - Strasbourg and Région Alsace ashost to HFSPO Secretariat

3 - Half contribution actually receivedfrom Région Alsace but total confir-med officially

4 - Joined HFSPO from FY 2007

5 - Contribution for FY 2007 budget was assumed at FY 2006 contribution level i.e. 700 kEUR

6 - Korea contributed 613 kUSD in total: 591 kUSD allocated to FY 2007 and 22 kUSD as adjustmentfor FY 2006.

7 - Japanese and Swiss contributionabove amount based upon IGC for-mula (30 000 kUSD and 728 kCHFrespectively)

504

1 357

3 901

2 139

3 339

780

1 616

31 248

591

99

850

1 076

13 630

58

For the period FY 2005 to FY 2007, the cumulated differencebetween the Berne IGC guideline and contributions receivedreached 13.3 million USD, enough funding for 13.3 ResearchGrants or 90 Long-Term Fellowships or 45 Career Develop -ment Awards.

(1) Canadian contribution consolidated in CAD at IGC rate

Table 4-3: Contributions received in FY 2007 at IGC referencerates in million USD vs. IGC guideline (or MoU)

Total income from contributions reached 58.8 million USD i.e.0.5% above budget and 2.2 million USD above FY 2006(+3.9%). With regard to the Berne IGC budgetary guideline,the situation is mixed: ten MSPs met the intended level ofcontribution, France achieved 98%, the USA 66% and Italy62%, resulting in a shortfall of 4.1 million USD from thedesired level of 62.9 million USD for FY 2007. This deviationfrom the IGC recommendation was already observed in FY2005 and FY 2006 (Table 4-4).

Table 4-4: Monitoring of Berne IGC budgetary guideline incurrencies (million)

MSP

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

TOTAL

ContributionFY 2007

0.50

1.04

4.88

2.61

4.17

0.78

1.25

31.25

0.59

0.10

0.68

1.96

9.00

58.81

BudgetFY 2007

0.50

1.04

4.88

2.67

4.17

0.78

0.88

31.25

0.59

0.10

0.69

1.96

9.00

58.51

ContributionFY 2006

0.49

0.96

4.69

2.35

3.82

n.a.

0.88

31.25

0.57

0.10

0.69

1.79

9.00

56.59

BerneGuideline /

MoU FY2007

0.50

1.04

4.88

2.67

4.17

0.78

2.02

30.00

0.59

0.10

0.59

1.96

13.63

62.94

Australia

Canada (1)

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

USD

CAD

EUR

EUR

EUR

USD

EUR

USD

USD

USD

CHF

GBP

USD

0.47

1.14

3.61

1.78

2.80

n.a.

1.36

31.25

0.55

n.a.

0.85

0.95

11.42

100%

100%

100%

97%

100%

n.a.

52%

100%

100%

n.a.

100%

100%

79%

0.47

1.14

3.61

1.74

2.80

n.a.

0.70

31.25

0.55

n.a.

0.85

0.95

9.00

0.49

1.24

3.75

1.96

3.06

n.a.

1.48

31.25

0.57

0.10

0.85

0.99

12.48

100%

100%

100%

96%

100%

n.a.

47%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

72%

0.49

1.24

3.75

1.89

3.06

n.a.

0.70

31.25

0.57

0.10

0.85

0.99

9.00

MSP Actual contribution

% Guideline/MoU

FY 2005

IGC Guideline or MoU

Actual contribution

% Guideline/MoU

FY 2006

IGC Guideline orMoU

Currency

FY 2005 FY 2006

0.50

1.36

3.90

2.14

3.34

0.78

1.62

31.25

0.59

0.10

0.85

1.08

13.63

100%

100%

100%

98%

100%

100%

62%

100%

100%

100%

99%

100%

66%

0.50

1.36

3.90

2.09

3.34

0.78

1.00

31.25

0.59

0.10

0.84

1.08

9.00

IGC Guideline or MoU

Actual contribution

% Guideline/MoU

FY 2007

FY 2007

59

Annual payments to Research Grants and Career DevelopmentAwards are on budget. Long-Term Fellowships are 1.4 millionUSD below budget mainly for two reasons observed everyyear:

Some payments planned for FY 2007 are postponed formotives such as the interruption for parental leave ordeferral of the third year of a Long-Term Fellowship in caseof repatriation. Some Long-Term Fellows terminate earlier than scheduled(for instance to take up a permanent position). This“annual attrition rate” is close to 5% and is anticipated incalculating the number of Long-Term Fellow ships fundableeach year.

Short-Term Fellowships reached 260 thousand USD (budget200 thousand USD) and the Awardees meeting, held inBrisbane, Australia, was below budget at 260 thousand USD,but above the previous year (190 thousand USD).

Table 4-5: Payments made in FY 2007 by type of awards/activity(budget rate)

The total amount of annual and committed payments givesa more accurate view of the respective financial allocation tothe different programs funded by HFSPO (Table 4-6).

Funds paid and committed to Research Grants decreasedfrom 62.2% of the total in FY 2006 to 61% in FY 2007, withthe share of Young Investigator Grants growing. The fundingof Long-Term Fellowships remained stable and close to27%. Payment to the Career Development Award programgrew from 10.2% to 11.6% of all payments made andcommitted by HFSPO.

The evolution of MSPs’ contributions for the past five years isgiven in the table below (History I).

History I: MSP’s contributions since FY 2003 (at budget rate)

The share of the Japanese contribution in the total fundingof the Program has steadily decreased from 60% in FY 2003to 53% in FY 2007 (History II), close to the milestone of 50%.

The Asia Pacific region (including Japan) remained the mainsource of funding of the Program, followed by Europe (26%)and North America (17%).

History II: Regional distribution of annual contributions to HFSPOin % of total

Financial incomeIncome from financial operations amounted to 3 millionUSD. This income is generated from the active managementof funds reserved to meet HFSPO’s obligation towards itsawardees. Investments are made in short and medium termproducts 4, in compliance with prudential rules establishedby the HFSPO Finance Committee 5.

Payment of awards and other program activities

HFSPO paid 57.4 million USD to its awardees during FY 2007,2.7 million USD more than in FY 2006 (Table 4-5). Thisincrease was unusual and made possible partly by the releaseat the end of FY 2006 of funds originally reserved for thepayment of Career Development Awards (see FY 2006 annualreport).

Region

Asia-Pacific

(Japan)

Europe

North America

FY 2003

60.2

60.0

18.4

21.4

FY 2004

57.0

57.0

24.0

19.0

FY 2005

58.0

56.0

24.0

18.0

FY 2006

57.3

55.2

25.1

17.6

FY 2007

56.5

53.1

26.4

17.1

FY 2003 0.81 4.72 1.91 3.94 0.00 31.25 0.63 1.47 10.40 55.13

FY 2004 0.85 4.08 2.07 3.43 2.12 31.25 0.69 1.63 9.50 55.62

FY 2005 0.47 0.87 4.51 2.17 3.50 0.88 31.25 0.55 0.69 1.72 9.00 55.61

FY 2006 0.49 0.96 4.69 2.35 3.82 0.88 31.25 0.57 0.10 0.69 1.79 9.00 56.59

FY 2007 0.50 1.04 4.88 2.61 4.17 0.78 1.25 31.25 0.59 0.10 0.68 1.96 9.00 58.81

TOTAL 1.46 4.53 22.88 11.11 18.86 0.78 5.13 156.25 1.71 0.19 3.38 8.57 46.90 281.75

AU CA EU FR DE IN IT JP KR NZ CH UK USA TOTAL

Program Grants

Young Investigators


Career Development Awards

Short-Term Fellowships

Awardees meetings

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

27.35

9.20

14.13

6.18

0.26

0.26

57.38

28.30

7.43

13.72

4.80

0.19

0.26

54.70

Actual FY 2007

27.35

9.20

15.58

6.18

0.20

0.35

58.86

Budget FY 2007

Actual FY 2006Program

4 Monetary mutual funds (SICAV or Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable) and EMTN (Euro Medium Term Notes)

with capital guaranty at maturity.

5 HFSPO prudential rules seek to minimise market price risk (capital guaranty), credit risk (minimum rating S&P AA-),

currency risk (no currency change for financial investments), liquidityrisk (investment strategy based on three year on-going concern)

60

Program Grant payments broadly follow this distribution(Table 4-7), whereas proportionally more Career Develop mentAwards are paid in Europe or Japan and more Fellowships arepaid in the USA.

The evolution of payments made to programs over the pastfive years is given in the table History III

Table 4-7: Distribution of awards to laboratories or to fellows inFY 2007 according to host MSP and program (approx.)

Table 4-6: Total amount paid and committed by Programs in FY 2007 (budget rate)

Short-Term Fellowships and the Awardees meeting eachrepresent 0.2% of Program activities.

History III: HFSPO annual expenditures by program activities since FY 2003 (budget rate)

Geographical distribution

47.4% of the total amount of award payments in FY 2007went to awardees in European MSPs, 37.6% in North America(32.9% to the USA), 9.4% in Asia-Pacific (6.3% to Japan)and 5.6% to non MSPs.

