Mise en page 1 - Human Frontier Science Program

Transcription

FY 2008_lastsortie:HFSP
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Human
Frontier
Science
Program
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ANNUAL REPORT
FY 2008
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APRIL 2008 - MARCH 2009
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The International Human Frontier
Science Program Organization (HFSPO)
12 quai Saint-Jean – BP 10034
67080 Strasbourg Cedex – France
Fax. +33 (0)3 88 32 88 97
e-mail : info@hfsp.org
website : http://www.hfsp.org
Japanese home page: http://jhfsp.jsf.or.jp
HUMAN FRONTIER SCIENCE PROGRAM
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FY 2008
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APRIL 2008 - MARCH 2009
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Annual Report
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Introduction
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The Human Frontier Science Program
.......................................................................................................
Message from the Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel
....................................................................................
Chapter 1 - HFSP Fellowship Program
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12
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1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.2 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships
......................................................................................
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21
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24
1.3 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships 2009
1.4 Short-Term Fellowships
19
1.5 Career Development Awards
..........................................................................................................
25
1.6 Career Development Awards 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.7 The 2009 Review Committee for Fellowships
.......................................................................................
Chapter 2 - HFSP Research Grant Program
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2.1 Overview of the Grant Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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2.2 Young Investigator Grants
2.3 Program Grants
2.4 Research Grant Awards 2009
..........................................................................................................
2.5 The 2009 Review Committee for Research Grants
..................................................................................
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3.1 HFSP Awardees Meeting
...............................................................................................................
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Chapter 4 - Budget and Finance
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4.1 Guideline for HFSPO funding
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
.....................................................................................................
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4.3 FY 2008 financial summary
...........................................................................................................
63
4.4 Activity budget for FY 2009
...........................................................................................................
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4.2 Key financial figures for FY 2008
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
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Chapter 3 - HFSP Awardees - Highlights
3.2 Honours and prizes
table of contents
32
4.5 HFSPO Budget and Finance Committee
..............................................................................................
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4.6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Appendices
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A.1 History of the Program
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A.2 Joint Communiqué of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Human Frontier Science Program, 15 June 2007
A.3 Summary of decisions of the Board of Trustees in FY 2008
A.4 Research Grants awarded in 2008
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A.5 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships awarded in 2008
..................................................................
84
A.6 Career Development Awards made in 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
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A.7 Short-Term Fellowships awarded in 2008
A.8 Public Relations
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introduction
The Human Frontier
Science Program
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) promotes
fundamental research in the life sciences with special
emphasis on novel and interdisciplinary research, international
and in particular intercontinental collaboration and support
for young investigators. Since its establishment in 1989,
HFSP has demonstrated the value of creating a framework
for competitive, collaborative, international research of the
highest caliber and of providing young scientists with the
opportunity to emerge as talented researchers capable of
shaping the science of the future.
The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) implements the Program through the following
mechanisms of research support (more details can be found
in Chapters 1 and 2 of this report):
Long-Term Fellowships – for young scientists within
three years of obtaining their PhD who wish to broaden their
scientific experience in a foreign laboratory.
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships – modeled on the LongTerm Fellowships but specifically for scientists with PhDs in
non-biological disciplines who seek training in the life sciences.
Career Development Awards – for former HFSP Fellows
who return to their home countries to help them set up their
own independent laboratories.
Young Investigator Grants – grants for interdisciplinary
teams of young researchers within the first five years of their
first independent positions, who are located in different
countries.
Program Grants – for interdisciplinary teams of researchers
in different countries at any stage of their careers.
The focus of research supported by HFSP is on the complex
mechanisms of living organisms, ranging from the
biomolecular level to that of behaving organisms. The life
sciences have undergone a revolution in recent years,
emerging as a leading scientific area with a convergence of
interest from other disciplines such as physics, mathematics,
chemistry, computer science and engineering on solving
biological questions. HFSP aims to stay at the forefront of
research by involving scientists from outside the life
sciences as part of research collaborations and as postdoctoral fellows. To this end, the Young Investigator and
Program Grants are specifically geared to fostering interactions between scientists from different disciplines and
this is a major factor in the review of applications in these
programs. In addition, HFSP has extended its commitment to
interdisciplinary research by introducing Cross-Disciplinary
Fellowships to equip young scientists from outside biology
with the skills needed to tackle problems in the life sciences.
A program dedicated to the frontiers of science must
support the next generation of researchers, who are in the
strongest position to open new avenues of research. Several
of the HFSP programs are specifically targeted towards early
career scientists: the Fellowship programs, the Career Development Award and Young Investigator Grant. In addition,
Program Grant teams are encouraged to include young
scientists with the result that a significant number of
scientists under the age of 40 participate in this program.
Taking these researchers together, approximately 70% of
annual HFSP funds are awarded to early career researchers.
The HFSPO is financed and managed by representatives
of the Management Supporting Parties (MSPs). The
MSPs are those countries that directly fund the HFSP
Programs plus the European Union, which represents the
EU countries that do not contribute directly. The MSPs
are: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy,
Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of
America and the European Union. Japan provided about
51% of the 62 USD million annual budget for FY 2008.
The HFSPO is governed by a Board of Trustees (Board)
consisting of representatives of the MSPs. The Board is
advised by a scientific advisory body, the Council of
Scientists (Council), and the Organization is run from the
Secretariat in Strasbourg, France.
HIGHLIGHTS IN FY 2008
Professor Akito Arima accepted to take up the position of
President of HFSPO, as successor to Professor Masao Ito on
1 April 2009.
Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker accepted the position
of Secretary General of HFSPO, as successor of Professor
Torsten Wiesel. He will take up this position on 1 July 2009.
The 2008 Awardees Meeting was held at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Germany, from 6-9 July 2008.
Since 1990, 798 Research Grants involving 3071 scientists,
2369 Long-Term Fellowships, 49 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships
and 141 Career Development Awards have been awarded.
Researchers from more than 60 countries have received
HFSP funding so far.
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES
COUNCIL OF SCIENTISTS
Italy
Prof. Piergiorgio STRATA, University of Turin
Prof. Glauco TOCCHINI-VALENTINI, National Research
Council
Norway
Prof. Svein DAHL, University of Tromsø
Switzerland
Yves-Alain BARDE, Biozentrum, Basel
Jean-David ROCHAIX, University of Geneva
Japan
Mr. Kaoru NAITO, Nuclear Material Control Centre
UK
Judith ARMITAGE, University of Oxford
Republic of Korea
Dr. Un-Woo LEE, Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology
Prof. Yoo-Hun SUH, Seoul National University
USA
Rae SILVER, Columbia University, New York
Susan TAYLOR, University of California, San Diego
New Zealand
Prof. Graeme FRASER, Health Research Council
of New Zealand
European Union
Sten GRILLNER, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
Honorary Member:
Masao ITO, Brain Science Institute, Riken, Japan
Norway
Prof. Dag AKSNES, University of Bergen
Prof. Masao Ito. President of HFSPO
President:
Prof. Masao ITO, Brain Science Institute, Riken, Japan
Australia
Prof. Warwick ANDERSON, National Health and Medical
Research Council (from December 2008)
Ms. Sarojini MARTIN, National Health and Medical
Research Council (until November 2008)
Prof. Emmanuel PAPADAKIS, National Health and Medical
Research Council (from December 2008)
Canada
Dr. Danielle MENARD, Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council
Dr. Karl TIBELIUS, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
France
Ms. Elisabeth BARSACQ, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères
et Européennes (from March 2009)
Mr. Antoine GRASSIN, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères
(until August 2008)
Dr. Raymond PAMPHILE, Ministère de l’Enseignement
Supérieur et de la Recherche (from March 2009)
Dr. Jean-Claude PERNOLLET, Ministère de l’Éducation
Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche
(until October 2008).
Germany
Dr. Ingrid OHLERT, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Dr. Ulrich SCHLÜTER, BMBF, Forschungszentrum Jülich
India
Prof. Avadhesha SUROLIA, National Institute
of Immunology
Prof. Krishnaswamy VIJAYRAGHAVAN, National Centre
for Biological Sciences
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Switzerland
Dr. Isabella BERETTA, State Secretariat for Education
and Research
Prof. Pierre MAGISTRETTI, École Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne and Lausanne University
UK
Dr. Alfred GAME, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council
Dr. Mark PALMER, Medical Research Council
USA
Dr. Kathie OLSEN, National Science Foundation
Dr. Norka RUIZ-BRAVO, National Institutes of Health
(until January 2009)
Dr. Sally ROCKEY, National Institutes of Health
(from January 2009)
European Union
Mr. Wolfgang BOCH, Information Society and Media
Directorate-General, European Commission
Dr. Manuel HALLEN, Directorate-General Research,
European Commission (until March 2009)
Dr. Ruxandra DRAGHIA AKLI, Directorate-General
Research, European Commission (from March 2009)
Honorary Member
Dr. Kozo IIZUKA, Japan Association for Metrology
Promotion
Prof. Paul Lasko, Chair of the Council of Scientists
Chair:
Paul LASKO, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Australia
Suzanne CORY, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
of Medical Research, Parkville
Canada
Leah KESHET, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
France
Pascale COSSART, Institut Pasteur, Paris
Germany
Hans-Georg RAMMENSEE, Eberhard-Karls-University,
Tübingen
India
Madan RAO, Raman Research Institute and National
Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore
Satyajit RATH, National Institute of Immunology,
New Delhi
Italy
Francesco LACQUANITI, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome
Giuseppe MACINO, University “La Sapienza”, Rome
Japan
Shigekazu NAGATA, Kyoto University, Yoshida
Auditors
Republic of Korea
Young-Joon KIM, Yonsei Genome Institute, Seoul
Mr. Brian GIFFORD, NSERC, Canada
Mr. Patrick PIERRAT, SEGEC, Audit et Conseil, France
Mr. Shinji OKAKURA, Ministry of Education, Trade and
Industry (METI), Japan
New Zealand
Richard FAULL, University of Auckland
Warren TATE, University of Otago, Dunedin
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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 General
Kazuo SHIMOMURA (Japan)
Deputy Secretary General
Jill 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 Communications
Martin REDDINGTON (UK)
Staff members in front of the Secretariat, with President elect, Akito Arima, and Secretary General elect, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, flanking
Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel. Armelle Koukoui and Xavier Schneider were absent.
Research Grants
Geoffrey RICHARDS (UK)
Director
Carole ASNAGHI (France)
Assistant
Armelle KOUKOUI (Bénin)
Assistant
Fellowships
Guntram BAUER (Germany)
Director
Marie-Claude PERDIGUES (France)
Assistant
Carine SCHMITT (France)
Assistant
Administration and Finance
Patrick VINCENT (France)
Director
Isabelle HEIDT-COQUARD (France)
Manager
Sarah NAETT CAZAU (New Zealand)
Assistant
IT Systems
Xavier SCHNEIDER (France)
Manager
Administrative Officer
Shigeru SAKURAI (Japan)
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I wish, at the end of my term as Secretary General, to make
a special case for the HFSP-Journal. This, our most recent
initiative, was inspired by Arturo Falaschi a few years ago
when he was chair of the Council. The purpose of the
Journal, which is now in its second year, is to publish and
thus disseminate cross-disciplinary research in the life
sciences reflecting the spirit of the HFSPO as determined at
its conception by the Honorable Nakasone.
Message from the
Secretary General,
Torsten Wiesel
Last year we were fully occupied by the regular activities at
the HFSPO Secretariat but, in addition, the preparation of
the 20th anniversary of the Organization and of a commemorative booklet which turned out to be a major, even if a
most rewarding, assignment. Martin Reddington, Director of
Scientific Affairs and Commnications at the HFSPO,
orchestrated and edited it with Jill Husser, and produced a
very memorable volume of recollections, which we hope
will be of interest and value in the years to come
Left to right: Secretary General elect, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker,
President elect, Akito Arima with Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel.
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My nine years at the helm of this great Organization have
abounded in opportunities to further develop an already
strong and internationally recognized program. Previous
Secretary Generals, Sir James Gowans and Michel Cuénod,
had laid a firm and fertile foundation, making it possible for
me to introduce new ideas and initiatives. During my tenure,
I have had the good fortune to work under the wise counsel
of my great friend and colleague, President Ito. We have
always listened to the scientific community and tried to
shape the Program to match changing needs and opportunities. It goes without saying that none of the initiatives
introduced under our leadership would have been possible
without the consistent encouragement and support of the
Board of Trustees, the Council of Scientists and the Review
Committees. The staff at the Secretariat has been essential
to the implementation of these initiatives, ensuring that
the programs operate smoothly and effectively. In fact, our
small group of 15 individuals has come to function in true
harmony, giving us a sense of belonging to a family of good
colleagues and the best of friends. All of us take pride in
providing effective and flexible assistance while keeping
bureaucracy at a minimum.
With Arturo Falaschi as Editor in Chief, a group of outstanding
editors representing different fields of research and Valerie
Ferrier as the Managing Editor, the Journal is publishing first
rate interdisciplinary papers, commentaries and reviews.