Program Grants

Young Investigators

Research Grants total




Awardees meeting

TOTAL

27.35 26.60 53.95 44.9%

9.20 10.15 19.35 16.1%

36.55 36.75 73.30 61.0%

14.13 18.33 32.46 27.0%

6.18 7.70 13.88 11.6%

0.26 0.26 0.2%

0.26 0.26 0.2%

57.38 62.78 120.16

ProgramFY

2007 TOTALBeyond FY 2007 % %

FY 2007TOTAL

Actual FY 2007

27.35 26.60 53.95

9.20 10.15 19.35

36.55 36.75 73.30

15.58 16.63 32.21

6.18 7.70 13.88

0.20 0.20

0.35 0.35

58.86 61.08 119.94

53.75 47.4%

16.73 14.8%

70.48 62.2%

30.90 27.2%

11.58 10.2%

0.26 0.2%

0.19 0.2%

113.41

FY 2007

Beyond FY 2007 TOTAL

Budget FY 2007 FY 2006

2003 36.31 11.54 0.64 0.14 0.17 48.80

2004 34.37 12.01 1.55 0.20 0.31 48.44

2005 35.40 13.50 2.40 0.20 0.22 51.72

2006 35.73 13.72 4.80 0.19 0.26 54.70

2007 36.55 14.13 6.18 0.26 0.26 57.38

Fiscal Research Long-Term Career Development Short-Term Awardees Total Program Year Grants Fellowships Awards Fellowships meetings activities

0.70

1.64

3.88

4.30

3.92

0.21

0.66

2.89

-

0.23

0.69

4.25

10.92

2.26

36.55

0.34

0.24

1.09

0.48

0.83

-

0.07

-

-

-

1.31

2.16

7.52

0.09

14.13

0.02

0.03

0.02

0.03

0.02

-

-

-

0.01

0.02

0.05

0.06

0.26

0.10

0.78

1.24

1.39

0.43

0.10

0.10

0.73

0.10

-

0.10

-

0.30

0.81

6.18

1.16

2.69

6.23

6.20

5.20

0.31

0.83

3.62

0.10

0.23

2.10

6.43

18.79

3.22

57.12

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Non MSPs

TOTAL

Research Grants

Long-TermFellowships

Career Development

Awards

Short-TermFellowships Total

2.0%

4.7%

10.9%

10.9%

9.1%

0.5%

1.5%

6.3%

0.2%

0.4%

3.7%

11.3%

32.9%

5.6%

100.0%

% totalMSP

Running costs of the HFSP

The Organization and its 15 employees are responsible forthe operation of the Program and the fulfilment of itsmission, from the reception of a proposal to the end of theaward. The running costs of HFSPO include the operation ofits team and the support necessary to ensure the review andselection of proposals by panels of international experts.

Table 4-8: Running cost of HFSP in million EUR (actual rates)

Note on provisionsAlthough not actual expenses, provisions are made whenthe payment of a contribution is uncertain. These provisionsare thus unavailable for the payment of awards. Oneprovision of 0.12 million EUR from the French Ministry ofResearch originates in a change in payment calendarwhich resulted in one quarter of FY 1997 left unpaid. Thisprovision is reviewed annually with statutory auditors andwas maintained in FY 2007.

Expenditures in “Honoraria, services” are above budget andinclude a major development of IT infrastructure andprocesses, both scientific and financial 6. The budget andtimeline have been revised up from the initial estimate anddiscussed at the Finance Committee meeting in March2008. The development and roll out phase will be completedat the end of 2008, followed by one complete annual cyclefor validation.

“Meetings, travel” include travel and hotel expenses linkedto meetings of the Board and the Council, Review and Selec tionCommittee meetings and HFSPO staff travel. Only oneBoard meeting was held in FY 2007 instead of twobudgeted.

61

HFSPO is located in France and running costs occur mostlyin EUR; these were on budget, at 3.5 million EUR before taxand depreciation, that is, 0.7 % above budget and 9 % aboveFY 2006 (Table 4-8). Salaries represented almost two thirds(61 %) of the total, followed by “Honoraria and services”(24%) and “Meetings and travel” (12%).

Salaries-social taxes (incl. in kind)

Honoraria, services (incl. IT project )

Meetings, travel (excl. Awardees meeting)

Office expenses (supplies, rental, maintenance)

Total Secretariat operating cost

Income tax, provisions

TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

2.17

0.86

0.44

0.08

3.55

0.18

3.73

2.19

0.35

0.53

0.18

3.25

0.32

3.57

Actual FY 2007

2.30

0.45

0.56

0.22

3.53

0.18

3.71

Budget FY 2007

-5.7%

91.1%

-21,4%

-62.8%

0.7%

0.0%

0.6%

%Actual

FY 2006

-1.0%

145%

-17.0%

-55%

92%

-43.7%

4.5%

2007/2006

6 A review of HFSPO informatics carriedout in FY 2005 at the initiative of HFSP

internal auditors commented on the absence of immediate technical

or security issues but highlightedpotential longer term risks linked to therelatively marginal software used to run

the scientific database (4D). Following anin depth review, a major redesign and

development of HFSPO IT applicationsand infrastructure was initiated, following

detailed technical and functionalspecifications and implemented by IT

providers selected on a competitive basis.

62

Table 4-9: Running costs of HFSP in USD (actual 2007 at actual rates)

About half of operation costs are directly related toscientific program activities (Research Grant and Fellowshipoffices and costs associated with the Selection and ReviewCommittees). Costs not directly related to scientific activitiesinclude those incurred by the Executive Office, Administrationand Finance, and Communication. These represent 3.5% oftotal annual expenditure.

Financial support to HFSP PublishingThe not-for-profit organisation HFSP publishing (HFSPP),which publishes the HFSP Journal, is a legal entity distinctfrom HFSPO.

A 15 year refundable loan of 1.3 million EUR was granted byHFSPO to HFSPP to support the creation and initialdevelopment of the HFSP Journal, in accordance with aresolution of the HFSPO Board in July 2005 and a contractsigned in December 2005 between HFSPO and HFSPP. Theloan to HFSPP is financed by income from financial invest -ments and not directly from MSPs’ contributions 7. Sinceboth organizations operate on a not-for-profit basis, thisloan is provided to HFSPO without interest. A first in stall mentof 600 thousand EUR was paid to HFSPP during FY 2005and a second installment of 400 thousand EUR wasbudgeted in FY 2007. It was finally requested in December2007 for payment in May 2008.

Although on budget in EUR, HFSPO operating costs are14.3% above budget once consolidated in USD (Table 4-9).This reflects the impact of the difference between budgetand actual exchange rates between the Euro and USD (0.8EUR for 1 USD in budget and 0.71 EUR for 1 USD as averagein FY 2007).

Salaries-social taxes (incl. in kind)

Honoraria, services (incl. IT project )

Meetings, travel (excl. Awardees meeting)

Office expenses (supplies, rental, maintenance)

Total Secretariat operating cost

Income tax, provisions

TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

3.07

1.22

0.62

0.11

5.03

0.26

5.29

2.66

0.43

0.64

0.22

3.95

0.39

4.34

ActualFY 2007

2.87

0.56

0.70

0.27

4.40

0.23

4.63

BudgetFY 2007

7.1%

116.7%

-10,9%

-58.0%

14.3%

13.3%

14.2%

% ActualFY 2006

15,6%

183.7%

-2.5%

-48.6%

27.4%

-34.6%

21.8%

2007/2006Administrative Expenses in USD

7 Although excluding income from investment of the UScontribution (~ 100 thousand USDin FY 2007).

63

Cashflow statement

The net cash expenditures of HFSPO consolidated in USD atactual exchange rates amounted to 63.5 million USD, against64.2 million USD cash income. The cash balance is slightlypositive, as in FY 2006 (Table 4-10).

Table 4-10: FY 2007 Cashflow statement (at actual exchange rates)

Simplified statement of financial position (assets and liabilities)

HFSPO’s financial position is the balance between its assetsand its liabilities (Table 4-11). A positive position ensuresthat the payment of current awardees is guaranteed byHFSPO resources for the whole period of their award. Thissurplus must however be marginal to maximise the numberof awards funded with given resources.

Assets: HFSPO assets include receivables (MSP con tri -butions to be paid – none at the end of FY 2007), cashinvested with various levels of liquidity (current accounts,short term monetary funds and medium term notes for atotal of 65.8 million USD) and real estate property(Secretariat – 3.5 million USD), booked at its purchasingvalue. HFSPO does not hold intangible assets other thansoftware. Liabilities include awards payable to its current awardeesbeyond FY 2007 (64 million USD at current exchangerates).

4.3FY 2007

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Contributions received from MSPs*

Interest and capital gains

Misc. reimbursements from awardees

Total cash inflow

GRAND TOTAL

61.10

3.00

0.15

64.25

64.25

57.48

3.00

0.50

60.98

60.98

FY 2006FY 2007

Inflow

Administrative expenses (excl. provisions)

Program activities

Refundable loan to HFSPP

Total cash outflow

Cash balance (positive)

TOTAL

5.11

58.40

-

63.51

0.74

64.25

4.34

54.70

-

59.04

1.94

60.98

FY 2006FY 2007

Outflow

* including payment of overdue contributions

64

Accounting summary

The accounting summary (Table 4-12) provides an overviewof the nature of funds and financial movements describedabove. At a constant exchange rate (budget rate), “income” and“expenditures” are very close to budget, with a difference inthe net balance of 0.6 million USD.