These are difficult times to start a new journal, but nonetheless the HFSP-Journal is already recognized as a unique
venue for the publication of interdisciplinary research
papers which are reviewed competently by experts in
different research areas. It is regarded with respect and
admiration for the high quality of the papers published, the
speed and expert nature of the review procedure and for the
excellent editorial work. My belief is that, in a period when
all of the natural sciences are coming together and interacting in real and novel ways, the need for and importance
of the Journal will grow significantly. The HFSP-Journal is in
fact an integral part of the different HFSP programs and
represents an important means of expressing the concepts
and purpose of the Organization.
Now in its 20th year, the HFSPO is no longer a teenager but
is maturing into adulthood and is ready to take advantage
of its already well-established international reputation for
excellence and imagination. Under the guidance of Akito
Arima, the new President, the experienced leadership of
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, the newly appointed Secretary
General, and with the help of new resources, HFSP will no
doubt build upon and expand its innovative and important
programs. Finally, my hope is that the HFSPO will continue
to serve as a model for international cooperation not only
in basic research in the life sciences but also in other areas
where there are needs for global cooperation and
communication.
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chapter 1
HFSP Fellowship
Program
Left to right: Marie-Claude Perdigues, Carine Schmitt and Guntram Bauer.
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1.1
INTRODUCTION
1.2
The aim of the HFSPO Fellowship program is to provide
postdoctoral training opportunities for talented young
scientists in the world's best laboratories and at the same
time to facilitate the mobility of young scientists between
countries. With the increased complexity of science and
scientific methodology, the process of learning new
approaches requires longer periods of research training
before independence can be achieved by the young
investigator. Therefore applicants for HFSP Fellowships are
encouraged to seek training in new fields in order to
broaden their scientific experience. Upon completion of the
fellowship, these well-trained scientists are expected to be
able to promote truly interdisciplinary research in the life
sciences.
HFSP support facilitates two important career steps. The
first is the mandatory change in host country for HFSP
Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellows. The second is on
return to the home country, when the former fellow can
apply for a Career Development Award, a critical step for the
establishment of an independent laboratory. The exact
timing of this development depends on the timing of the
successful negotiation of a first independent position, but
the possibility of deferral offers maximum flexibility for
career advancement. In addition to career advancement, the
HFSP Short-Term Fellowships support the creation and
expansion of professional networks. This short term support
enables young investigators to expand their professional
network abroad by supporting research training of up to 3
months. Former HFSP fellows can use this opportunity for
return visits to their previous host laboratory. Overall, the
HFSP funding chain for young researchers represents a
continuum of financial support of up to 8 years. This is an
important element in developing institutional capacity in
the life sciences in many resource constrained countries.
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LONG-TERM AND
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
FELLOWSHIPS
Long-Term Fellowships are intended to encourage young
researchers with a background in the life sciences to seek
additional research expertise and training in other fields
within biology. Applicants who propose a significant change
in research direction and whose research project is original
and represents a departure from their PhD work or previous
research are particularly encouraged. Statistics relating to
applications to this program are shown in Fig. 1-1.
Fig. 1-1
Long-Term Fellowship applications, awards and success
rates 1990-2009.
NUMBER
SUCCESS RATE
900
45
846
807
800
40
38
704
711
700
682
652
673
665
639
613
28
600
26
26
23
23
499
19
400
24
25
125
25
20
17
12
202
147
159
160
160
30
567
348
77
633
614
20
300
100
629
580
27
500
200
35
609
555
160
160
159
14
13
90
90
15
15
15
17
13
15
10
144
98
81
94
89
83 95
89
109
5
0
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Applications
Awards
Success rate
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships are intended for postdoctoral
fellows with a Ph.D. degree in the physical sciences, chemistry,
mathematics, engineering, computer sciences, etc. who wish
to receive training in the life sciences. The first awards in this
category were made in 2005 and since then the applications
for this program have accounted for about 7-10% of annual
fellowship submissions (Table 1-1). Applicants for this
program are encouraged to propose a significant change in
discipline (e.g. from physics to cell biology), to demonstrate
how their specific expertise will bear on the biological question
under study and to indicate how the host laboratory will
benefit from their particular skills.
The program mainly attracts applicants from chemistry and
physics, but applications from engineers, biophysicists,
mathematicians and computer scientists are also regularly
submitted. This range of expertise is exceptional for a
fellowship program that supports research in fundamental
biological research. The broad acceptance of the CrossDisciplinary Fellowships outside the life sciences shows that
HFSP’s aim to provide a bridge across disciplinary boundaries
is indeed being fulfilled.
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Awardees in both programs are required to be within three
years of receiving their Ph.D. at the time of application. They
are expected to have at least one first author publication
and must not have worked at the host institution for more
than 12 months at the start of their fellowship.
1.3
Fellows in both programs receive identical support for three
years, and those who wish to extend their research training
have the possibility to defer the start of their third year for
up to two years while being supported through other funding
sources.The third and final year of support can either be used
in the host laboratory or for a final year of postdoctoral
training in a laboratory in the home country. The fellowship
provides an annual living allowance1, a research and travel
allowance, and in the first year, if requested, an allowance
for language training. Fellows who are accompanied by
family members may also qualify for a family support and
child allowance.
LONG-TERM AND
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
FELLOWSHIPS
2009
The lists of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellows who
started their project in FY 2008 are given in Appendix 5.
Table 1-1:
Annual number of reviewed fellowship applications and
awards since 2002. Numbers for award year 2009 may still
be subject to change.
Long-Term Fellowships
Award
Number of
Success rate Female awardees
year
applications awards
(%)
Number
(%)
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
567
639
673
609
629
614
580
94
90
90
89
83
95
89
17
14
13
15
13
15
15
27
29
29
22
29
32
32
29
32
32
25
35
34
36
2009
TOTAL
633
4944
109
739
17
15
41
241
38
33
At its meeting in March 2009, the Board recommended
120 awards for the coming fiscal year. Of the 672 applications
for award year 2009, 38% of the applications were made by
female candidates. Tables 1-2 and 1-3 give an overview of
the distribution of the 2009 applicants and fellows
according to nationality and host country.
The call for applications is announced annually in major
scientific journals. Electronic newsletters of scientific societies
and organizations and internet lists are used to publicize the
call. The deadline for the electronic submission of fellowship
applications was 11 September 2008. All applications were
screened by the Secretariat for compliance with formal
criteria and with the scientific scope of the Program. Each
application was assigned to two members of the Review
Committee for a first evaluation during which the committee
members each ranked around 50-60 applications. The
Secretariat then ranked the applications on the basis of this
evaluation. In the discussions during the Review Committee
meeting on 12-14 January 2009, the top applications were
scored again by the entire committee and the most highly
qualified candidates were recommended for funding.
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships
Award
Number of
year
applications awards
(%)
Number
(%)
2005
65
12
18
1
8
2006
2007
55
54
10
5
18
9
2
0
20
0
2008
2009
56
39
11
11
20
28
1
3
9
27
TOTAL
269
49
18
7
14
1 A table summarizing the allowances for different
countries is included in the application guidelines.
These can be downloaded from the HFSP
web site (www.hfsp.org/how/appl_form.php).
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Table 1-2:
Table 1-3:
Nationality of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants and awardees for FY 2009 as
decided by the Board in March 2009
Choice of host country of Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants and awardees for
FY 2009 as decided by the Board in March 2009
LTF
awardees
CDF
applicants
CDF
awardees
Host
Country
21
2
1
0
Australia
18
3
22
3
0
0
Canada
38
0
23
119(a)
21(a’)
6(c)
2(c’)
EU
53
83
11
79
11
4
0
France
Germany
62
19
59
18
3
1
Germany
India
39
5
36
5
3
0
Italy
26
4
23
2
3
Japan
56
6
55
6
Korea
7
1
7
New Zealand
5
0
Norway
1
Switzerland
Total
applicants
Total
awardees
Australia
22
2
Canada
22
3
CDF
applicants
17
3
1
0
38
0
0
125
0
7
50(a)
7(a’)
3(c)
France
0
31
3
29
3
2
0
32
4
31
4
1
0
India
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
Italy
5
0
5
0
0
0
1
0
Japan
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
0
0
Korea
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
0
0
New Zealand
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
Norway
3
2
3
2
0
0
5
1
5
1
0
0
Switzerland
47
10
45
9
2
1
UK
15
0
14
0
1
0
UK
92
18
85
18
7
0
USA
18
5
17
5
1
0
USA
344
71
322
62
22
9
Others
186
40
170(b)
34(b’)
16(d)
6(d’)
Others
5
0
5(b)
0
0
0
TOTAL
672
120
633
109
39
11
TOTAL
672
120
633
109
39
11
EU
LTF
applicants
Total
applicants
Total
awardees
LTF
applicants
CDF
awardees
LTF
awardees
Nationality
Long-Term Fellowship applicants:
Long-Term Fellowship awardees:
EU host countries of:
(a) EU:
Austria 9, Belgium 11, Bulgaria 1, Czech Republic 1,
Finland 2, Greece 8, Hungary 3, Ireland 6, Luxembourg 1,
The Netherlands 9, Poland 3, Portugal 10, Slovenia 2,
Spain 45, Sweden 8
(a’) EU:
Austria 4, Belgium 1, Bulgaria 1, Czech Republic 1,
Greece 3, Ireland 1, Poland 1, Portugal 2, Spain 2,
Sweden 2, The Netherlands 3
(a) Long-Term Fellowship applicants:
Austria 6, Belgium 5, Denmark 5, Finland 2,
The Netherlands 10, Portugal 2, Spain 13, Sweden 7
(b) Others:
Algeria 1, Argentina 17, Bangladesh 1, Belarus 1, Brazil 8,
Chile 2, China 15, Chinese Taipei 2, Colombia 1, Croatia 2,
Cuba 1, Gabon 1, Georgia 1, Hong Kong China 3,
Indonesia 1, Iran 1, Israel 42, Lebanon 1, Malaysia 1,
Mexico 4, Morocco 3, Pakistan 2, Russia 3, Serbia 3,
Singapore 4, South Africa 1, Tunisia 2, Turkey 5,
Venezuela 1, Vietnam 1, dual nationality 39
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants:
(c) EU:
Austria 1, Hungary 1, The Netherlands 1, Poland 1, Spain 2
(b’) Others:
Algeria 1, Argentina 6, Brazil 1, China 4, Chinese Taipei 1,
Hong Kong China 1, Israel 11, Malaysia 1, Russia 2,
Serbia 1, Turkey 2, dual nationality 3 (Argentina – Italy 1,
Israel – UK 2)
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship awardees:
(a’) Long-Term Fellowship awardees:
Austria 1, Denmark 1, Spain 3, Sweden 1, The Netherlands 1
(c) Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship applicants:
Austria 1, Denmark 1, Spain 1
Other host countries of:
(b) Long-Term Fellowship applicants:
Brazil 1, Croatia 1, Singapore 2, Uruguay 1
(c’) EU:
Austria 1, Spain 1
(d’) Others:
Argentina 1, China 1, Israel 2, Iran 1, dual nationality 1
(The Netherlands – Canada)
(d) Others:
Argentina 2, Cameroon 1, China 4, Iran 1, Israel 5, Russia 1,
dual nationality 2
18
19
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Page 20
1.4
Because the Short-Term Fellowship program is a rolling
program without a specific submission deadline, the date of
application, selection and payment of the award may not
occur in the same fiscal year. Thus, it is possible to apply in
one fiscal year but be awarded and paid in the following
fiscal year (in the case of a submission at the end of the
fiscal year).
SHORT-TERM
FELLOWSHIPS
The number of applications received during each fiscal year
since 1994 and the number of awards made from these
applications is shown in Fig. 1-2. The figure also indicates the
success rate for this program. The average female success
rate is about 36%.
In fiscal years 1990 to 1993, a total of 89 Short-Term Fellowships were awarded. The exact number of eligible applications
is not available for this period, since in 1989 and 1990 only
awardees were registered in the database.
The Short-Term Fellowship program enables researchers
early in their career to spend two weeks to three months
working in a laboratory in another country to learn new
techniques or establish new collaborations. The program
enables fellows to develop new techniques or to use
instruments or techniques not available in their home
country. Preference is given to young researchers early in
their career. Applicants are expected to have a doctoral
degree or equivalent research experience. Former Long-Term
or Cross-Disciplinary Fellows can use this support to complete
work initiated under their past HFSP fellowship. The fellowship
provides travel and per diem support.
Short-Term Fellowship applications are accepted throughout
the year. Each application is examined by several external
mail reviewers who are experts in the field of research. The
final decision is taken by the Chair of the Review Committee
for Fellowships (a list of FY 2008 Awardees is given in
Appendix 7). The main criteria are the scientific originality
and excellence of the proposal, the accomplishments and
potential of the candidate, the quality of the host environment,
and the training potential of the fellowship experience. The
overall benefit of international exchange in the achievement
of the aims of the research project is also considered.
Fig. 1-2:
Short Term Fellowship applicants, awardees and success rate
from the same fiscal year (1994-2008) as of 31 March 2009.
A further 20 applications are still under review, some of
which may be awarded the fellowship in FY 2009. Thus, it is
not yet possible to calculate a success rate for applicants in
FY 2008.
100
95
90
78
80
74
72
73
69
68
64
63
62
60
50
40
50
49
40,8 39
27
30
20
44,5
40,5
43,8
45,3
35,8
30
34
28
32
29
45,8
33
43,5
66
58
48,3
42,6
37
30
27
21,8
29
31
28
24
20
17
10
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Applications
20
73
69
70
Awards
Success rate in %
1.5
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT
AWARDS
It is often difficult for young investigators to obtain independent funding to pursue their own line of research early
in their career. To this end, HFSPO initiated the Career
Development Award which facilitates the fellow’s transition
from postdoctoral researcher to independent scientist,
providing further prospects for becoming an established
investigator in the home country. The support helps young
investigators develop their own research program, thus
building a worldwide community of independent young
researchers who are open to new ideas and international
collaboration.
The objective of the award is to enable former Long-Term or
Cross-Disciplinary Fellows to establish their own independent
research team after return to the home country. Awardees
have the opportunity to intensify their international
collaborations and experimental endeavors on emerging
subjects in the life sciences by drawing on their experience
of neighboring disciplines during their HFSP fellowship.
Unlike fellowship stipends that are awarded to outstanding
candidates to carry out a specific project, this award is
meant to support the initiation of an independent research
program that builds on the accomplishments of the
fellowship tenure but also includes new elements of
international collaboration.
The Career Development Award provides 300,000 USD of
support over three years and is open only to former HFSP
Fellows who have completed at least two years of tenure
in the host laboratory. Applicants must either be in the
process of obtaining or already hold a position in the home
country in which they are able to conduct independent
research.
The first Career Development Awards were made in March
2003. Since the inception of this award, 315 fellows from 27
different countries have applied to this program and 141
young scientists have received the award. Each year this
network expands as more and more fellows continue their
career in the home country (Table 1-4). The list of award
recipients for FY 2008 is given in Appendix 6.
Table 1-4:
CDA applications and awards since the beginning of
the program
Award
Number of
year applications awards
(%)
Number
(%)
2003
22
8
36
2004
41
17
41
5
29
2005
47
18
38
2
11
2006
2007
2008
2009
51
48
57
49
29
24
21
25
57
50
37
51
6
6
5
2
21
25
24
8
TOTAL
315
141
45
26
18
21
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Page 22
Australia
Peter CURRIE, Monash University, Clayton
Paul GLEESON, University of Melbourne
1.6
1.7
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT
AWARDS 2009
THE 2009 REVIEW
COMMITTEE FOR
FELLOWSHIPS
Canada
Paul DE KONINCK, Laval University Robert-Giffard,
Beauport
European Union
Felix RITORT, University of Barcelona, Spain
Isabelle VERNOS, Centre for Genomic Regulation,
Barcelona, Spain
Maarten VAN LOHUIZEN, The Netherlands Cancer
Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
France
Ludger JOHANNES, Curie Institute, Paris
Marcel KNOSSOW, C.N.R.S., Gif-sur-Yvette
Germany
Suzanne EATON, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell
Biology and Genetics, Dresden
Christoph SCHMIDT, Georg-August University, Göttingen
India
Vijayalakshmi RAVINDRANATH, National Brain Research
Centre, Manesar
Current fellows receive the information about the call for
applications by email. By the deadline on 13 November 2008,
a total of 49 applications was received. Former fellows from
award years 2002-2006 were eligible to apply. Applications
were assigned for review to two members of the Council
who ranked and commented according to the selection
criteria set out in the application guidelines. Each application
was also sent to at least two external mail reviewers who
were asked to provide written comments. After initial ranking
by the two Council members and further discussions during
the meeting on 2-3 March 2009, 22 applications were
recommended for funding. Five additional applications were
placed on the reserve list for funding if resources become
available. The Board approved the funding of 25 applications.
Table 1-5 gives an overview of the nationality of 2009
applicants and awardees.
Table 1-5:
Nationality of CDA applicants and awardees for FY
2009 as decided by the Board in March 2009
APPLICANTS
AWARDEES
Argentina
1
1
Argentina/France/Spain
1
1
Argentina/ Israel
1
1
Australia
1
Austria
2
Belgium
1
Canada
2
1
China
1
1
France
6
1
Germany
8
7
Germany/Turkey
1
Greece
1
1
India
1
1
Israel
4
Israel/ Netherlands
1
1
Italy
2
1
Japan
7
4
Netherlands
2
2
Spain
4
1
USA
TOTAL
Italy
Maria Pia COSMA, Telethon Institute of Genetics
and Medicine, Naples
Japan
Thomas KNOPFEL, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi
Osamu NUREKI, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kanagawa
Yoko YAMAGUCHI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi
Republic of Korea
Hong Gil NAM, POSTECH, Pohang
2
1
49
25
New Zealand
Joanna PUTTERILL, University of Auckland
Norway
Finn-Eirik JOHANSEN, University of Oslo
Switzerland
Ed PALMER, University Hospital, Basel
Ariel RUIZ i ALTABA, University of Geneva
UK
Jane CLARKE, University of Cambridge
Laurence HURST, University of Bath
USA
Barbara FINLAY, Cornell University, Ithaca
Cecilia CLEMENTI, Rice University, Houston
Other
Mingjie ZHANG, Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong China
Ruth SPERLING, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Delegate from the Council of Scientists
Jean-David ROCHAIX, University of Geneva, Switzerland
22
23
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Page 24
chapter 2
HFSP Research Grant
Program
Left to right: Carole Asnaghi, Geoffrey Richards and Armelle Koukoui.
16/07/09
14:44
Page 26
The moving frontiers
2.1
OVERVIEW OF THE
GRANT PROGRAM
Research Grants are awarded for innovative collaborative
projects of fundamental research carried out by a team of
two to four scientists from different countries. Somewhat
rarely a team is selected with five members, but the majority
of larger teams have a weak link or show a redundancy in
expertise so that the overall research plan is not convincing.
Teams must be international and preferably intercontinental.
In addition to these basic criteria, emphasis is placed on the
interdisciplinary nature of the collaboration. Grants are
awarded for a period of three years to teams who propose
to combine their expertise to approach problems in the life
sciences that could not be answered by individual laboratories. Priority is given to collaborations that bring together
scientists from different disciplines (e.g. biology, chemistry,
physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering).
Applicants are expected to develop new lines of research
and so as to encourage novel, daring ideas and innovative
approaches, preliminary results are not required. The
Principal Applicant’s laboratory must be located in one of
the member countries while the other team members may
be situated anywhere in the world.
Two types of grant were awarded in FY 2009: Young Investigator Grants for groups of young scientists establishing
their research groups, and Program Grants for scientists at
any stage of their careers. The applications are processed in
parallel but the grant review committee in January examines
and ranks each group separately.
26
The biggest challenge for the review committee is to identify
novel frontier research applications incorporating diverse
expertise from both the biological and physical sciences. For
this the committee must include members familiar with
disciplines such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and
engineering in addition to the more traditional biological
sciences. In addition, the range of applications is such that
the committee may lack the expertise necessary to assess
the contribution of some of the team members. For this we
often solicit opinions from mail reviewers working in
departments that are unfamiliar with the Program. Fortunately,
not only do we observe the same willingness to help in the
review process from such experts as those in more
traditional biological departments, but also we often receive
spontaneous remarks confirming the originality and interest
of the project. In some cases however these specialist
reviewers point out that the ‘innovative’ approach is routine
in their discipline and that furthermore the applicants are
not familiar with important literature in that area!
The concept of novelty is related to the speed at which
certain fields or techniques advance. A novel technology
(microscopy, labeling, transgenic models, bioinformatics
programs etc.) may become commercially available within
two or three years of its first appearance in the HFSP competition and will start to appear as a tool in a large number of
applications. Similarly a project considered cutting-edge one
year may be considered as routine a couple of years later. In
fact, in the absence of technological breakthroughs, fields
can appear to stagnate for a year or two while teams
concentrate on exploiting the last wave of innovation. This
may well be high quality science destined for major journals,
but the committee members must have sufficient stature so
as to decide whether an approach is standard or innovative.
Over recent years there appears to be a new willingness to
collaborate at the international level. Teams now have every
opportunity to exchange on a daily basis via the web to
ensure that the collaboration is effective. Nonetheless,
despite this ease of communication, successful teams seem
increasingly inclined to organize regular meetings to discuss
problems face to face. The overall impression is that scientists
are learning the interest of making such collaborations
reality (rather than continuing their ongoing projects in
parallel). This aspect is considered very seriously by the
review committee which gives considerable importance to
the details of interactions between the team members that
are presented in the full application. With the expansion of
HFSP membership in recent years the possible combinations have increased considerably (notably because of the
role of the Principal Applicant in choosing team members)
and we expect to see significant changes in the profiles of
collaborations in the coming years.
2.2
2.3
YOUNG
INVESTIGATOR
GRANTS
PROGRAM
GRANTS
The Young Investigator Grant scheme was introduced in the
2001 award year to encourage collaboration between young
scientists who are within five years of obtaining their first
independent positions. In 2005, to make the Young Investigator program equally attractive and provide a realistic
amount for three and four member teams to carry out their
projects, the Board decided to bring the amount awarded to
Young Investigators in line with the Program Grants. Young
Investigator Grant teams receive 250 thousand USD per year
for two members, 350 thousand USD for three members,
and 450 thousand USD for four or more. Local collaborations
in the same country are permitted but teams only receive
funds equivalent to 1.5 team members if the collaboration
is truly interdisciplinary. This measure aims to facilitate the
formation of teams involving scientists from different
disciplines since it is often difficult for scientists, especially
younger investigators, to find appropriate partners internationally. In the 2009 award year, applications from Young
Investigators represented about 23% of the letters of intent
received. While these applications were consistently more
successful between 2006 and 2008, in 2009 they had a
comparable success rate to those submitted for Program
Grants.
These are awarded to teams of independent researchers at
any stage of their careers. The research team is expected to
develop new lines of research through the collaboration.
Applications including independent investigators early in
their careers are encouraged. Priority is given to new, innovative research projects for which preliminary results may
not necessarily be available. Since 2004, the amount awarded depends on the size of the team and is currently 250
thousand USD for two members, 350 thousand USD for three
members, and 450 thousand USD for four or more team
members. The rules concerning team members from the
same country are the same as for the Young Investigators. The
quality of applications in this competition has been boosted
by the arrival of a cohort of younger investigators more
familiar with interdisciplinary research who have now
established their laboratories more than five years ago
and are no longer eligible for the Young Investigator
competition.
27
16/07/09
14:44
Page 28
Fig. 2-1:
Research Grant applications and awards
774*
800
749*
733*
756*
719*
700
2.4
600
548*
549*
37
31
33
34
32
35
32
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
600*
500
439
389
400
300
385
381
386
365
351
332
315
281
235
239
29
32
37
42
1991
1992
1993
200
100
RESEARCH GRANT
AWARDS 2009
Awardees starting their research work in FY 2009 were
selected among the applications received in reply to the call
published in the international scientific journals Science and
Nature and on the HFSP website. The call was also publicized
via the web sites or newsletters of relevant scientific societies.
A two-step review process was used. Guidelines and application forms for both the letter of intent (the first step) and
for full applications (the second step) were provided on the
web, and the submission and review of applications were
entirely electronic. The deadline for letters of intent was
2 April 2008. There was an unexpected drop in the number
of letters of intent in FY2009 (Fig. 2-1), which appeared to
touch both categories and all countries equally. This change
became apparent about 10 days before submission (when
there is normally a striking acceleration in the expression of
interest) and was confirmed at the submission deadline. We
have since seen that in 2010, interest has returned to the
2007 and 2008 levels.
The 600 letters of intent received were initially screened on
the basis of formal eligibility. Only a few letters of intent
were rejected on these grounds. Since 2005, triage has been
introduced to reduce the response time for inappropriate
applications; a small scientific committee including the
Chair and Vice-Chair of the Review Committee screened the
letters of intent and those that did not meet the scientific
aims of the Program, 46 applications in all, did not enter the
full review process. The Principal Applicant was informed as
soon as possible so that the team might apply for funding
elsewhere. Each remaining letter of intent was evaluated by
two Review Committee members. The top-scoring projects
were examined by a Selection Committee consisting of
previous and past members of the Review Committees. The
Selection Committee met from 30 June to 2 July to discuss
about one third of the original submissions (216 applications)
28
and following these discussions, 88 applicants were invited
to submit a full application. Teams that were not asked to
submit full applications were given brief feedback concerning
the selection procedure, the evaluation criteria and the general
classification of their application.
Invitations were sent out immediately after the Selection
Committee meeting with the deadline for submission of full
applications as 16 September 2008. All 88 teams submitted
full applications. Each full application was evaluated by mail
(external) reviewers who submitted a written report and by
two members of the Review Committee for Research Grants.