Table 4-12: HFSPO accounting summary FY 2007

Table 4-11: Statement of financial position (actual exchange rates)

At the end of FY 2007, HFSPO assets exceed its liabilities by5.4 million USD. The level of FY 2006 was exceptionally highat 9.6 million USD due to a change in management of theCareer Development Award program and the lifting of arestriction on the use of funds set aside each year (see FY2006 Annual report). As a result, 3.6 million USD werereleased and made available to all programs.

FY 2006FY 2007 Assets

Program Grants

Young Investigators



Total Commitments

Balance (positive)

TOTAL

26.62

10.15

19.50

7.70

63.97

5.44

69.41

25.45

9.30

17.18

6.78

58.71

9.63

68.34

FY 2006FY 2007 Liabilities

* Region Alsace

1.36

22.46

42.00

0.09

3.50

69.41

1.56

13.03

50.00

0.35

3.40

68.34

Current accounts

Mutual funds (SICAV)

Structured products (EMTN)

Contributions to be received*

Fixed assets

TOTAL

Contributions

Australia

Canada

European Commission

France

Germany

India

Italy

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Switzerland

UK

USA

Interests and capital gain

Committed funds from previous FY

Program Grants

Young Investigators



Carry over from previous FY

Total

Balance (negative)

GRAND TOTAL

(1) budget rate (2) actual rate

60.9

0.5

1.2

5.5

2.8

4.7

0.8

1.4

31.2

0.6

0.1

0.8

2.2

9.0

3.0

59.7

25.6

9.3

18.0

6.8

8.0

131.6

131.6

Expenditures/new commitments

Income/ commitments received

Actual 2007 (2)

58.5

0.5

1.0

4.9

2.7

4.2

0.8

0.9

31.2

0.6

0.1

0.7

2.0

9.0

1.0

58.7

25.5

9.3

17.2

6.8

7.5

125.8

125.8

Budget 2007 (1)

Budget2007 (1)

Actual2007 (2)

Administrative expenses

Program activities

Program Grants

Young Investigators




Awardees meetings and outreach activities

Commited funds beyond FY

Program Grants

Young Investigators



Refundable loan to HFSP-P

Total

Balance (positive)

GRAND TOTAL

4.6

58.9

27.4

9.2

15.6

6.2

0.2

0.4

61.1

26.6

10.2

16.6

7.7

0.4

125.0

0.8

125.8

5.3

58.4

27.4

9.2

15.1

6.2

0.3

0.3

64.0

26.6

10.2

19.5

7.7

0.0

127.7

3.9

131.6

65

Exchange rate impact on HFSPO accounts and awardees

The impact of the exchange rate is noticeable in Table 4-13,which compares actual income and expenditures at budgetor actual exchange rates as indicated in Table 4-1.“Income” increases by 3.8 million USD as a result of a re-evaluation of income in currencies other than USD such ascontributions, commitments to Long-Term Fellows andfinancial assets. By the same mechanism, “expenditures”consolidated in USD increase by 2.8 million USD, with a netpositive financial impact of 1.0 million USD.

Table 4-13: Impact of exchange rate on accounting summary

Contributions

Interest and capital gain

Committed funds from previous FY

Carry over from previous FY

Total

Balance ( negative)

GRAND TOTAL

58.7

3.0

58.6

7.5

127.8

127.8

60.9

3.0

59.7

8.0

131.6

131.6

Actual2007 (1)

Actual2007 (2)

Actual2007 (1)

Actual 2007 (2)

Income/ commitments received

Administrative expenses

Program activities

Committed funds beyond FY

Refundable loan to HFSP-P

Total

Balance (positive)

GRAND TOTAL

4.6

57.4

62.8

0.0

124.8

3.0

127.8

5.3

58.4

64.0

0.0

127.7

3.9

131.6

Expenditures/ new commitments

(1) budget rate (2) actual rate

A different currency mix between “income” and “expen ditures”explains this asymmetry: 30% of the contributions aremade in other currencies than USD, but these currenciesmake for only 20% of expenditures and commitments. Theleverage effect of variations in the USD exchange rate istherefore stronger on the income side. A decrease in theUSD exchange rate inflates income in USD more thanexpenditures, with a positive financial impact, and vice versa.

From the awardees’ perspective, and because ResearchGrants and Career Development Awards are committed inUSD, the low exchange rate observed this year had adetrimental effect on those paid outside the USA. Close to50% of awardees are exposed to the exchange rate risk. Onthe contrary, Long-Term Fellowships are committed in thecurrency of the host country and the exchange rate risk isborne by HFSPO.

66

4.4ACTIVITY BUDGET

FOR FY 2008

Ottawa guideline (kUSD)

Requested (kUSD)


Requested (kEUR)


Requested (kCHF)


Requested (kUSD)


Requested (kCAD)


Requested (kEUR)


Requested (kEUR)


Requested (kUSD)


Requested (kEUR)


Requested (kUSD)


Requested (kUSD)


Requested (kGBP)


Requested (kUSD)

31 248

31 248

4 770

3 901

603

850

534

534

1 090

1 418

2 768

2 214

4 299

3 439

812

812

909 to 1 339

727 to 1 071

103

103

624

624

2 053

1 129

9 364 to 11 117

9 364 to 11 117

31 248

31 248

4 976

3 981

620

850

566

566

1 139

1 482

2 865

2 292

4 428

3 543

844

844

944 to 1 803

755 to 1 442

108

108

658

658

2 155

1 185

9 743 to 13 234

9 743 to 13 234

31 248

31 248

5 191

4 153

638

850

598

598

1 190

1 549

2 966

2 373

4 561

3 649

879

879

981 to 2 267

785 to 1 814

113

113

694

694

2 263

1 244

10 137 to 15 352

10 137 to 15 352

Japan (1)

EU (25-MSPs) (2)

Switzerland (2)

Australia

Canada

France

Germany

India

Italy (Tab A/B)

New Zealand

Korea

UK

USA (Tab A/B)

FY2008 FY2009 FY2010MSP

Contributions

The MSPs’ representatives at the IGC conference held inOttawa in June 2007 decided to maintain the principle of athree-year budgetary guideline, extended to the period FY 2008-FY 2010. After conversion into currencies of con tri bution, this guideline served as the basis for FY 2008budget planning 8 (Table 4-14).

Most MSPs confirmed their contribution for FY 2008 (Table4-15). In the absence of such confirmation, it was assumedthat the contribution would be the same as in FY 2007.

Table 4-14: Implementation of Ottawa IGC budgetary plan (2008-2010) in USD and currency of contribution

8 The reference rates used to convert the Ottawa budgetary guideline werediscussed by the Finance Committee in March 2008. For the sake of consistency, and despite market fluctuations, it wasdecided to retain the Berne IGC referencerates for the conversion of the Ottawa IGC table. This will facilitate the monitoring of progress made towards two milestones: 60 million USD total contribution and equalmatch between Japan and other MSPs.

(1) Contribution not based on formula

(2) “Clause of protection” applies

67

Program activities (Table 4-16)

The Program activity plan, adopted by the Board in March2008, followed the recommendation of the Council, with18 new Program Grants, 14 Young Investigator Grants, 95 Long-Term Fellowships, 12 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowshipsand 21 Career Development Awards (Table 4-15). Paymentsto awardees in FY 2008 will reach 60 million USD, ascompared to 58 million USD in FY 2007. The living allowance of Long-Term Fellowships increasesby 5%, to adjust for inflation since the last increase of 5% in FY 2005.200 thousand USD are allocated to Short-Term Fellowships 300 thousand USD are budgeted for the Awardees meeting

Financial income is conservatively estimated at one millionUSD. Running costs should remain stable (Table 4-17) andthe payment of a second instalement of the loan to HFSPPublishing is budgeted (400 thousand EUR).

USD

CAD

EUR

EUR

EUR

USD

EUR

USD

USD

USD

USD

CHF

GBP

USD

534

1 417

3 901

2 214

3 439

812

700

31 248

624

103

500

850

1 129

9 364

534

1 417

3 901

2 214

3 439

812

727 / 1 339

31 248

624

103

500

850

1 129

9 364 / 11 117

30

60

0

126

100

32

-300

0

33

4

n.a

0

53

364

Australia

Canada

EU

France

Germany

India

Italy (2)

Japan

Korea

New Zealand

Norway (3)

Switzerland (4)

UK

USA

ContributionCurrency

(CC)

Contributions assumed or confirmed

for FY 2008

Ottawa IGC guideline

for FY2008 (1)

Progression from FY2007

(in kCC)

progression from FY2007

(in %)

6%

4%

0%

5%

3%

4%

-30%

0%

6%

4%

n.a.