Scientific merit, innovation and interdisciplinarity were the
most important criteria in the evaluation of the projects.
Internationality, and especially intercontinentality, and the
participation of researchers early in their careers also ranked
highly, not only in the case of Young Investigator but also in
Program Grant applications. The Young Investigators’ applications were reviewed separately in the same manner as
Program Grants. The Review Committee met on 19-21 January
2009 in Strasbourg to discuss the 88 full applications and
recommended 35 for awards, 9 Young Investigator and 26
Program Grants. The final selection of awards was made by
the Council of Scientists (Council) and financial considerations
(budgetary restrictions) were taken into account by the Board
ofTrustees (Board) before the recommendations were approved.
Both awardees and unsuccessful applicants received
feedback from the committee in the form of a short summary.
52
45
48
47
50
54
53
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
35
0
1990
Applicants
2009
Awardees
Table 2-1:
Research Grant applications and awards each year
since 2002 (2 step procedure)
Award year
Letters
of intent
Full
applications invited
Awards
(%)
Total cost in
their 1st year (USD million)
2002
548
72
2003
549
80
37
51.4*
12.35
31
39.0*
2004
733
10.85
67
33
49.2*
2005
11.75
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
2009
600
88
35
39.8*
12.1
TOTAL
Success rate
798**
* based on full applications ** Grand total of awards (1990-2009)
Table 2-2:
Gender distribution in award year 2009
Letters of intent
Program
Female
Male
Fig. 2-1 shows the number of applications and awards since
the beginning of the Program until award year 2009. With
an average success rate of c.13% between 1990 and 2001,
the procedure was simplified for applicants from 2002
onwards by the introduction of shorter Letters of Intent
outlining the collaboration and the project. Following initial
review by members of the grant review committee, a
smaller Selection Committee meets in the summer to invite
full applications for the more promising proposals. The
numbers of applications and awards using this two step
procedure from 2002 onwards are shown in Table 2-1.
40
TOTAL
Invited applications
Young
Program
Young
Nb. scientists
294
93
34
17
%
19.6
24.5
16.7
23.3
Nb. scientists
1204
287
169
56
%
80.2
75.5
82.8
76.7
1502*
380
204*
73
Nb. scientists
*2 information refused, 2 unknown for all “LI” and 1 information refused for “Invited”
Table 2-3:
Distribution of female scientists in awarded applications
Total
Female
% Female
(2008)
Female PI
(2008)
4
Program
84
9
10.7
16.4
3
Young
27
8
29.6
13.2
3
2
TOTAL
111
17
15.3
15.1
6
6
Table 2.2 and Table 2.3 present an analysis of gender
distribution in award year 2009.
29
16/07/09
14:44
Page 30
Distribution of awards per country
Table 2-4:
(Figs. 2-2, 2-3, Table 2-4) Fig 2-2 shows the distribution of the
Principal Investigator for the 2009 awards among various
countries and Fig. 2-3 shows the total number of scientists
in different countries participating in the international teams.
The largest number of applications came from Principal
Investigators in the USA and almost one third of successful
applicants (all team members) were working in the USA.
Number of applicants and awardees listed by country of institution
Letter of intent
PG=Program Grants
YI=Young Investigators
PG
YI
TOTAL
Australia
53
11
Canada
66
25
213(a)
EU
Fig. 2-2:
France
Countries in which Principal Investigators are working
Germany
200
189
180
Invited
PG
YI
64
5
0
91
9
6
54(a)
267(a)
14(b)
13(b)
90
20
110
15
115
33
148
18
Awardees
TOTAL
PG
YI
TOTAL
5
2
0
2
15
5
1
6
27(b)
6(c)
3(c)
9(c)
5
20
5
4
9
8
26
8
2
10
India
17
7
24
2
0
2
1
0
1
Italy
82
14
96
13
2
15
4
2
6
Japan
99
20
119
15
3
18
6
2
8
Korea
18
4
22
0
0
0
0
0
0
New Zealand
9
5
14
3
1
4
2
0
2
Norway
2
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
33
13
46
9
5
14
2
2
4
153
31
184
27
7
34
12
4
16
160
140
120
100
89
Switzerland
80
60
40
54
48
37
USA
21
20
11
6 2
3 1
AU
424
115
539
66
17
83
29
6
35
128(a’)
27(a’)
155(a’)
8(b’)
6(b’)
14(b’)
2(c’)
1(c’)
3(c’)
1502
380
1882
204
73
277
84
27
111
34
28
0
UK
58
CA
4 3
3
CH
Letter of intent: 600
DE
10
9
2
EU
Full applications: 88
16
10
2
7
1 1
FR
IN
2
IT
Others
22
4 2
JP
10
0 0
KR
10
10 6
5 1 1
NZ
UK
USA
Awardees: 35
(b) EU Invited
1 Ireland, 3 Netherlands, 4 Spain, 2 Sweden
(a) EU Letter of Intent
6 Austria, 2 Belgium, 4 Czech Republic, 9 Denmark, 1
Estonia, 6 Finland, 8 Greece, 1 Hungary, 5 Ireland, 19
Netherlands, 2 Poland, 5 Portugal, 1 Slovenia, 14 Spain, 6
Sweden
(c) EU Awarded
2 Netherlands
Fig. 2-3:
TOTALS
(a) EU Letter of Intent
PG: 12 Austria, 8 Belgium, 5 Czech Republic, 19 Denmark,
1 Estonia, 12 Finland, 14 Greece, 7 Hungary,
12 Ireland, 2 Lithuania, 31 The Netherlands, 1 Cyprus,
6 Poland, 9 Portugal, 1 Slovakia, 4 Slovenia,
38 Spain, 31 Sweden
YI: 3 Austria, 2 Belgium , 4 Czech Republic , 5 Denmark,
2 Finland, 2 Hungary, 2 Ireland, 14 The Netherlands,
1 Poland, 4 Portugal, 1 Slovenia, 9 Spain, 5 Sweden
(b) EU Invited
PG: 1 Belgium, 2 Denmark, 2 Ireland, 3 The Netherlands,
1 Spain 5 Sweden
YI: 1 Hungary, 6 The Netherlands, 1 Portugal, 4 Spain,
1 Sweden
Countries in which awardees are working
30
25
(c) EU Awarded
PG: 1 Denmark, 3 The Netherlands, 2 Sweden
YI: 1 Sweden, 2 The Netherlands
25
20
(a’) Others Letter of Intent
PG: 7 Argentina, 1 Armenia, 1 Belarus, 4 Brazil, 1 Burkina
Faso, 3 Chile, 10 China, 1 Colombia, 1 Croatia,
3 Hong Kong China, 59 Israel, 5 Mexico, 1 Monaco,
1 Oman, 1 Palestinian Territories, 1 Peru,
1 Puerto Rico, 11 Russia, 1 Serbia, 4 Singapore,
2 South Africa, 1 Swaziland, 1 Thailand, 2 Turkey,
2 Ukraine, 1 Uruguay, 2 Uzbekistan
YI: 1 Argentina, 1 Belarus, 1 Brazil, 5 China, 3 Chinese
Taipei, 9 Israel, 1 Mexico, 3 Morocco, 1 Pakistan,
1 Singapore, 1 South Africa
(b’) Others Invited
PG: 1 Hong Kong, 6 Israel, 1 South Africa,
YI: 1 China, 3 Israel , 1 Mexico, 1 South Africa
(c’) Others Awarded
PG: 2 Israel
YI: 1 Israel
15
10
10
10
7
7
7
6
4
5
3
3
2
1 1
6
4
2
3
2
1
2
2
1 1
1
0
0 0
0 0
KR
NO
0
0
AU
CA
CH
Principal Investigators: 35
EU
DE
FR
IN
IT
JP
NZ
UK
USA
Others
Co-Investigators: 76
Principal investigators
EU: 2 The Netherlands
Co-investigators
EU: 1 Denmark 3 The Netherlands, 3 Sweden
Non MSPs: 3 Israel
30
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Fig. 2-4:
Australia
Jennifer STOW, University of Queensland, St Lucia
Interdisciplinarity in Research Grants
35%
29,4%
30%
26,3%
26,3%
24,8%
25%
21,7%
20,4%
20%
18,9% 19,1%
16,8%
17,3%
15,7%
15%
14,2%
10,9%
10%
10,0%
10,7%
2.5
11,0%
7,1%
5%
3,1%
0%
2001
Awarded
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
All applicants
% scientists from non-biological disciplines participating
in Research Grants
Since 2001 HFSP has emphasized the importance of
interdisciplinarity in the grants program. In order to follow
changes in the skills of participants each year, the analysis
of interdisciplinarity has been based on the titles of the
institutions of individual applicants and awardees and for
consistency this approach has been retained in Fig.2-4.
However there are limits to this approach, as many new
interdisciplinary centers, either created de novo or by the
regrouping of departments, carry a classical ‘biology’
element in their title. In addition ‘traditional’ biological
departments often hire scientists from other disciplines.
Amongst all applicants the percentage of scientists coming
from institutes outside the life sciences has steadily
increased from 7.1% in 2001 to 19.1% in 2009. In the
recommended category this group averaged 26.7% from
2005 to 2008, up from 3.1% in 2001.
For the 2009 cycle, the 2008 review committee had asked
for more freedom in comparing the innovative, international
and interdisciplinary components when assessing
applications. This request was first interpreted by the 2009
Selection Committee when selecting teams to invite for full
applications, by weighing quality against apparent interdisciplinarity (which has sometimes proved artefactual). In
the January 2009 meeting the review committee was
advised to apply a modest penalty when assessing full
applications with relatively low interdisciplinarity. This
method left a few excellent applications within the recommended list, rather than eliminating them as had happened
in the 2008 cycle. This is reflected in the reduction in the
percentage of scientists coming from institutes outside the
life sciences to 18.9% in the awarded category, which leads
to a close match between ‘input’ and ‘output’ This will be
followed closely in the coming cycles but may well
represent an equilibrium point for the program.
THE 2009 REVIEW
COMMITTEE FOR
RESEARCH GRANTS
Canada
Gabrielle BOULIANNE, University of Toronto
Paul WISEMAN, McGill University, Montreal
France
Cécile SYKES, Institut Curie, Paris
Germany
Michael BRECHT, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin
India
Gautam DESIRAJU, University of Hyderabad
Italy
Lucia BANCI, University of Florence
Alessandro TREVES, International School for Advanced
Studies, Trieste
Japan
Akihiro KUSUMI, Kyoto University
Naoki SUGIMOTO, Konan University, Kobe
Republic of Korea
Kwang-Hyun CHO, Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon
New Zealand
Edward BAKER, University of Auckland
Norway
Aurora MARTINEZ, University of Bergen
Switzerland
Nenad BAN, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich
(ETH)
Jerzy PASZKOWSKI, University of Geneva
UK
Troy MARGRIE, University College London
Rose ZAMOYSKA, University of Edinburgh
USA
Dora ANGELAKI, Washington University, St Louis
Cheng-Ming CHIANG, UT Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas
Herbert LEVINE, University of California San Diego
Claire WALCZAK, Indiana University, Bloomington
European Union
Bror ALSTERMARK, Umea University, Sweden
Frederick MACKINTOSH, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Maria Victoria SANCHEZ-VIVES, Institut d'Investigacions
Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunver (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
Delegate from the Council of Scientists
Paul LASKO, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
32
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chapter 3
HFSP
Awardees - Highlights
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3.1
HFSP
AWARDEES
MEETINGS
The annual Awardees Meetings bring together Research
Grant awardees, Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellows
and Career Development Award holders, as well as those
who are guiding HFSP at all levels. The aim is to stimulate
interactions between HFSP awardees in the hope that this
will encourage new collaborations and build a greater sense
of community among those who have been funded by the
Program. The meeting is hosted in a different member country
each year. The first eight were held in Turin, Italy (2001),
Ottawa, Canada (2002), Cambridge, UK (2003), Hakone,
Japan (2004), Washington, USA (2005) Paris, France (2006),
Twin Waters, near Brisbane, Australia (2007) and Berlin,
Germany (2008). The ninth meeting is being organized in
Tokyo, Japan from 1-4 June 2009 and is linked to a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of
HFSPO.
All current awardees are invited to participate while other
awardees, for instance from the host city or country, are
invited if space permits. The meetings have been welcomed
enthusiastically by the awardees and have provided the
scientists on the HFSPO Board, Council, Review Committee
members and staff with an excellent opportunity to
appreciate the work being funded and to increase the
visibility of the HFSP in the host country.
36
The eighth meeting, involving awardees who had received
their awards between 2005 and 2007, was held in 2008 in
Germany at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
on the picturesque Gendarmenplatz in the city centre. The
meeting was generously co-sponsored by the Federal
Ministry of Education and Research and was opened by
Thomas Rachel, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal
Minister of Education and Research.