0%

5%

4%

MSP

(1) Table A or B of IGC guideline(2) Amount to be confirmed(3) Norway joined HFSP during FY 2008 and will pay its first contribution to the Program (4) Swiss contribution above amount based upon strict IGC formula application (748 kCHF)

Table 4-15: MSP’s contributions budgeted for FY 2008

Program Grants

PG 06

PG 07

PG 08 (new)

Young Investigator Grants

YI 06

YI 07

YI 08 (new)


LT 03 and LT 04

LT 05

LT 06

LT 07

LT 08 (new)


CDA 06

CDA 07

CDA 08 (new)


Awardees Meeting, Berlin

TOTAL

Awards committedbeyond FY2008

63

20

25

18

36

12

10

14

400

(few)

101

92

100

107

74

29

24

21

21.85

3rd year

2nd & 3rd years

12.15

19.94

4.29

58.23

23.22

3rd year

2nd year

1st year

11.20

17.81

7.19

0.20

0.30

59.92

Payments in FY2008

Table 4-16: Funding of Program activities for FY 2008 in number of awards and value

68

Table 4-17: HFSPO budget for FY 2008 (budget rates) and actual FY 2007 (actual rates)

Table 4-18: Exchange rate in FY 2008 budget assumptions

Under FY 2008 budget assumptions, a positive balance of 7 million USD is anticipated, i.e. 5% of global assets /liabilities. This positive balance is significantly impacted byexchange rate fluctuation and will decrease if USDcurrency strengthens against other currencies.

Notes on HFSPO Budget and Finance Committee

Chaired by Antoine Grassin (France), ordinary members ofthe Committee are Graeme Fraser (New Zealand), SarojiniMartin (Australia), Kaoru Naito (Japan), Norka Ruiz-Bravo(USA), Ulrich Schlüter (Germany) and Piergiorgio Strata(Italy). The Finance Committee met before the 39th Boardmeeting, on 30 March 2008. The Committee reviewed theFY 2007 provisional accounts, the investment strategy andthe FY 2008 budget. The role and membership of theCommittee were discussed and an updated version of itsterms of reference presented to the Board. It was agreedthat these terms of reference will be subject to regularreview.

Notes on FY 2007 accounts

Accounts for FY 2007, consolidated in EUR, have been preparedby SEGEC Audit et Conseil. Accounts were audited andcertified by statutory auditors, Deloitte.

HFSPO’s legal accounts are reported on an accrual basis.They follow the French GAAP applicable to not-for-profitorganisations. Legal accounts are consolidated and stated inEUR. The currency of consolidation used for HFSPO’s internalreporting, including this annual report, is the USD.

Contributions

Financial income

Committed funds from previous year (restricted)

Carry over from previous year

Total*

TOTAL

62.2

1.0

64.0

4.0

131.1

131.1

60.9

3.0

59.7

8.0

131.6

131.6

FY 2007Budget FY 2008Income

Operation costs* (incl. tax and depreciation)

Program activities

Committed funds beyond FY (restricted)

Refundable loan to HFSPP

Total

Annual balance

TOTAL

5.3

59.9

58.2

0.6

124.0

7.2

131.1

5.3

58.4

64.0

-

127.7

3.9

131.6

FY 2007Budget FY 2008Expenditure

* incl. 60 thousand USD in kind from Japan

Budget FY 2008

Actual FY 2007 (for ref.)

1.10

1.03

1.10

1.16

CAD CHF

0.70

0.71

EUR

0.50

0.50

GBP

100

114

JPY1 USD =Exchange rates FY 2008

69

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

4.5 HFSPO is grateful for the support of the followingorganizations:

Australia National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

CanadaCanadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council(NSERC)

European UnionEuropean Commission - Directorate General Research (DGRESEARCH) European Commission - Directorate General InformationSociety (DG INFSO)

FranceMinistère des Affaires Etrangères (MAE)Ministère de la Recherche (MER)Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg (CUS)Région Alsace

GermanyFederal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

IndiaDepartment of Biotechnology (DOB), Ministry of Scienceand Technology

ItalyConsiglio Nazionale delle Richerche (CNR)

JapanMinistry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT)

Republic of Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)

New ZealandHealth Research Council (HRC)

SwitzerlandState Secretariat for Education and Research (SER)

UKBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC) Medical Research Council (MRC)

USANational Institutes of Health (NIH)National Science Foundation (NSF)

A.1 History of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

A.2 Joint Communiqué of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Human Frontier Science Program, 15 June 2007 . . 74

A.3 Summary of decisions of the Board of Trustees in FY 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

A.4 Research Grants awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

A.5 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

A.6 Career Development Awards made in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

A.7 Short-Term Fellowships awarded in 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

A.8 Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Appendices

72

The Secretariat of the Program, the International HumanFrontier Science Program Organization, was founded inOctober 1989 in Strasbourg, France. The first President ofthe Program was Ambassador Miyazaki (Japan), the firstChairman of the Council of Scientists was Dr. Edward Rall(US) and the first Secretary General was Sir James Gowans,former Secretary of the Medical Research Council, UK.

1990. The peer review process was established and the firstawards were made in March.

Further development of the Program

Intergovernmental Conferences bring together repre sentativesof the Management Supporting Parties, i.e. those countriesthat support the Program directly, plus the European Union,representing the remaining EU countries, to discuss overallpolicy and strategy. Since 2004, they also establish an indi -cative financial framework for the following three years.

1st Intergovernmental Conference, Tokyo, 1992: This con -fe rence recognised the achievements made in the initialphase of the Program and the desirability of continuing theHFSP. It was decided to carry out a general review of theprogram from both scientific and organisational standpoints.

2nd Intergovernmental Conference, Washington, DC, May1997: It was decided to continue the HFSP for another fiveyears. The MSPs reaffirmed the goals of the Tokyo JointCommuniqué aimed at increased and equitable funding forthe Program. A further review of the Program was requestedfor March 2001.

3rd Intergovernmental Conference, Berlin, June 2002: TheMSPs agreed to the continuation of HFSP for a further fiveyears on the basis of its scientific value and the imple men -tation of a number of initiatives introduced by the SecretaryGeneral. A working group was set up to consider the futurefinances, status and scope of the Program.

4th Intergovernmental Conference, Berne, 25 June 2004:The delegates agreed upon a general indicative financialframe work for 2005-2007 in order to reach a total budgetof 60 million USD and a 50:50 distribution of contributionsfrom Japan and the other countries. An annual increase wasrecom mended to maintain the awarding capacity of theProgram.

5th Intergovernmental Conference, Ottawa, June 15 2007:The representatives agreed on an indicative three yearbudge tary plan 2008-2010 and endorsed the Boardrecommendation of March 2007 that an annual minimumcontribution be required of any new MSP.

Beginnings

1986. A feasibility study was carried out by leading Japanesescientists under the auspices of the Japanese PrimeMinister's Council for Science of Technology, to explorepossible means to encourage international collaboration inbasic research.

1987. Discussion was expanded to include scientists fromthe G7 summit nations and the European Union, resulting inthe "London Wise Men's Conference" in April 1987, whichendorsed the suggestion.

Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan proposed the HumanFrontier Science Program at the Venice Economic Summit inJune. The Economic Summit partners and the Chairman of theEuropean Community welcomed the initiative and activitiesaimed at implementing it as soon as possible were started.

1988. Further international talks were held from November1987 to March 1988 in the form of an International HFSPFeasibility Study Committee, which culminated in April1988 in the "Bonn Wise Men's conference". This establishedan outline of the program activities and defined the generalscientific areas and types of activity to be supported.

Prime Minister Takeshita of Japan reported the conclusionsof the international feasibility study at the TorontoEconomic Summit in June. The assembled Heads of Statewelcomed the proposal for implementation in the nearfuture.

1989. An International Scientists Committee, which hadstarted work in 1987, gave further shape to the Program,defining its organization and the details of its program acti vities,research areas and selection procedures. Inter gover n mentalconferences were held in June and July 1989 in Tokyo andBerlin, respectively, which led to endorsement of the plan bythe participating governments. It was agreed to implementthe HFSP for an initial experimental phase of 3 years.

HISTORY OF THE PROGRAM

A.1

73

Leadership and management

The MSPs nominate representatives to the Board of Trusteesto take responsibility for the management of the Program incollaboration with the Council of Scientists. A President andtwo Vice-Presidents are elected by the members from amongthe Trustees for a three-year term. The Board of Trusteesappoints a Secretary General for a term of three years toexecute the Program in accordance with the decisions of theBoard of Trustees and the Council of Scientists.

President of the Board of TrusteesHiromichi Miyazaki (Japan)

November 1989-March 1995Kozo Iizuka (Japan)

April 1995-March 2000Masao Ito (Japan)

April 2000 to present

Chair of the Council of ScientistsEdward Rall (USA):

March 1990 (2nd meeting), March 1993 (8th meeting), Klaus-Peter Hoffmann (Germany)

November 1993 (9th meeting), March 1995 (12th meeting)Pierre Chambon (France)

March 1996 (13th meeting), March 1997 (14th meeting)Albert Aguayo (Canada)

March 1998 (15th meeting), March 1999 (16th meeting)Arturo Falaschi (Italy)

March 2000 (17th meeting), March 2001 (18th meeting)Pierre Magistretti (Switzerland)

March 2002 (19th meeting), March 2003 (20th meeting)Heinrich Betz (Germany)

March 2004 (21st meeting)Joachim Seelig (Switzerland)

March 2005 (22nd meeting), March 2006 (23rd meeting)Rudi Balling (Germany)

March 2006 (24th meeting)Paul Lasko (Canada)

March 2007 (25th meeting), March 2008 (26th meeting)

Secretary GeneralJames Gowans (UK)

November 1989-March 1993Michel Cuénod (Switzerland)

April 1993-March 2000Torsten Wiesel (USA)

April 2000 to present

Membership of HFSPO

HFSPO was established at the initiative of the Japanesegovernment, led by Prime Minister Nakasone. The foundingMSPs were Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy,Japan, UK and USA. Switzerland took up membership in 1991.At the 3rd Intergovernmental Conference, Berlin, 2002, MSPsagreed to take active steps to expand the membership ofHFSPO to enhance the intercontinental balance of theProgram and promote international collaboration. TheGuidelines for membership were subsequently revised andthe Board accepted the following new members:2004 Australia and Republic of Korea2006 New Zealand and India2008 Norway

Reviews of HFSP

A number of reviews have been carried out at the request ofthe MSPs.