The meeting featured 28 talks and 172 posters by HFSP
awardees. Two excellent plenary lectures were given by
Princeton physicist, Bill Bialek and the German Nobel Prize
winner, Erwin Neher. The program included “Chalkboard
sessions”, more specialized thematic sessions, which
enabled scientists in specific fields to meet each other early
in the program. In addition, there was a special workshop on
a frontier topic, a feature first introduced at the 2007
meeting in Australia. The subject was identified on the basis
of the topics represented in the meeting abstracts: in
Australia the special session concerned state of the art
optical imaging methods but in Berlin, the workshop took a
more theoretical turn with a discussion on “Modeling biological systems – where are we in the numbers game?”
It was clear from the submitted abstracts that there had
been a substantial increase in projects involving quantitative
modeling approaches to living systems in accord with HFSP’s
enhanced emphasis on interdisciplinary research in recent
years. This was also evident in the plenary lecture by Bill
Bialek, who discussed ways in which quantitative approaches
can serve to analyze observations from developmental biology
and neurobiology. This theme was taken up in the workshop,
which was led by a panel of physicists, Bill Bialek and Ned
Wingreen from Princeton and Herbie Levine from the
University of California, San Diego.There was a lively discussion
between scientists approaching complex biological systems
from both experimental and theoretical standpoints. The
importance emerged of distinguishing between models
used to organize experimental observations and theoretical
approaches with predictive value. It was clear that there is
still no real consensus as to where the major issues lie or the
best techniques to move the field forwards. Differences in
training of experimental biologists and theoreticians from
physics, mathematics and computer science are reflected in
different conceptions of what constitutes “understanding”.
This is especially problematic in what Herbie Levine called
the “muddy middle” of systems biology where pragmatic
models are derived from a mixture of theory and experimental
results. Given this divide between scientists from different
fields it is essential that there is an ongoing discussion of
such issues in order to narrow the gap. It is clear that there
is no going back and that fusion of these approaches will
inevitably occur.
EIGHTH AWARDEES ANNUAL MEETING
BERLIN, GERMANY, 6-9 JULY 2008
PROGRAM
Sunday 6 July
15:00-19:00
18:00-21:00
Registration and reception at the NH Hotel, Leipzigerstrasse
.........................................................................
Registration
.........................................................................
Welcome reception
.........................................................................
37
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8:45-9:15
9:15-10:15
14:44
Page 38
Monday 7 July
Tuesday 8 July
Opening remarks/Welcome address (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)
Thomas Rachel, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research
.........................................................................
Plenary Lecture (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)
Characters in search of a script: Toward a theory of information flow in biological networks
William Bialek, Princeton University
.........................................................................
Oral Session 3 (Chair: Dora Angelaki)
8:45-9:05
9:05-9:25
Oral Session 1 (Chair: Michael Seagar)
10:15-10:35
10.35-10.55
10:55-11:30
...............................................................
Compartmentalized kinase signaling in neurons
Abel, T, Grant, S Blackwell, K Zaccolo, M
...............................................................
Casting a net for kinases - systematic discovery of in vivo phosphorylation networks
Linding, R, Yaffe, M.B, Pawson, T.
...............................................................
Coffee
...............................................................
..........
9:25-9:45
..........
9:45-10:05
..........
10:05-10:25
..........
Oral Session 2 (Chair: Judith Black)
11:30-11:50
11:50-12:10
12:10-12:30
12:30-12:50
12:50-14:00
14:00-16:00
16:00-18:00
19.30
.........................................................................
Physiological roles of sterols and sphingolipids in biological membranes, cells, and organisms
Eaton, S, Hannun, Y, Kurzchalia, T, Mayor, S, Rao, M, Riezman, H, Wenk, M
.........................................................................
Structure and dynamics of a ribosome-bound nascent chain by NMR spectroscopy
Hsu, S.-T.D, Fucini, P, Cabrita, L, Launay, H, Christodoulou, J, Dobson, C.M
.........................................................................
Neural basis of rewards in social context in rhesus monkeys
Duhamel, J.-R, Azzi, J., Sirigu, A.
.........................................................................
Rev-ERB alpha controls miR-122 to tune circadian clock output in liver
Gatfield, D, Le Martelot, G, Vejnar, C, Gerlach, D, Fleury-Olela, F., Schaad, O, Esau, C, Zdobnov,
E, Schibler, U
.........................................................................
Lunch
.........................................................................
Poster Session I
.........................................................................
Chalkboard sessions:
1. Neuroscience – from molecules to cognition (Moderators: Guy Orban, Paul De Koninck)
2. Cell biology – membrane dynamics and cell division (Moderators: Damian Brunner, Dan Kiehart)
3. Structure begets function – protein and RNA in action (Moderators: Arturo Falaschi, Lynne Regan)
4. Development and evolution – ontogeny and phylogeny in animals and plants (Moderators: Paul
Lasko, Detlev Weigel)
5. Signalling in the cell – pathways, proteins and genes (Moderators: John Mattick, Judy Armitage)
.........................................................................
Dinner (Restaurant)
.........................................................................
38
10:25-10:55
.........................................................................
Polymerization forces and Klp5/Klp6 spatially regulate microtubule catastrophes in fission yeast
Tischer, C, Brunner, D, Dogterom, M
.........................................................................
Genetic dissection of the mechanisms underlying endocytic recycling of PIN auxin efflux proteins in
Arabidopsis thaliana
Tanaka, H, Kitakura, S, Friml, J
.........................................................................
Direct observation of fast protein conformational switching
Ishikawa, H, Kwak, K, Chung, J.K, Kim, S, Fayer, M.D
.........................................................................
Transcriptional regulation by microRNAs
Gonzalez, S, Pisano, D, Serrano, S.
.........................................................................
Neural substrate of bottom-up and top-down visual attentional integration
Munoz, D.P, Theeuwes, J, Isa, T, Itti, L, Berg, D, Peters, R., Tseng, P.-H Ikeda, T, Kaneda, K, Kato, R,
Phongphanpanee, P, Yoshida, M, Mulchhuyse, M, Talsma, D Boehnke, S, Cameron, I Marino, R, White, B
.........................................................................
Coffee
.........................................................................
Oral Session 4 (Chair: Judith Armitage)
10:55-11:15
11:15-11:35
11:35-11:55
11:55-12:15
12:15-12:35
12:35-14:00
14.00-16.00
16.00-17.00
17:00-18:00
19.30
.........................................................................
Variable complex sizes of Escherichia coli chemoreceptors: a new level of adaptation
Endres, R.G, Oleksiuk, O, Meir, Y, Sourjik, V, Wingreen, N.S.
.........................................................................
Structural basis for the recruitment of the Ser/Thr kinase Mnk1 by the scaffolding proteins DAP5 and EIF4G
Talje, L, Yanagiya, A, Sonenberg, N, Nagar, B
.........................................................................
Internal brain state regulates membrane potential synchrony in barrel cortex of awake mice
Poulet, J.F.A, Petersen, C.C
.........................................................................
Programmed cell clearance: from nematodes to nanotubes
Fadeel, B, Xue, D, Kagan, V, Quinn, P
.........................................................................
The mechanics behind plant development: a pluridisciplinary view
Hamant, O, Heisler, M, Jönsson, H, Couder, Y, Boudaoud, A, Meyerowitz, E, Traas, J
.........................................................................
Lunch
.........................................................................
Poster Session II
.........................................................................
Special workshop : Modeling biological systems – where are we in the numbers game ? (Moderators:
Bill Bialek, Herbert Levine and Ned Wingreen)
.........................................................................
Open discussion on HFSP and the HFSP Journal
.........................................................................
River Cruise and Dinner
.........................................................................
39
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Page 40
Wednesday 9 July
8:45-9:15
Special Presentation (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)
.........................................................................
The European Research Council - First experiences from a novel research funding organization
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker
.........................................................................
Oral Session 5 (Chair: Herbert Levine)
9:15-9:35
9:35-9:55
9:55-10:15
10:15-10:35
10:35-11:05
...................................................................
Studying gene expression at the single cell level with microfluidic tools
Rowat, A.C, Agresti, J.J, Schmitz, C, Weitz, D.A
...................................................................
Computational identification of autocatalytic replicators embedded in metabolic networks
Kun, Á, Papp, B, Szathmáry, E
...................................................................
A global map of translationally regulated messages in yeast
Halbeisen, R.E, Gerber, A.P
...................................................................
Astroglial metabolic networks sustain hippocampal synaptic transmission
Rouach, N, Koulakoff, A, Ezan, P, Giaume, C
...................................................................
Coffee
...................................................................
......
......
......
......
......
......
Oral Session 6 (Chair: Paul Lasko)
11:05-11:25
11:25-11:55
11:55-12:05
12:05-12:35
12:35-12:55
12:55-14:00
14:00-16:00
3.2
.........................................................................
Identification of epigenetic regulators in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum
Volz, J, Carvalho, T.G, Gilson, P.R, Ralph, S.A, Crabb, B.S, Cowman, A.F
.........................................................................
High-performance Brownian Dynamics simulations for cellular biochemical networks
Takahashi, K
.........................................................................
From single molecule imaging to superresolution microscopy
Enderlein, J.E, Benda, A, Loman, A Gregor, I, Hofkens, J Dedecker, P, Miyawaki, A, Lehmann, M Piguet, V
.........................................................................
Lasting changes of neocortical code for associative memory after learning
Takehara-Nishiuchi, K., McNaughton, B.L
.........................................................................
Nanopores as single molecule biosensors
Meller, A, Lin, J, Wanunu, M, McNally, B, Soni, G
.........................................................................
Lunch
.........................................................................
Poster Session III
.........................................................................
HONOURS
AND PRIZES
HFSP Fellowships, Career Development Awards and Research
Grants are awarded after a rigorous process of international
peer review. The high quality of HFSP awardees is indicated
by the many awards and honours they receive from national
and international bodies. In the 20 years since the beginning
of the Program, 13 grant awardees have gone on to win the
Nobel Prize, testimony to the exacting standards of the
review committees. In addition, awardees have been honoured
by election to national academies such as the National
Academy of Sciences (USA), The Royal Society (UK) and to
international bodies such as EMBO. Early career scientists
supported within the HFSP have also been successful in
obtaining prestigious national and international awards,
including those awarded by the ERC. HFSP is now monitoring
the success of its awardees; the following list documents
major new awards that have come to our attention in 2008.
Oral Session 7 (Chair: Gabrielle Boulianne)
16:00-16:20
16:20-16.40
16:40-17:00
17:15-18:15
19:30
.........................................................................
Identification of mating pheromone from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: new insights into the
relationship between mating and dauer behavior
Srinivasan, J, Kaplan, F, Ajredini, R, Zachariah, C, Alborn, H, Teal, P, Edison, A.S, Sternberg, P.W, Schroeder, F.C
.........................................................................
An NB-LRR protein functions as a positive regulator of programmed cell death in Arabidopsis thaliana
Bonardi, V, Tang, S, Epple, P, Dangl, J.L
.........................................................................
microRNA regulation of dendritic protein synthesis and spine morphogenesis
Siegel, G, Obernosterer, G, Fiore, R, Khudayberdiev, S, Veith, M., Leuschner, P.F, Busch, C.J.L, Christensen,
M, Kane, C, Hübel, K, Dekker, F, Rengarajan, B, Drepper, C, Waldmann, H, Kauppinen, S, Greenberg, M.E,
Rehmsmeier, M, Martinez, J, Schratt, G
.........................................................................
Plenary Lecture (Chair: Torsten Wiesel)
Ca++ signals and short-term synaptic plasticity at a glutamatergic synapse in the central nervous system
Erwin Neher
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen
.........................................................................
Farewell party – Bundespressestrand
.........................................................................