1996 General review: a questionnaire based review, withcomments by an expert scientific panel.

2001 Second General Review: a questionnaire based review,with a bibliometric analysis

2006 Review of the Human Frontier Science Program’sInitiatives 2000-2005: a questionnaire based review toevaluate the success of the initiatives introduced under theleadership of Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel.

2007 Report of the expert review panel on HFSP: an addi tionalreview by a panel of eminent scientists, who were invited tocomment on the 2006 report and to identify issues forfurther evaluation.

74

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships are intended for postdoctoralfellows with a Ph.D. degree in the physical sciences, chemistry,mathematics, engineering and computer sciences who wishto receive training in biology.

Paragraph 1 Continuation of the Human Frontier Science Program

a) Representatives of the Management Supporting Parties(MSPs) of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan,the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UnitedKingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the UnitedStates of America and of the European Union met at anIntergovernmental Conference (IGC) on 15 June 2007 inOttawa to review the progress made and discuss the futureof the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) 9.

b) Representatives noted with approval the recent positiveevaluation of the program by a leading research and analysisinstitute, and by a distinguished expert panel. They endorsedthe opinion of the expert panel that “the HFSP is a greatsuccess, and it enjoys great prestige in the internationalscientific community… HFSP occupies an importa nt, uniqueniche in the world of science through its mode of sup portingthe best innovative, international, inter disciplinary research”.They were pleased to learn that the panel was very favou rablyimpressed by the changes made since 2000 by the SecretaryGeneral of HFSP, Torsten Wiesel. The repre sen tatives alsonoted the strong recommendation addressed to the MSPsby the panel seriously to consider increasing their financialcommitment to HFSP in future years.

c) Representatives appreciated the continued efforts madeto enhance the value and visibility of HFSP by the intro -duction of new initiatives, and hold the achievements ofHFSP in high regard. Conscious of the important role of theProgram in promoting interdisciplinary and internationalcooperation in basic life sciences among excellent resear chers,and in providing training for the most talented youngresear chers, the representatives enthusiastically agreed tothe continuation of HFSP on the basis of the followingunderstanding:

Paragraph 2 Three-year indicative budgetary plan and target levels forFY2008-2010

a) The MSPs participating in the IGC for the first time werecommended for their financial discipline, as was the successof most MSPs present at the Berne IGC in implementing thethree-year indicative budgetary plan, helping HFSP toachieve its mission and progress toward the objective of anequal match between the contributions of Japan and of theother MSPs.

Introduction

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) supportsnovel, innovative, and interdisciplinary basic researchfocused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms. Itemphasizes support for novel collaborations that bringtogether biologists with scientists from fields such asphysics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science andengineering to focus on problems at the frontier of the lifesciences.

Research Grants are awarded to teams of scientists workingin different countries and in different disciplines who havenot previously collaborated. Two types of grant are available:Young Investigator Grants and Program Grants.

Postdoctoral Fellowships are available for scientists whowish to work in foreign laboratories, with emphasis onindividuals early in their careers who wish to obtain trainingin a different field of research. Fellows who return to theirhome countries are eligible to apply for a Career Deve lop mentAward.

JOINT COMMUNIQUÉOF THE

INTERGOVERNMENTALCONFERENCE (IGC)

ON THE HUMANFRONTIER SCIENCE

PROGRAM, 15 JUNE 2007

A.2

9 Representatives from Italy, also an MSP,were unable to attend: its endorsement of the Joint Communiqué will be soughtseparately.

75

b) Taking into account past achievements and the need tomaintain the number, value, and prestige of HFSP grants andawards, representatives recommend as a desirable objectivean annual increase, overall 4%, in the HFSP budget in orderto maintain the levels of program activity as set out in Table 1.

c) A priority for the funding period 2008-2010 is to achievean equal match between the contributions of Japan and theother IGC members. Therefore, Japan is to be exempt fromthis annual increase until the match is achieved. At thesame time, this plan was formulated with the strongexpectation that Japan would maintain its current high levelof support and that the other IGC members would makeevery effort to achieve the target levels.

d) Recognizing that the contributions of MSPs were originallybased on Gross Domestic Products (GDP), and that thevalue of relative GDPs has changed among the MSPs overthe past 10 years, the overall 4% increase in each MSP’scontribution, as shown in Table 2, will be adjusted by anamount proportional to the change in relative GDP. Repre -sentatives recommended to the Board that this adjustmentbe applied for subsequent three-year budget planning periodsin order that member contributions will more closely reflectrelative GDPs.

e) The representatives endorsed the Board recommendationof March 2007 that an annual minimum contribution wouldbe required of any new MSP.

f) Taking paragraphs (b)-(d) into account, representativesagreed to adopt a new three-year indicative budgetary plan(FY2008-2010) as the framework for establishing the annualbudget of HFSPO (Table 1), thereby providing target levelsfor contributions by IGC members, as shown in Table 2.

Paragraph 3 New membership

a) Representatives welcomed the membership of Australia,India, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand as approvedby the Board at its meetings in 2004 - 2006.

b) The representatives agreed that MSPs should continue toencourage potential candidates to apply for membership ofHFSP, subject to the quality and capacity of fundamentalbiological research conducted by the candidate nation, andby its willingness and ability to support the HFSP financially.

c) It was noted that the contributions of any new membersare to be added to the total amount contributed by theother MSPs.

Paragraph 4 Evaluation of HFSP

a) Representatives request that the evaluation of thescientific programs to be considered at the next IGC shouldbe focused on the outcomes and impacts of the initiativesintroduced since 2000. As far as possible, these should becompared against comparable international programs.

b) The Board and Council of Scientists were asked tocontinue to monitor the outcomes of HFSP competitions, toensure that the selection process is fair and unbiased to allapplicants.

Paragraph 5 Initiatives and Future Developments

a) Representatives welcomed the steps taken since 2000 toenhance support for young scientists and increase theinterdisciplinary profile of the scientific programs. The Boardwas requested to continue to review and refine the programswhere necessary to support scientists working at thefrontier of the life sciences, in particular, those early in theircareers, and to encourage women to apply to the program.

b) The next IGC will be held one year after the 20th anni -versary of HFSP. Representatives expect that HFSP will usethis anniversary as an opportunity for reassessing the visionand strategic directions of HFSP.

Paragraph 6 Next Meeting

a) It was decided that the next meeting of HFSP IGC will beheld in 2010, unless unforeseen circumstances make itnecessary to hold a meeting before that date.

b) MSPs are requested to give their representatives on thenext IGC Working Group a strong mandate to discussproposals from the Board of Trustees on strategy, financeand operations, in order to permit a debate on the futurestructure and function of HFSP prior to the next IGC.

76

Table 1: Three-year indicative budgetary plan

Table 1A:4% annual increase on the basis of FY 2007 guideline or MoU

Contributions are calculated on the basis of the Berne IGCtarget FY 2007 contribution level, or resulting from the MoUimplementation for MSPs joining subsequently.

The living allowance for Long Term Fellowship is increasedby 5% in FY 2008 as adjustment to inflation since FY 2005.The amount paid for Research Grants and CDA is keptconstant.

MSP contributions (million USD)

MSP Reference Ottawa - Budgetary guidelineBerne IGC

guideline or MOU 2008 2009 2010 Total 3 years

Japan 30.00 31.25 31.25 31.25 93.75Berne MSPs* 30.66 28.04 31.22 34.43 93.69New MSPs 1.97 2.07 2.18 2.28 6.53TOTAL 62.63 61.36 64.65 67.96 193.97* EU includes the 10 new MSPs which joined in FY 2006

Japan in % of Berne MSPs 49.5% 52.7% 50.0% 47.6%Japan in % of total 47.9% 50.9% 48.3% 46.0%

Awarding capacity (Number of new awards possible per year)

Programs 2007 (f.i) 2008 2009 2010 Total 3 years

Program Grants 25 24 25 25 74Young Investigator Grants 10 10 11 12 33Career Development Awards 24 23 23 24 70Long-Term Fellowships 100 99 99 107 305

Distribution subject to modification

Assumption on expenditures (thousand USD)

2008-2010

Secretariat (% of total expenditure) 6.5-7%Program Grants (total cost per award) 1.150Young Investigator Grants (total cost per award) 950Career Development Awards (total cost per award) 300Long-Term Fellowships (total cost per award) 170Short-Term Fellowships (per annum) 200Awardees meeting (per annum) 300

77

Table 1B: 4% annual increase on the basis of actual FY 2007contributions

Contributions are calculated on the basis of the actual MSPcontributions according to the budget approved by theBoard of Trustees in March 2007

The living allowance for Long-Term Fellowship is increasedby 5% in FY 2008 as adjustment to inflation since FY 2005.The amount paid for Research Grants and CDA is keptconstant.