40
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Page 42
2008 AWARDS TO HFSP-FUNDED SCIENTISTS
Award
Name
Nationality Current affiliation
American Academy
of Arts and Sciences
membership
(biological sciences)
Fred COHEN
Timothy MITCHISON
Norbert PERRIMON
Linda BUCK
Huntington WILLARD
James BRISCOE
Jesus GIL
USA
UK
France
USA
USA
UK
Spain
Monica GOTTA
Antonin MORRILON
Italy
France
Nenad BAN
Croatia
Philippe BASTIAENS
Netherlands
James BRISCOE
UK
Giacomo CAVALLI
Elena CONTI
Italy
Italy
Paul FREEMONT
Andrew LUMSDEN
Gero MIESENBÖCK
Manolis PASPARAKIS
Markus STOFFEL
UK
UK
Austria
Greece
Germany
Tomoyuki TANAKA
Michael TYERS
Bas VAN STEENSEL
Japan
UK
Netherlands
Spyridon ARTAVANISTSAKONAS
Claude DESPLAN
Richard Paul HARVEY
Greece
Eliot MEYEROWITZ
USA
Johann AUWERX
Belgium
EMBO Gold Medal
EMBO Young
Investigator Award
EMBO Members
EMBO Associate
Members
ERC Advanced
Grants Life Sciences
Naama BARKAI
Konrad BASLER
Michael BRECHT
Matteo CARANDINI
Daniel CHOQUET
Johannes CLEVERS
François-Loïc COSSET
Giulio COSSU
Caroline DEAN
Barry DICKSON
Denis DUBOULE
Jean-Marc EGLY
Pierre GÖNCZY
Ari HELENIUS
Jeremy HENLEY
HFSP award year
University of California, San Francisco, USA
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,
Seattle, USA
Duke University, Durham, USA
National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, UK
Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London,
UK
University of Geneva, Switzerland
CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
France
Australia
Research Grant 1994
Research Grant 1994, 1998
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 1991
Long-Term Fellowship 1996
Long-Term Fellowship
2001
Long-Term Fellowship 2002,
Career Development Award
2005
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH),
Young Investigator Grant
Zürich, Switzerland
2002
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Young Investigator Grant
Dortmund, Germany
2002
National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Long-Term Fellowship
Hill, UK
1996
CNRS, Montpellier, France
Research Grant 2000,YI 2003
Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie,
Martinsried, Germany
1997, Program Grant 2002
Imperial College, London, UK
Research Grant 1999
King's College, London, UK
Research Grant 1997
University of Oxford, UK
Program Grant 2007
University of Cologne, Germany
Young Investigator Grant 2005
Program Grant 2001
Zürich, Switzerland
University of Dundee, UK
University of Edinburgh, UK
Research Grant 2000
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Research Grant 1994
Award
New York University, USA
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute,
Darlinghurst, Australia
Caltech, Pasadena, USA
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
Switzerland
Israel
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Switzerland
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Germany
Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany
Italy
University College, London, UK
France
CNRS-University of Bordeaux, France
Netherlands
University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
France
INSERM, Lyon, France
Italy
DIBIT, Milan, Italy
UK
John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
Australia
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
(IMP), Vienna, Austria
Switzerland
Université de Genève Sciences III, Switzerland
France
Institut de Génétique et de Biologie
Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France
Switzerland/Italy Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
Lausanne, Switzerland
Finland
Switzerland
UK
Bristol University, UK
42
Research Grant 1996
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 1991,
Research Grant 1999
Program Grant 2003
Research Grant 1997
Program Grant 2004
Research Grant 1999
Program Grant 2006
Research Grant 1998
Research Grant 1998
Research Grant 1997
Program Grant 2001, 2007
Research Grant1991, 1994
Research Grant 1997
Research Grant 1993
Program Grant 2001
Canada Gairdner
International Awards
2008
Name
HFSP award year
Jan Hendrik HOEIJMAKERS
Netherlands
Carlos IBANEZ
Jonathan D.G JONES
Dimitri Michael KULLMANN
Kevin Neville LALAND
Joachim LINGNER
Spain
UK
UK
UK
Switzerland
Program Grant 2001
Research Grant 1997
Program Grant 2007
Program Grant 2005
Andreas MAYER
Andrea MUSACCHIO
Germany
Italy
Ben SCHERES
Manuel SERRANO
Netherlands
Spain
Michael TYERS
Gunnar VON HEIJNE
Ben SCHERES
Gary RUVKUN
Nahum SONENBERG
UK
Sweden
Netherlands
USA
Canada
Alan BERNSTEIN
Canada
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
Karokinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
University College London, UK
University of St Andrews, UK
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer
Research (ISREC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Spanish National Cancer Research Center
(CNIO), Madrid, Spain
University of Edinburgh, UK
Stockholm University, Sweden
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Harvard University, Boston, USA
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Program Grant 2001, 2007
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 1999
Research Grant 2000
Program Grant 2007
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 1991
Research Grant 1995, 1998,
Program Grant 2005
Research Grant 1993
Sinisa URBAN
Rachel WILSON
Japan Academy Medal Toru FUJIWARA
Kavli Prize in Neuro- Pasko RAKIC
science (Norwegian Thomas JESSELL
Academy of Science
and Letters)
Sofja Kovalevskaja
Jan-Erik SIEMENS
Award
(Alexander von
Humboldt Stiftung)
Albert Lasker Basic
Gary RUVKUN
Medical Research
Award
Leibniz Award 2008
Elena CONTI
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
Elisa IZAURRALDE
Canada
USA
Japan
USA
USA
Canadian Institutes of Health Research,
Ottawa, Canada
Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et
Cellulaire, Valbonne, France
Caltech, Pasadena, USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, USA
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA
NYU School of Medicine, New York, USA
The Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA
Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, USA
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA
University of Tokyo, Japan
Yale University, New Haven, USA
Columbia University, New York, USA
Germany
University of California, San Francisco, USA
2005
USA
Research Grant 1991
Italy
McArthur Award 2008
Meyenburg-Preis 2008
National Academy of
Sciences membership
2008
USA
Netherlands
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie,
Martinsried, Germany
Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie,
Tübingen, Germany
University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA
University of California San Diego, USA
Vollum Institute, Portland, USA
University of Texas, Dallas, USA
Program Grant 2003
Program Grant 2007
Research Grant 1998
Research Grant 1993
Research Grant 1996
Research Grant 1993
Research Grant 1992
Research Grant 1999
Research Grant 1991
Gruber International
Research Award in
Neuroscience
(Society for
Neuroscience)
HHMI Investigators
HHMI Early Career
Scientists
Reza SHARIF-NAEINI
Michael ELOWITZ
Darrell IRVINE
USA
USA
Erich JARVIS
Michele PAGANO
Samuel PFAFF
Mark SCHNITZER
Kang SHEN
Aviv REGEV
USA
Italy/USA
USA
USA
PR China
Israel
Rachel WILSON
Hans CLEVERS
Seth DARST
Michael GRUNSTEIN
Steve KAY
Gail MANDEL
David MANGELSDORF
Gary RUVKUN
Switzerland
43
Young Investigator Grant
2006
Research Grant 1998
Research Grant 1998
Research Grant 2005
Program Grant 2007
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 1990
Program Grant 2001
16/07/09
14:44
Page 44
Award
Name
HFSP award year
National Academy
of Sciences Foreign
Associates 2008
Philip COHEN
Anne CUTLER
UK
Australia
Research Grant 1990
Caroline DEAN
Jules HOFFMANN
Janet ROSSANT
Zemer GITAI
Julia ZEITLINGER
UK
France
Canada/UK
USA
Germany
NIH Director's
pioneer award 2008
Nobel Prize for
Chemistry 2008
Prix Claude Paoletti
2008 (CNRS)
Aviv REGEV
Israel
Roger TSIEN
USA
University of Dundee, UK
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
CNRS, Strasbourg, France
University of Toronto, Canada
Princeton University, USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge, USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge, USA
Univ. California San Diego, USA
Jérôme BOISBOUVIER
France
CNRS, Grenoble, France
Pew Scholars in the
Biomedical Sciences
Antonio GIRALDEZ
Felicia GOODRUM
Julia ZEITLINGER
Spain
USA
Germany
Royal Society
fellows
Fraser ARMSTRONG
John DUNCAN
UK
UK
University of Yale, New Haven, USA
University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,
Cambridge, USA
University of Cambridge, UK
Russell FOSTER
Jan LÖWE
UK
Germany
Long-Term Fellowship 2001,
Career Development Award
2004, Young Investigator
Grant 2006
2000
Research Grant 2000
Program Grant 2001
Research Grant 1995
Program Grant 2003
Stephen Michael COHEN
Claudio Daniel STERN
William CATTERALL
Canada
UK
USA
NIH Director's new
innovator award
Royal Society
Foreign Membership
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology,
Cambridge, UK
National University of Singapore
University College London, UK
University of Washington, Seattle, USA
44
Research Grant 1997
Research Grant 1995
Research Grant 2000
2000
Program Grant 2005
Research Grant 1995
Program Grant 2002
Research Grant 1993
45
16/07/09
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Page 46
chapter 4
Budget and Finance
Left to right: Shigeru Sakurai, Isabelle Heidt-Coquard,
Sarah Naett Cazau and Patrick Vincent
16/07/09
14:44
Page 48
several of them, this meant a significant increase from FY
2007. Japan maintained its high level of contribution, as did
Switzerland. Italy paid its contribution in USD (909
thousand) instead of EUR as usual. As of 31 March 2009, the
Indian contribution remained unpaid but the amount was
officially confirmed by the Indian Trustees and so can be
reported, in accordance with the policy established by
HFSPO Finance Committee. France was 4% below the
intended level of contribution, though above the FY 2007
level. The contribution from the UK was also marginally
below the guideline and almost 4% above the FY 2007 level;
the Trustees from the UK notified the Secretariat in advance
of this difference.
Contributions
4.1
4.2
GUIDELINES FOR
HFSPO FUNDING
KEY FINANCIAL
FIGURES FOR FY 2008
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is supported
by contributions from its Management Supporting Parties
(MSPs): Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan,
Republic of Korea (Korea), New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland,
the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the
European Union. Norway joined the Program in April 2008 and
contributed to the HFSPO budget for the first time this year.
Figures are reported in million USD unless stated otherwise.
Some totals may not add up due to rounding. Different
exchange rates are used in this report for different purposes
(Table 4-1):
HFSP “IGC reference rates”: for the monitoring in USD of
IGC budgetary guideline implementation over extended
periods without distortion resulting from exchange rate
variations.These reference rates may differ from actual rates.
FY 2008 budget rate: for the comparison of annual
budget and actual activity on a volume basis, without
impact from exchange rate variation.
FY 2008 actual rates: these are used for HFSPO’s legal
accounts and their consolidation in EUR or in USD. They
are updated daily on the basis of data published by the
European Central Bank.
The average actual exchange rates between the USD and
the main currencies used by HSPO for FY 2008 were close
to those used in the budget, except in the case of GBP.
Because of the voluntary nature of MSPs’ contributions,
Board members were contacted in the Fall 2007 to confirm
their contributions for FY 2008 prior to the Fellowship and
Research Grant Review Committee meetings held in January
2008. When no response was received, it was assumed that
the contribution would remain at the same level as in FY 2007.
The adoption of a three-year budgetary guideline and its
conversion into currencies of contribution, have improved
visibility on income from contributions, with the positive
result that HFSPO can maximise the number of awards
given each year.
Contributions received from MSPs during FY 2008 are
shown in currencies in Table 4-2. Most MSPs met the
intended level of contribution indicated in the Ottawa IGC
guideline Table B (and nine MSPs the target in Table A). For
MSP
Note
MSPs’ contributions to HFSPO are voluntary. The intended
level of contribution is decided by MSPs at HFSP Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) and appended to the Joint
Communiqué of each IGC as a guideline for contributions.
This provides a financial framework for representatives of
the MSPs on the HFSPO Board of Trustees.
At the IGC held in Ottawa in June 2007, MSPs’ representatives
agreed to adopt a new three-year indicative budgetary
guideline for the period FY 2008 to FY 2010 (Appendix A.2).
It was modelled on the previous three-year guideline
(FY 2005-FY 2007), adopted at the IGC meeting held in
Berne in June 2004.
The Ottawa three-year guideline is based on an annual
increase of contributions by all MSPs, except Japan which is
exempt from the increase until the “equal match” between
the contributions of Japan and that of the other IGC
members is achieved. One particularity of the three-year
budgetary guideline for FY 2008-FY 2010 is that it provides
two options for those MSPs whose contribution in FY 2007
did not reach the level indicated in the Berne IGC budgetary
guideline.
Like the Berne IGC budgetary guideline, the Ottawa IGC
guideline, established in USD, was converted into currencies
of contribution using “IGC reference rates” (Table 4-1). This
table was reviewed by the Finance Committee and approved
by the Board in March 20082.
Table 4-1:
Exchange rates used in FY 2008 report
Exchange rates FY 2008
1 USD =
CAD
CHF
EUR
GBP
JPY
Ottawa IGC
1.30
1.24
0.80
0.55
108
Budget FY 2008
1.10
1.10
0.70
0.50
100
Actual FY 2008 (average)
1.12
1.11
0.71
0.59
99.79
Australia
1
Contribution
FY 2008
NHMRC
USD
CIHR
CAD
1 063
NSERC
USD
273
Canada
Guideline
Contribution as %
(TableB/A) or MoU
2008 in currency
of guideline (A) or MoU
534
534
100%
1 418
1 418
100%
3 901
100%
2 214
96%
EUR
3 901
DG RESEARCH
EUR
2 401
DG INFSO
EUR
1 500
European Union
EUR
2 124
MAE
EUR
932
France
MER
EUR
775
2
CUS
EUR
265
2
Région Alsace
EUR
153
Germany
BMBF
EUR
3 439
3 439
100%
3
India
DOB
USD
812
812
100%
4
Italy
CNR
EUR
909
909 to 1 339
68%
31 248
100%
USD
31 248
METI
USD
11 582
MEXT
USD
19 666
Japan
5
2 The reference rates used to convert the Ottawa
budgetary guideline were discussed by the Finance
Committee in March 2008. For sake of consistency.
and despite market fluctuations, it was decided
to retain the Berne IGC reference rates 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 the equal match between Japan and other MSPs.
Contributions received in FY 2008 in currencies
(thousand)
Contribution
Currency (CC)
(for abbreviations see page 61)
Notes
Korea
MEST
USD
624
624
100%
New Zealand
MRC
USD
103
103
100%
Norway
RCN
USD
500
500
100%
Switzerland
SER
CHF
863
850
102%
1 129
99%
9 364 to 11 117
84%
GBP
1 119
BBSRC
GBP
220
MRC
GBP
899
NSF + NIH
USD
9 364
UK
USA
48
Organization
Table 4-2:
49
1 Payment
consolidated
in CAD at IGC
reference rate
(1USD=1.30 CAD)
2 City of Strasbourg
and Région Alsace
as host to HFSPO
Secretariat
3 Indian contribution
not received at end
of FY2008 but
officially confirmed
4 Italian contribution
was budgeted
in EUR (700 k€)
but paid in USD
5 Joined HFSPO
from FY 2008
16/07/09
14:44
Page 50
Similar comments also apply to MSPs’ contributions
consolidated in USD using the IGC reference rates (Table 4-3).
Table 4-3:
Contributions received in FY 2008 in million USD
at IGC reference rates in comparison with the IGC
guideline (or MoU for Norway)
Ottawa
Guideline /
MoU FY 2008
Contribution
FY 2007
Australia
0.53
0.53
0.50
Canada
1.09
1.09
1.04
EU
4.77
4.77
4.57
France
2.66
2.77
2.61
Germany
4.30
4.30
4.17
India
0.81
0.81
0.78
Italy (Table B/A)
0.91
0.91 to 1.34
1.25
Japan
31.25
31.25
31.25
Korea
0.62
0.62
0.59
New Zealand
0.10
0.10
0.10
Norway
0.50
0.50
-
Switzerland
0.69
0.60
0.68
UK
2.03
2.05
1.96
USA (Table B/A)
TOTAL
9.36
59.63
9.36 to 11.12
59.67 to 61.86
The evolution of MSP’s contributions for the past five years is
given in History I below, consolidated in USD at the budget rates
applicable for each fiscal year.
History I:
MSP’s contributions since FY 2004 (at budget rate)
Contribution
received in
FY 2008
MSP
All MSPs but one matched or increased their contribution
from FY 2007. contributing a total of 59.63 million USD. This
is 1.1 million USD above FY 2007 (+ 1.9 %), very close to the
Ottawa guideline Table B and 2.31 million USD below the
Ottawa guideline Table A.
The contribution from Japan represents 52.4 % of the total
amount received using the IGC reference rate, down from
53.1 % in FY 2007. This ratio calculated on the basis of fixed
exchange rates is used for monitoring the progress made
towards the “equal match” objective.
When consolidated at FY 2008 budget rates, the total
amount of MSPs’ contributions reached 61.87 million USD
(Table 4-4) compared with 58.81 million USD in FY 2007
(History I).
Table 4-4:
MSPs’ contributions in million USD at FY 2008 budget
rate
Currency
Actual contribution in
currency
Actual contribution
in USD
at budget rate
Australia
USD
0.53
0.53
Canada (1)
CAD
1.36
1.24
EU
EUR
3.90
5.57
France
EUR
2.12
3.03
Germany
EUR
3.44
4.91
India
USD
0.81
0.81
Italy
USD
0.91
0.91
Japan
USD
31.25
31.25
Korea
USD
0.62
0.62
New Zealand
USD
0.10
0.10
Norway
USD
0.50
0.50
Switzerland
CHF
0.86
UK
GBP
1.12
USA (Table A)
USD
9.36
MSP
9.00
58.50
TOTAL
FY 2004
FY 2005
0.47
CA
EU
FR
DE
IN
0.85
4.08
2.07
3.43
2.12
31.25
0.87
4.51
2.17
3.50
0.88
31.25
0.55
IT
JP
KR
NO
CH
UK
USA
TOTAL
0.69
1.63
9.50
55.62
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
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
FY 2008
0.53
1.24
5.57
3.03
4.91
0.81
0.91
31.25
0.62
0.10
0.50
0.78
2.24
9.36
61.87
TOTAL
1.99
4.96
23.73
12.23
19.84
1.59
6.04
156.25
2.33
0.30
0.50
3.53
9.33
45.86
288.50
The Asia Pacific (including Japan) remains the main source
of funding of the Program, contributing 53.9% of the total
(as compared with 56.5% in FY 2007), followed by Europe
(29.0% as compared with 26.4% in FY 2007) and North
America (17.1% as compared with 17.1% in FY 2007). The
share of the Japanese contribution in the total funding of
the Program stated at budget rate has steadily decreased
from 57% in FY 2004 to 50.5% in FY 2008 (History II). This
ratio is influenced by annual variations of exchange rates,
unlike the ratio derived from the contribution consolidated
with the “IGC reference rates” (Table 4-3) which is used for
monitoring progress towards the “equal match” objective.
History II:
Regional distribution of annual contributions to HFSPO
in % of total
FY
2004
FY
2005
FY
2006
FY
2007
FY
2008
0.78
Asia-Pacific
57.0
58.0
57.3
56.5
53.9
2.24
(Japan)
57.0
56.0
55.2
53.1
50.5
9.36
Europe
24.0
24.0
25.1
26.4
29.0
North America
19.0
18.0
17.6
17.1
17.1
Financial income
Income from financial operations amounted to 2.5 million
USD. This income was generated from the active
management of funds reserved to meet HFSPO’s obligation
to its awardees for the whole period of their award.
Investments are made in short and medium term structured
products3 , and tailored to the payment schedule of awards.
All investments are made in compliance with the prudential
rules established by the HFSPO Finance Committee4 and
reported to that committee.
Payment of awards and other program activities
HFSPO paid 57.8 million USD to its awardees during FY 2008,
that is 2.1 million below budget and 0.4 million USD above FY
2007 (Table 4- 5).
Annual payments for Research Grants and Career
Development Awards were on budget, and payments to LongTerm Fellows were 1.9 million USD below budget for two
reasons observed every year:
Some payments planned for FY 2008 were postponed for
motives such as parental leave or deferral of the third
year of a Long-Term Fellowship in case of repatriation.These
payments are then transferred to the next fiscal years.
Some Long-Term Fellows terminated earlier than scheduled
for instance to take up a permanent position. This “annual
attrition rate” is close to 5% and is taken into account
when calculating the number of Long-Term Fellowships
fundable each year. It amounted to about 1 million USD
in FY 2008.
Table 4-5:
Payments made in FY 2008 by type of awards/activity
(budget rate)
Actual
FY 2008
23.4
Budget
FY 2008
23.2
Young Investigators
11.2
11.2
9.2
15.9
17.8
14.1
Career Development Awards
6.9
7.2
6.2
Short-Term Fellowships
0.2
0.2
0.3
Awardees meeting
0.2
0.3
0.3
57.8
59.9
57.4
Program
Program Grants
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
3 Monetary mutual funds (SICAV or Société d’Investissement à Capital
Variable) and EMTN (Euro Medium Term Notes) with capital guaranty
at maturity.
4 HFSPO prudential rules seek primarily to protect the capital invested,
and include protection against market price risk (capital guaranty),
credit risk (minimum rating S&P AA-), currency risk (no change for
financial investments) and liquidity risk (investment strategy based on
three year on-going concern)
50
NZ
FY 2007
Region
61.87
(1) Canadian contribution consolidated in CAD at budget rate
AU
51
Actual
FY 2007
27.4
16/07/09
14:44
Page 52
Because awards are for three years on average, the total
amount of annual and committed payments give a more
accurate view than annual payments of the respective
financial allocation to different programs funded by HFSPO
(Table 4- 6).
The funding of Long-Term Fellowships increased from 27%
to more than 29%.
The share of Career Development Awards is close to 12% of
all payments made or committed by HFSPO, increasing
slightly from FY 2007.
Funds paid and committed to Research Grant teams
decreased from 61% of the total in FY 2007 to 57.3% in FY
2008, despite an increase in funds paid to Young Investigator
Grant teams.
Geographical distribution
45% of the total amount of awards paid in FY 2008 went to
awardees in European MSPs, 38% to North America (32%
in the USA), 10% to awardees in Asia-Pacific (7% in Japan)
and 6% to non MSPs (Table 4-7). Program Grant payments
broadly follow this distribution whereas proportionally more
Career Development Awards are paid in Europe or Japan and
more Fellowships are paid in the USA.
MSP
Table 4-6:
Actual FY 2008
Program
23.4
Program Grants
11.2
Young Investigators
34.6
Research Grants total
15.9
6.9
Career Development Awards(1)
0.2
Beyond
FY 2008
21.9
12.4
34.3
19.4
7.3
-
0.2
Awardees meeting
57.8
TOTAL
Budget FY 2008
TOTAL
45.3
%
37.7%
23.6
19.6%
68.9
57.3%
35.3
29.4%
14.2
11.8%
0.2
0.2%
0.2
61.0
FY
2008
0.2%
118.8
Beyond
FY 2008
23.2
21.3
11.2
12.4
34.4
73.3
68.1
19.3
7.2
19.4
23.6
33.7
17.8
54.0
32.5
37.1
6.7
13.9
13.9
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.3
0.3
0.3
59.9
59.7
%
Short-Term
Fellowships
Total
%
total
2.6%
0.2
1%
0.1
2%
0.0
1.5
6%
0.4
3%
1.0
14%
-
3.4
5.9%
EU
4.5
13%
1.2
7%
0.9
13%
0.0
6.6
11.4%
France
2.9
8%
0.6
4%
1.2
17%
-
4.7
8.3%
Germany
3.9
11%
0.9
5%
0.5
7%
0.0
5.3
9.1%
44.9%
India
0.1
0%
-
-
-
-
-
0.1
0.2%
16.1%
Italy
0.7
2%
-
-
0.2
3%
0.0
0.9
1.6%
61.0%
Japan
2.7
8%
0.2
1%
1.2
18%
-
4.1
7.2%
27.0%
Korea
-
-
-
-
0.1
2%
-
0.1
0.2%
11.6%
New Zealand
0.2
1%
-
-
-
-
-
0.2
0.4%
-
-
0.1
1%
-
-
-
0.1
0.2%
%
0.2%
Norway
0.2%
Switzerland
0.5
1%
1.5
9%
0.1
2%
-
2.1
3.7%
UK
3.9
11%
2.3
15%
0.2
2%
0.0
6.4
11.0%
USA
9.8
28%
8.3
52%
0.5
8%
0.1
18.7
32.3%
Non MSPs
2.2
6%
0.2
1%
0.9
13%
0.0
3.3
5.9%
0.2
57.6
100.0%
TOTAL
The distribution of HFSP funding to different programs is
not predetermined (Table “History III”). The relative
proportion of awards paid to Long-Term Fellows is relatively
constant at close to 26 % of the total, and there has been a
gradual transfer of resources from Program Grants to Career
Development awards.
The HFSP Awardees Meeting was held in Berlin, Germany.
The actual cost was 250 thousand USD (actual rate), under
the 300 thousand USD budget.
Career
Development
Awards
3%
(1) restated for budget FY 2008
Funds paid in Short-Term Fellowships amounted to 212
thousand USD, slightly in excess of the 200 thousand USD
budget.
%
2.0
120.2
119.6
Long-Term
Fellowships
1.2
TOTAL
44.5
%
Canada
FY 2007
TOTAL
Geographical distribution of awards paid by HFSP to
laboratories and Fellows in FY 2008 by host MSP and
Program (approx.)
Australia
Total amount paid and committed by program in
FY 2007 (budget rate)
FY
2008
Research
Grants
Table 4-7:
34.6
6.9
15.9
Running costs of the HFSP
The Organization and its 15 employees are responsible for
the management and the implementation of the Program
and the fulfilment of its mission. HFSPO is located in France
and its running costs occur mostly in EUR (Table 4- 8). These
amounted to 3.32 million EUR before tax and depreciation
in FY 2008 and were slightly below the budget of 3.52
million EUR (and 5% below FY 2007).
Salaries represented two thirds (65%) of the total, followed
by “honoraria and services” (17%) and “meetings and travel”
(15%).
History III:
Table 4-8:
HFSPO annual expenditures by program activities since FY
2004 (budget rate)
Running cost of HFSP in EUR (actual rates).)
Fiscal
Year
2004
2005
Research
Grants
34.4
35.4
%
71%
68%
Long-Term
Fellowships
12.0
13.5
%
25%
26%
Career
Development
Awards
%
1.6
3%
2.4
5%
Short-Term
Fellowships
0.2
0.2
Awardees
meetings
0.3
0.2
Total
Program
activities
2.30
-2.5%
2.17
3.3%
0.50
1.0%
0.86
-41.3%
48.4
Meetings, travel (excl. Awardees meeting)
0.49
0.52
-5.6%
0.44
11.6%
51.7
Office expenses (supplies, rental, maintenance)
0.09
0.20
-57.5%
0.08
6.3%
3.32
3.52
-5.6%
3.55
-6.4%
65%
13.7
25%
4.8
9%
0.2
0.3
54.7
64%
14.1
25%
6.2
11%
0.3
0.3
57.4
27%
6.9
52
12%
0.2
0.2
FY 2008
as %
0.51
36.6
15.9
Actual
FY 2007
2.24
35.7
60%
FY 2008
as %
Budget
FY 2008
Honoraria, services (incl. IT project)
2007
34.6
Actual
FY 2008
Salaries-social taxes (incl. in kind)
2006
2008
Administrative expenses in mio EUR
57.8
Total Secretariat operating cost
Income tax, provisions
0.15
0.18
-15.7%
0.18
-15.7%
TOTAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES
3.47
3.70
-6.1%
3.73
-6.8%
53
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The development of a new IT Program integrating the
scientific and financial management of awards is
reported under “honoraria, services”. It was initiated in
2007 at the request of HFSPO’s internal auditors and
developed by an IT service provider selected through
competitive tender. Although over budget in FY 2007,
its development cost was kept on budget in FY 2008.