MSP contributions (million USD)

MSP Reference Ottawa - Budgetary guidelineActual FY 2007

contribution 2008 2009 2010 Total 3 years

Japan 31.25 31.25 31.25 31.25 93.74Berne MSPs* 24.83 25.86 26.87 27.93 80.66New MSPs 1.97 2.07 2.18 2.28 6.53TOTAL 58.05 59.18 60.29 61.46 180.93* EU includes the 10 new MSPs which joined in FY 2006

Japan in % of Berne MSPs 55.7% 54.7% 53.8% 52.8%Japan in % of total 53.8% 52.8% 51.8% 50.8%

Awarding capacity (Number of new awards possible per year)

Programs 2007 (f.i) 2008 2009 2010 Total 3 years

Program Grants 25 23 23 24 70Young Investigator Grants 10 10 10 10 30Career Development Awards 24 20 20 21 61Long-Term Fellowships 100 94 98 98 290

Distribution subject to modification

Assumption on expenditures (thousand USD)

2008-2010

Secretariat (% of total expenditure) 6.5-7% Program Grants (total cost per award) 1.150 Young Investigator Grants (total cost per award) 950 Career Development Awards (total cost per award) 300 Long-Term Fellowships (total cost per award) 170Short-Term Fellowships (per annum) 200Awardees meeting (per annum) 300

78

Table 2 : OTTAWA IGC BUDGETARY GUIDELINETarget levels of contributions by MSPs for the three-yearperiod FY 2008 - FY2010

Table 2A: 4% annual increase on the basis of FY 2007 guideline or MoU

Contributions are calculated on the basis of the Berne IGCtarget FY 2007 contribution level, or resulting from the MoUimplementation for MSPs joining subsequently.

Table 2B: 4% annual increase on the basis of actual FY 2007contributions

Contributions are calculated on the basis of the actualMSP contributions according to the budget approved bythe Board of Trustees in March 2007.

MSP Reference Annual Contributions (thousand USD)

Berne IGC guideline or MoU 2008 2009 2010

Australia 505 534 566 598Canada 1 043 1 090 1 139 1 190EU 4 572 4 770 4 976 5 191France 2 674 2 768 2 865 2 966Germany 4 174 4 299 4 428 4 561India 780 812 844 879Italy 2 022 1 339 1 803 2 267Japan 30 000 31 248 31 248 31 248New Zealand 99 103 108 113Republic of Korea 591 624 658 694Switzerland 587 603 620 638UK 1 956 2 053 2 155 2 263USA 13 630 11 117 13 234 15 352TOTAL 62 623 61 360 64 645 67 959

MSP Reference Annual Contributions (thousand USD)

Actual FY 2007 contribution 2008 2009 2010

Australia 505 534 566 598Canada 1 043 1 090 1 139 1 190EU 4 572 4 770 4 976 5 191France 2 626 2 768 2 865 2 966Germany 4 174 4 299 4 428 4 561India 780 812 844 879Italy 875 909 944 981Japan 31 248 31 248 31 248 31 248New Zealand 99 103 108 113Republic of Korea 591 624 658 694Switzerland 587 603 620 638UK 1 956 2 053 2 155 2 263USA 9 000 9 364 9 743 10 137TOTAL 58 056 59 177 60 295 61 459

80

40th Board meeting (31 March 2008)

On the recommendation of the Council of Scientists, theBoard agreed to make the following awards: 14 Young Inves -ti gator Grants and 18 Program Grants, 95 Long-TermFellow ships, 12 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships and 21 CareerDevelopment Awards.

Norway was admitted to membership of HFSPO. TheStatutes will be modified to include Norway among thelist of MSPs (Statutes 4.4)With the accession of Norway to membership of HFSPO,bringing the number of MSPs to 14, it was no longerpossible to fulfill the double statutory requirement of twoCouncil members per MSP, within the limit of 26 members.It was therefore decided to revise the procedure for theappointment of Council members, as follows: “The Councilof Scientists consists of no more than 26 members. EachMSP nominates one Council member. Additional membersare recommended as necessary by the Council and/or theMSPs and are approved by the Board.”(Statutes, 7.2)It was confirmed that the 2010 Intergovernmental Con -ference will be hosted by Australia.The Board welcomed the offer by India to host the 2010awardees meeting.The program activity plan and budget for FY 2008 wereapproved.The auditors’ report for FY 2006 was approved.The Board approved the nomination of the followingauditors for a term of one year: Brian Gifford, NSERC, CanadaShinji Okakura, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI), JapanPatrick Pierrat, SEGEC Audit et Conseil, FranceThe successor to Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel, wasselectedThe Secretariat will take the necessary steps to seek asuccessor to Deputy Secretary General, Kazuo Shimomura.The Secretary General informed the Board that the termsof employment of Martin Reddington, Director of ScientificAffairs and Communications, will be extended for a periodof three years.

SUMMARY OF DECISIONS

OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

IN FY 2007

A.3

81

10 These grants were initiated during FY 2007. For a list of the grants

awarded in 2008, see the HFSP website.

1. Young Investigators

Redesigning the architecture of visual cortex: horizontal connections and cortical column layoutCROWLEY Justin, USAKAWASAKI Hiroshi, JAPANWOLF Fred, GERMANY

Structural study on protein synthesis. Ribosome nascentchain cross talks and cotranslational foldingFUCINI Paola, (ITALY), GERMANYCHRISTODOULOU John, UKTAKEMOTO Chie, JAPAN

The chemistry of visual trickery: evolution and mechanisms of egg mimicry in cuckoosGRIM Tomas, CZECH REPUBLICCASSEY Phillip, (NEW ZEALAND), UKHAUBER Mark, (HUNGARY), NEW ZEALAND

In-vivo and in-vitro: cellular and neurochemical mechanisms of somatosensory neurovascular couplingHILLMAN Elizabeth, (UK), USACAULI Bruno, FRANCE

Molecular unraveling of crosstalk between bacterial and eukaryotic cellsKROM Bastiaan, THE NETHERLANDSMEIJLER Michael, (THE NETHERLANDS), ISRAEL

Combining chemical and imaging tools to understandmRNA function in neuronal plasticityRAO Jianghong, (CHINA), USAGRIESBECK Oliver, GERMANY

Fluid flow in developmental biologySAWAMOTO Kazunobu, JAPANNONAKA Shigenori, JAPANSPASSKY Nathalie, FRANCE

The molecular mechanism of chromosome reorganization during sporulation of Bacillus subtilisTEGENFELDT Jonas, SWEDENBEN-YEHUDA Sigal, ISRAELSALEH Omar, USA

Micro- and nano-scaled devices to study cell morphogenesis and evolutionTRAN Phong, USAJIANG Xingyu, CHINALEU Jun-Yi, CHINESE TAIPEIPIEL Matthieu, FRANCE

The biological role of tandem repeats in genomesVERSTREPEN Kevin, (BELGIUM), USAHAGIHARA Masaki, JAPANMAHESHRI Narendra, USAMARCHAL Kathleen, BELGIUM

Note that nationality is given in brackets if different fromcountry of laboratory.

RESEARCH GRANTS

AWARDED IN 2007 10

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82

Integrating the genetics, mechanics and phenomenologyof embryonic wound healingHUTSON Shane, USABRODLAND Wayne, CANADAJACINTO Antonio, PORTUGALThe control circuitry of nitrogen assimilation in bacteriaHWA Terence, USAKUSTU Sydney, USALENZ Peter, GERMANYWANG Yiping, CHINA

Physical and biochemical mechanisms of membranedeformation in lipid-mediated endocytosisJOHANNES Ludger, (GERMANY), FRANCEBASSEREAU Patricia, FRANCEPARTON Robert, AUSTRALIARAO Madan, INDIA

Structure and function of candidate magnetite-basedmagnetoreceptor cellsKIRSCHVINK Joseph, USAMCNAUGHTON Peter, (NEW ZEALAND), UKWALKER Michael, NEW ZEALANDWINKLHOFER Michael, GERMANY

Deterministic and stochastic choices of cell fate and wiring specificity in the CNSKOENTGES Georgy, (GERMANY), UKLUO Liqun, USAMIZRAHI Adi, ISRAEL

A modular protein design route to exploring the operating principles of molecular motorsLINKE Heiner, (GERMANY), USACURMI Paul, AUSTRALIAFORDE Nancy, CANADAWOOLFSON Derek Neil, UK

Approach to the construction of minimal living cellsLUISI Pier Luigi, ITALYUEDA Takuya, JAPAN

Roles of V0 and SNAREs in lipid mixing and pore ope-ning during membrane fusionMAYER Andreas, (GERMANY), SWITZERLANDRIZO-REY Josep, (SPAIN), USAROSENMUND Christian, (GERMANY), USA

Biodiversity and principle of the voltage sensor domainOKAMURA Yasushi, JAPANDIXON Jack, USADOYLE Declan, UKVON HEIJNE Gunnar, SWEDEN

2. Program Grants

Behavior of a T4 bacteriophage primosome as it influences replisome movement during DNA replicationCROQUETTE Vincent, FRANCEBENKOVIC Stephen, USA

Oncogene control of DNA replication dynamicsD'ADDA DI FAGAGNA Fabrizio, ITALYBECHHOEFER John, CANADABENSIMON Aaron, (SWITZERLAND), FRANCE

Investigating mechanisms of cell polarity with newfunctionalized magneto-fluorescent nanoparticlesDAHAN Maxime, FRANCEBAWENDI Moungi, USABELLAICHE Yohanns, FRANCEPIEHLER Jacob, GERMANY

The brain's turing machine: serial chaining of cognitiveoperations in human and non-human primatesDEHAENE Stanislas, FRANCEROELFSEMA Pieter, THE NETHERLANDSSHAPIRO Kimron, (CANADA), UKSIGMAN Mariano, (ARGENTINA/SPAIN), ARGENTINAVANDUFFEL Wim, BELGIUM

Neural and mechanical basis of acoustic communicationin DrosophilaDICKSON Barry, (AUSTRALIA), AUSTRIAMIESENBÖCK Gero, (AUSTRIA), UKROBERT Daniel, (SWITZERLAND), UKWILSON Rachel, USA

Biomineralization and biomimetic mineralization usingthe Dps family of protein cage architecturesDOUGLAS Trevor, USAYAMASHITA Ichiro, JAPANZETH Kornelius, GERMANY

Human immune memory & vaccine responses: high-throughput analyses of antibody repertoire & functionDUNN-WALTERS Deborah, UKALMAGRO Juan, (CUBA), USALANZAVECCHIA Antonio, (ITALY), SWITZERLANDMEHR Ramit, ISRAEL

Epigenetics of critical periods in vocal communication – from mouse to manHENSCH Takao, (USA), JAPANESTELLER Manel, SPAINWERKER Janet, CANADA

Mechanisms regulating the dynamics of a parasite community in a wild herbivore systemHUDSON Peter John, (UK), USAALBERT Reka, (ROMANIA), USASTEAR Michael, UK

83

Social recovery from losses in the workforce: honey beecolonies as a model of recovery strategiesPLETTNER Erika, CANADALE CONTE Yves, FRANCERÖSSLER Wolfgang, GERMANYWATMOUGH James, CANADA

The folding of helical repeat proteins: ensemble, single molecule and computational studiesREGAN Lynne, (UK), USADAGGETT Valerie, USAD'ANDREA Luca Domenico, ITALYHARAN Gilad, ISRAEL

Adjustable Curie-temperature nanoparticles to studythe biological functions of feverROY Edward, USAATSARKIN Vadim, RUSSIAKAUL Andrey, RUSSIA

Testing the role of cell polarity during thymocyte development.RUSSELL Sarah, AUSTRALIAGU Min, AUSTRALIAROBEY Ellen, USA

Optimization in natural systems: ants, bees and slime mouldsSUMPTER David, (UK), SWEDENBEEKMAN Madeleine, (THE NETHERLANDS), AUSTRALIAMIDDENDORF Martin, GERMANYNAKAGAKI Toshiyuki, JAPAN

Reproductive isolation and autoimmunity in plantsWEIGEL Detlef, (GERMANY/USA), GERMANYDANGL Jeffery, USADOEBELI Michael, CANADAJONES Jonathan, UK

Capturing the methylome by a novel approach to functional proteomicsWEINHOLD Elmar, GERMANYFEINBERG Andrew, USAKÖSTER Hubert, GERMANYROBERTS Richard, (UK), USA

84

LONG-TERM AND

CROSS-DISCIPLINARYFELLOWSHIPS

AWARDED IN 2007 11

A.5

1. Long-Term Fellowships

Name Nationality Host institute Host country

ARENA PANIZZUTTI Rogerio BRAZIL University of California, San Francisco USAARMACHE Karim-Jean POLAND Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston USAASHER Gad ISRAEL University of Geneva SWITZERLANDBEHNIA Roudabeh FRANCE New York University USABEN-CHAIM Yair ISRAEL Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USABERONJA Slobodan CANADA The Rockefeller University, New York USABETSCHINGER Joerg GERMANY Institute for Stem Cell Biology, Cambridge UKBISCHOFF Vincent FRANCE Biozentrum, Basel SWITZERLANDBLANK Kerstin GERMANY Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Heverlee BELGIUMCHEKULAEVA Marina RUSSIA Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel SWITZERLANDCHRISTOPHOROU Maria CYPRUS (EU PART) University of Cambridge UKDÉBARRE Delphine FRANCE Oxford University UKDEINHARDT Katrin GERMANY Skirball Institute, New York USADESCARGUES Pascal FRANCE University of California, San Diego USAEPSZTEIN Jérôme FRANCE Humboldt-University, Berlin GERMANYFISH Jennifer USA King's College, London UK

11 These fellowships were initiated during FY 2007. For a list of fellows awardedin 2008, see the HFSP website(http://www.hfsp.org/).

85


GARCIA CAO Isabel SPAIN Harvard Medical School, New York USAGARCIA CAO Marta SPAIN Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York USAGE Wuping CHINA University of California, San Francisco USAGODOY RUIZ Raquel SPAIN University of Maryland, College Park USAGRABBE Caroline SWEDEN Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main GERMANYGREGG Christopher CANADA Harvard University, Cambridge USAGROS Jérôme FRANCE Harvard Medical School, Boston USAGRUBER Stephan AUSTRIA University of Newcastle upon Tyne UKGRUENBERG Raik GERMANY Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona SPAINHUNTINGTON Nicholas AUSTRALIA Institut Pasteur, Paris FRANCEHUTTERER Andrea AUSTRIA Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Cambridge UKIKEUCHI Yoshiho JAPAN Harvard Medical School, Boston USAJINEK Martin CZECH REPUBLIC University of California, Berkeley USAKAFRI Ran ISRAEL Harvard Medical School, Boston USAKANAI Ryota JAPAN University College London UKKANDA Hajime JAPAN Yale University Medical School, New Haven USAKEENE Alex USA Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna AUSTRIAKIM Sanghee REPUBLIC OF KOREA Rockefeller University, New York USAKIRINO Yohei JAPAN University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USAKIRKHAM Matthew UK Karolinska Institute, Stockholm SWEDENKITAJIMA Tomoya JAPAN European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg GERMANYKITTLER Ralf GERMANY University of Chicago USAKIZHAKKE VALLAT Brinda INDIA The University of Texas, Austin USAKOGLIN Alexander GERMANY Harvard Medical School, Boston USAKURODA Taruho JAPAN Harvard Medical School, Boston USALAITINEN Roosa FINLAND Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tuebingen GERMANYLANGE Oliver GERMANY University of Washington, Seattle USALATA Suman INDIA European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble FRANCELEE Nara REPUBLIC OF KOREA University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill USALI Yan CHINA The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla USALISAL Jiri CZECH REPUBLIC Stanford University USALIU Gang CHINA Northwestern University, Evanston USALOCKE James UK California Institute of Technology, Pasadena USALORENTZEN Esben DENMARK Birkbeck College, London UKMATHEU Ander SPAIN National Institute for Medical Research, London UKMEYLAN Etienne SWITZERLAND Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge USAMIYAMICHI Kazunari JAPAN Stanford University USAMOUCHEL Céline FRANCE University of York UKNIV Yael ISRAEL Princeton University USANORDEN Caren GERMANY University of Cambridge UKNUTIU Razvan CANADA/ROMANIA Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge USAOSHIKANE Hiroyuki JAPAN Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UKPACIOREK Tomasz POLAND Stanford University USAPANATIER Aude FRANCE University of Montreal CANADAPAYER Bernhard AUSTRIA Harvard Medical School, Boston USAPFANDER Boris GERMANY Cancer Research UK, South Mimms UKPOLO Sophie FRANCE Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Cambridge UKPONTON Fleur FRANCE University of Sydney AUSTRALIAPROSZYNSKI Tomasz POLAND Harvard University, Cambridge USA

86


RAJAN Raghav INDIA University of California, San Francisco USARÄMÖ Pauli FINLAND Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich SWITZERLANDRECHES Meital ISRAEL Harvard University, Cambridge USAROBINSON Philip UK Stanford University Medical School USAROCHE Stéphane FRANCE Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried GERMANYROTBLAT Barak ISRAEL University of British Columbia, Vancouver CANADASAMISH Ilan ISRAEL/THE NETHERLANDS University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USASCHALCH Thomas SWITZERLAND Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory USASCHONROCK Nicole SWITZERLAND Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sydney AUSTRALIASCHUCK Sebastian GERMANY University of California, San Francisco USASCHWAMBORN Jens GERMANY Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna AUSTRIASHACKLETON Mark AUSTRALIA Center for Stem Cell Biology, Ann Arbor USASHARIF NAEINI Reza CANADA CNRS, Valbonne FRANCESIGAL Alex CANADA/ISRAEL California Institute of Technology, Pasadena USASOKABE Masaaki JAPAN University of California, Davis USASWAINSON Louise UK University of California, San Francisco USASZWED Marcin POLAND INSERM / CEA, Gif sur Yvette FRANCETAIPALE Mikko FINLAND Whitehead Institute, Cambridge USATAKANO Junpei JAPAN University of Wisconsin-Madison USATARCHINI Basile SWITZERLAND IRCM, Montréal CANADATHEVENET Laurie FRANCE University of Geneva SWITZERLANDVAN DER SLUIS Eli THE NETHERLANDS University of Munich GERMANYVAN WELIE Ingrid THE NETHERLANDS University College London UKVASTENHOUW Nadine THE NETHERLANDS Harvard University, Cambridge USAWATSON Tamara AUSTRALIA/UK Rutgers University, Newark USAWEIBEZAHN Jimena GERMANY University of California, San Francisco USAWEIRICH Christine USA Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich SWITZERLANDWIENISCH Martin GERMANY Harvard University, Cambridge USAZASLAVER Alon ISRAEL California Institute of Technology, Pasadena USAZINZEN Robert USA European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg GERMANY

2. Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships


ARIGOVINDAN Muthuvel INDIA University of California, San Francisco USABOECKING Till GERMANY Harvard Medical School, Boston USAKAPLAN Ariel ARGENTINA/ISRAEL University of California, Berkeley USAPORTUGUES Ruben SPAIN Harvard University, Cambridge USATAL Shay ISRAEL Harvard Medical School, Boston USA

87

CAREERDEVELOPMENTAWARDS MADE

IN 2007 12

A.6


BACHAND François CANADA University of Sherbrooke CANADABHATTACHARYYA Suvendra INDIA Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta INDIABORRELL FRANCO Victor SPAIN Instituto de Neurociencias, Sant Joan d'Alacant SPAINBUREAU Ingrid FRANCE INSERM, Marseille FRANCEDAVY Alice FRANCE CNRS, Toulouse FRANCEEHRSSON Henrik SWEDEN Karolinska Institute, Stockholm SWEDENFORESTIER Claire-Lise FRANCE Pasteur Institute, Paris FRANCEFRIEDMAN Nir ISRAEL Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot ISRAELFUKATA Yuko JAPAN National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki JAPANGON Stéphanie FRANCE CNRS, Marseille FRANCEHENRAS Anthony FRANCE Université Paul Sabatier / CNRS, Toulouse FRANCEHIRATA Hiromi JAPAN Nagoya University JAPANKIM Jin Woo KOREA Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon KOREA LARSEN Delmar USA University of California, Davis USAMORITA Yasuhiro JAPAN Osaka University JAPANROUX Philippe CANADA University of Montreal CANADASIGMAN Mariano ARGENTINA/SPAIN University of Buenos Aires ARGENTINASOEN Yoav ISRAEL Weizmann Insitute of Science, Rehovot ISRAELSTONE Sophia CANADA/JAMAICA Dalhousie University, Halifax CANADAVERDEL André FRANCE Institut Albert Bonniot, La Tronche FRANCEVERNOUX Teva FRANCE École Normale Supérieure, Lyon FRANCEVERT Grégory FRANCE Institute for Integrative Plant Biology, Montpellier FRANCEWALTHER Tobias GERMANY Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried GERMANYZUGARO Michaël FRANCE CNRS - Collège de France, Paris FRANCE

12 These awards were initiated during FY 2007. For a list of the CDA awarded

in 2008, see the HFSP website.

88


ACCORSI-MENDONÇA Daniela BRAZIL/ITALY Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo JAPANASANO Katsura JAPAN The University of Manchester UKBALCERCZYK Aneta POLAND Baker Medical Research Institute, Melbourne AUSTRALIABJÖRNSON GRANQVIST Anna SWEDEN Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta USACOOPER Edward * USA National Institute of Physiological Sciences, Okazaki JAPANCYBULSKI Larisa ARGENTINA Utrecht University THE NETHERLANDSDEFFONTAINE Valérie BELGIUM University of Glasgow UKDUBIN-THALER Benjamin USA CSIC, Barcelona SPAINEWBANK Jonathan UK Oxford University UKFRENCH Catherine UK NIAAA / NIH, Bethesda USAGAGEY Nathalie FRANCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis USAHARRISON Cecily Jill * UK California Institute of Technology, Pasadena USAIHUNWO Amadi NIGERIA University of Zurich SWITZERLANDKUMAR Devvarta INDIA Univ. of British Columbia/Riverview Hospital, Vancouver CANADAKURUNCZI Sandor * HUNGARY Cranfield University, Bedfordshire UKLEE Robert CANADA University of New South Wales, Sydney AUSTRALIAMITCHELL Anna NEW ZEALAND/UK Royal Prince Albert Hospital, Sydney AUSTRALIAO'CONNOR Darran IRELAND Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam THE NETHERLANDSPHEASANT Michael AUSTRALIA Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg FRANCEPINEDA David * SPAIN VIB and Catholic University, Leuven BELGIUMPUECH Pierre-Henri * FRANCE University of British Columbia, Vancouver CANADASPICUGLIA Salvatore * ITALY/VENEZUELA Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Cuernavaca MEXICOSTELLA Alessandro ITALY Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam THE NETHERLANDSSUSIARJO Martha INDONESIA Universidad de Valencia SPAINTADA Tomoko JAPAN Institut François Magendie, Bordeaux FRANCETAKEUCHI Jun * JAPAN University of California, San Francisco USATRAVEN Ana CROATIA Columbia University, New York USAVAROTSIS Constantinos * GREECE University of Cyprus, Nicosia CYPRUS (EU PART)YEW Joanne USA University of Munster GERMANYYING Sarah * USA Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich GERMANYZARNOWSKA Ewa POLAND Medical Research Council, Oxford UK* These awardees applied in FY 2006 but have been awarded the fellowship in FY 2007.

A.7SHORT-TERM

FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED IN 2007

89

Scientific and science policy meetings, and honours

The following scientific and science policy meetings wereattended by members of the Secretariat:

2007

Annual Meeting of the Society of Experimental Biology, 31 March – 1 April, Glasgow, UK

European Networks on Research Careers (ENRC), 25 April, Brussels, Belgium

Women in Science Conference, EMBO, 10 May, Heidelberg, Germany

Petra III Conference of Nobel Laureates, 12-17 May, Petra, Jordan

OECD Forum, “Innovation, Growth and Equity”, 14-15 May, Paris, France

Presentation at Helmholtz Center for Infection Research, 30 May, Braunschweig, Germany

NSF Accountability Workshop, 5-7 June, Strasbourg, France

ERAWatch Vision Workshop, 13-15 June, Brussels, Belgium

BioEco 2007, 26-28 June, Tianjing, China

Presentation at IGBMC, 27 June, Strasbourg, France

57th Meeting of Nobel Laureates, 1-3 July, Lindau, Germany

Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists(ASPB), 7-9 July, Chicago, USA

Presentation on HFSP funding at Friedrich MiescherInstitute, 12 July, Basel, Switzerland

7th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience, 13-17 July, Melbourne, Australia

PUBLIC RELATIONS

A.8

Website

The HFSP website (http://www.hfsp.org) continues to giveinformation on ongoing scientific activities of HFSP. The Hotoff the Press rubric on the home page features recent papersof special interest published by HFSP awardees. Furthersections related to the awardees and their work are planned.The Japan Science Foundation presents information on HFSPin Japanese on its own site (http://jhfsp.jsf.or.jp).

According to the internet search engine AltaVista, almost3000 web pages in websites around the world link to theHFSP home page. These are mostly sites dedicated tosummarizing funding opportunities (e.g. GrantsNet,BioMedNet), academic insti tutions (especially pagessummarizing funding opportunities), other funding agenciesand awardees’ own websites. In particular, efforts arecontinuing to link with the web pages of academic societiesboth within and outside the biological sciences so as toinform scientists in all disciplines of the opportunitiesoffered by HFSP. An occa sional electronic newsletter is sentout to over 7000 subscribers to inform them about HFSPactivities and point to new information on the website.

90

Secretary General receives National Medal of Science(2005), 27 July, White House, Washington, USA

37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 3-7 November, San Diego, USA

Presentation of HFSP funding at the Center for TheoreticalBiological Physics, University of California San Diego,6 November, San Diego, USA

EMBO YIP Course, 23-24 September, Heidelberg, Germany

5th Annual Meeting of the Science and Technology in Society Forum, October 5-7, Kyoto, Japan

Presentation on HFSP funding at EMBL, 10 October,Heidelberg, Germany

Yomiuri Forum: “Creativity in the 21st Century”, 17 October, Tokyo, Japan

RIKEN BSI 10th Anniversary Symposium panel discussion:“Challenging human mind and intellect”, 24 October, Kyoto, Japan

ESF MO Forum on Research Careers, 7-8 November, Brussels, Belgium

Neuroscience 2007, 3rd World Science Forum, “Knowledgeand society”, 8-10 November, Budapest, Hungary

6th Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Forum inFrance: Chemical and physical nanobiology for medicine,23 November, Strasbourg, France

Presentation on HFSP funding at University of Cologne, 5 December, Cologne, Germany

2008

Biophysical Society and International BiophysicsConference, 2-6 February, Long Beach, California, USA

Swedish Society for Neuroscience, 13 February, Stockholm,Sweden

ENI-NET (Network of European Neuroscience Institutes),24-25 February, Rome, Italy

CNRS – JSPS COLLOQUIUM, 6-7 March, Paris, France

Registre des Associations de Strasbourg

Volume 58 - Folio 99

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sur les presses de l’Imprimerie Valblor

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The International Human FrontierScience Program Organization (HFSPO)

12 quai Saint-Jean – BP 1003467080 Strasbourg Cedex – FranceFax. +33 (0)3 88 32 88 97e-mail : [email protected]

HFSP info on JSF site : www.jhfsp.jsf.or.jp

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