“Meetings, travel” include travel and hotel expenses
linked to meetings of the Board, the Council, the
Review and Selection Committees and to HFSPO staff
travel.
4.3
Unlike in FY2007, the actual situation as compared to
the budget is very similar in EUR and in USD (Table 49). This results from the close correspondence between
budget and actual exchange rates as regards the Euro
and USD (0.7 EUR for 1 USD in budget and 0.71 EUR
for 1 USD as actual average).
FY 2008
FINANCIAL
SUMMARY
Table 4-9:
Running costs of HFSP in USD (actual 2007 at actual rates)
Administrative expenses in million USD
Actual
FY 2008
Budget
FY 2008
FY 2008
as %
Actual
FY 2007
FY 2008
as %
Salaries-social taxes (incl. in kind)
3.14
3.28
-4.4%
3.07
2.1%
Honoraria, services (incl. IT project)
0.71
0.71
-0.9%
1.22
-42%
Meetings, travel (excl. Awardees meeting)
0.68
0.74
-8.6%
0.62
8.8%
Office expenses (supplies, rental, maintenance)
0.12
0.29
-58.7%
0.11
4.4%
4.64
Total Secretariat operating cost
5.03
-7.6%
5.03
-7.7%
Income tax, provisions
0.21
0.26
-17.9%
0.26
-17.3%
TOTAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES
4.85
5.28
-8.1%
5.29
-8.2%
FY 2007 Cashflow statement (at actual exchange rates)
Inflow
About half of operation costs are directly related to
scientific program activities (Research Grant and Fellowship
offices and costs associated with the Selection and Review
Committees). Costs not directly related to scientific
activities include those incurred by the Executive Office,
Administration and Finance and Communication. These
represent 3.5% of total annual expenditure.
5 Although excluding income from investment
of the US contribution.
54
Outflow
FY 2008
Contributions received from MSPs*
Interest and capital gains
Misc. reimbursements from awardees
Cash balance (negative)
Financial support to HFSP Publishing
The not-for-profit organisation HFSP Publishing (HFSPP),
which publishes the HFSP Journal, is a legal entity distinct
from HFSPO. A 15-year refundable loan of 1.3 million EUR
was granted by HFSPO to HFSPP to support the creation
and initial development of the HFSP Journal, in accordance
with a resolution of the HFSPO Board in July 2005 and a
contract signed in December 2005 between HFSPO and
HFSPP. The loan to HFSPP is financed by income from
financial investments and not directly from MSPs’ contributions5. Since both organisations operate on a not-for-profit
basis, this loan is provided by HFSPO without interest. A first
installment of 600 thousand EUR was paid to HFSPP during
FY 2005 and a second installment of 400 thousand EUR in
FY 2008.
The net cash expenditures of HFSPO consolidated in USD at
actual exchange rates amounted to 63.1 million USD,
against 62.9 million USD cash income. The annual cash
balance is close to zero (Table 4-10).
Table 4-10:
Total cash inflow
Note on provisions
Although not actual expenses, provisions are made when
the payment of a contribution is uncertain. These provisions
are thus unavailable for the payment of awards. A contribution
from the French Ministry of Research of 0.12 million EUR
(0.17 million USD) originates from a change in payment
calendar which resulted in one quarter of FY 1997 left
unpaid. This provision is reviewed annually with external
chartered auditors and was maintained in FY 2008.
Cashflow statement
TOTAL
FY 2007
FY 2008
60.1
61.1
2.5
3.0
Program activities
0.3
0.2
Refundable loan to HFSPP
62.9
64.3
0.2
63.1
Administrative expenses (excl. provisions)
Total cash outflow
5.1
57.9
58.4
0.4
-
63.1
63.5
63.1
64.3
0.8
Cash balance (positive)
64.3
TOTAL
FY 2007
4.8
* including payment of overdue contributions.
Simplified statement of financial position
(assets and liabilities)
HFSPO’s financial position is the balance between its assets
and its liabilities (Table 4-11). A positive position ensures
that the payment of current awardees is guaranteed for the
whole period of their award by HFSPO current resources.
This surplus must however remain modest in order to maximise
the number of awards funded with given resources.
Assets: HFSPO assets include receivables (MSP contributions
overdue- 812 thousand USD from India), cash invested
with various levels of liquidity (current accounts, short
term monetary funds and medium term notes for a total
of 67 million USD) and real estate property (HFSPO
Secretariat Office) booked at its purchasing value (2.9
million EUR or 3.2 million USD). HFSPO does not hold
significant intangible assets.
Liabilities include short term payables (0.15 million USD).
HFSPO has no other long-term liabilities than awards
payable to its current awardees beyond FY 2008 (60.1
million USD).
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4.4
Table 4-11:
Statement of financial position (actual rates)
Assets
Current accounts
FY 2008
FY 2007
Liabilities
FY 2008
21.9
26.6
22.5
Young Investigators
12.4
10.2
41.9
42.0
19.4
19.5
0.8
0.1
7.3
7.7
3.2
3.5
Total Commitments
61.0
64.0
1.4
Mutual funds (UCITS)
19.5
Structured products (EMTN)
Contributions to be received
Fixed assets (Secretariat building)
8.8
5.4
69.8
69.4
Balance (positive)
TOTAL
FY 2007
Program Grants
4.4
69.8
69.4
At the end of FY 2008, HFSPO assets exceeded its
liabilities by close to 9 million USD. This level is above the
level budgeted of 7 million USD and results from a
combination of factors, including financial income higher
than budgeted. This surplus has been absorbed by the new
awards starting in FY2009 (see 4.4).
TOTAL
The accounting summary (Table 4-12) provides an overview
of the nature of funds and financial movements described
above, resulting in the net financial position mentioned
above. The contributions paid in other currencies than the
USD are consolidated at the exchange rate of the date of
payment, which explains the difference with the amount
given in Table 4-4 where budget rates are used.
Actual
2008 (2)
Expenditures/
new commitments
Budget
2007 (1)
Actual
2007 (2)
62.2
60.9
0.5
0.5
Canada
1.3
1.1
Program activities
59.9
57.8
European Commission
5.6
5.1
Program Grants
23.2
23.4
France
3.2
3.2
Young Investigators
11.2
11.2
Germany
4.9
4.4
17.8
15.9
India
0.8
0.8
7.2
6.9
Italy
1.0
0.9
0.2
0.2
Japan
31.2
31.2
Awardees meeting and outreach activities
0.3
0.2
Korea
0.6
0.6
New Zealand
0.1
0.1
Commited funds beyond FY
58.7
61.0
Norway
0.5
0.5
Program Grants
21.3
21.9
Switzerland
0.8
0.8
Young Investigators
12.4
12.4
UK
2.3
2.2
17.8
19.4
USA
9.4
9.4
7.2
7.3
1.0
2.5
Committed funds from previous FY
64.0
64.0
Program Grants
26.6
26.6
Young Investigators
10.2
10.2
Interests and capital gain
19.5
19.5
7.7
7.7
Carry over from previous FY
4.1
5.4
131.3
132.7
Total
Balance (negative)
GRAND TOTAL
Administrative expenses
Refundable loan to HFSP-P
132.7
5.3
0.6
4.9
0.6
FY2008
MSP
Australia
Canada
Germany
India
Italy (1)
Japan
New Zealand
Republic of Korea
Switzerland
UK
USA (1)
FY2009
Ottawa guideline (kUSD)
534
566
598
Requested (kUSD)
534
566
598
1 090
1 139
1 190
Requested (kCAD)
1 418
1 482
1 549
4 770
4 976
5 191
Requested (kEUR)
3 901
3 981
4 153
2 768
2 865
2 966
Requested (kEUR)
2 214
2 292
2 373
4 299
4 428
4 561
Requested (kEUR)
3 439
3 543
3 649
812
844
879
Requested (kUSD)
812
844
879
909 to 1 339
944 to 1 803
981 to 2 267
Requested (kEUR)
727 to 1 071
755 to 1 442
785 to 1 814
31 248
31 248
31 248
Requested (kUSD)
31 248
31 248
31 248
103
108
113
Requested (kUSD)
103
108
113
624
658
694
Requested (kUSD)
624
658
694
603
620
638
Requested (kCHF)
850
850
850
2 053
2 155
2 263
Requested (kGBP)
1 129
1 185
1 244
9 364 to 11 117
9 743 to 13 234
10 137 to 15 352
Requested (kUSD)
9 364 to 11 117
9 743 to 13 234
10 137 to 15 352
(1) lower limit corresponds to Table B and upper limit to Table A of the Ottawa budgetary guideline.
Total
GRAND TOTAL
124.5
124.3
6.8
8.4
131.3
132.7
(1) budget rate (2) actual rate at time of transaction
56
FY2010
Most MSPs confirmed their contribution for FY 2009 (Table
4-14). In the absence of such confirmation, it was assumed
that the contribution would be for the same amount as
received in FY 2008.
Balance (positive)
131.3
Table 4-13:
Implementation of Ottawa IGC budgetary plan
(2008-2010) in USD and currency of contribution
France
Australia
Contributions
ACTIVITY BUDGET
FOR FY 2009
EU (27-MSPs)
HFSPO accounting summary FY 2008
(budget and actual rates)
Budget
2008 (1)
The budgetary guideline adopted at the HFSP IGC
conference held in Ottawa in June 2007 for the period
FY 2008-FY 2010, and converted into currencies of
contribution served as the basis for FY 2009 budget
planning (Table 4.13).
Accounting summary
Table 4-12:
Income/
commitments received
Contributions
57
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Budget rates for FY 2009 are given in Table 4-16.
Table 4-14:
MSP’s contributions budgeted for FY 2008
MSP
Contribution
Currency
(CC)
Table 4-16:
Contributions
assumed or confirmed
for FY 2009
Ottawa IGC
guideline
for FY2009 (1)
Progression
from FY2008
(in kCC)
Contributions
assumed or confirmed
for FY 2009 in kUSD
Exchange rate in FY 2009 budget:
CAD
CHF
EUR
GBP
JPY
Ottawa IGC
Exchange rates FY 2009
1 USD =
1.30
1.24
0.80
0.55
108
Budget FY 2009
1.16
1.13
0.73
0.62
99.00
Budget FY 2008
1.10
1.10
0.70
0.50
100
Australia
USD
566
566
32
0.57
Canada
CAD
1 482
1 482
65
1.31
EU
EUR
3 981
3 981
80
5.45
France (2)
EUR
1 900
2 292
-224
2.60
Germany
EUR
3 543
3 543
104
4.85
India
USD
844
844
32
0.84
Italy (2)
EUR
755
755 to 1442
55
1.03
Japan
USD
31 248
31 248
0
31.25
Korea
USD
658
658
34
0.66
New Zealand
USD
108
108
5
0.11
Table 4-17:
Norway
USD
520
520
20
0.52
Overview of HFSPO budget for FY 2009
Switzerland
CHF
850
850
10
0.75
UK
GBP
1 185
1 185
56
1.91
USA (2)
USD
9 364
9743 to 13234
0
9.36
TOTAL
61.22
The general income and expenditures budgeted are
summarized in Table 4-17. The budget is balanced with a
contingency “surplus” reduced to 3% of the total “balance
sheet”. This balance may vary with financial income and
exchange rate fluctuations.
Income + assets
FY 2008
61.2
60.9
1.0
2.5
61.0
64.0
8.4
5.4
Total*
131.6
132.7
TOTAL
131.6
132.7
Financial income
Committed funds from previous year (restricted)
Carry over from previous year
(1) Scenario A and B for Italy and the USA
(2) Amount to be confirmed
Budget FY 2009
Contributions
Expenditure + liabilities
4.9
60.4
57.8
Committed funds beyond FY (restricted)
61.4
61.0
Refundable loan to HFSPP
Total*
TOTAL
* incl. 60 thousand USD in kind from Japan
Table 4-15:
Funding of Program activities for FY 2009 in number of
awards and value
The Program activity plan adopted by the Board in March
2009, followed the recommendation of the Council, with
26 new Program Grants, 9 Young Investigator Grants, 120
Long-Term Fellowships, 22 Career Development Awards
and 200 thousand USD for Short-Term Fellowships.
Payments to awardees in FY 2009 will reach 60.3 million
USD, as compared to 57.8 million USD in FY 2008 (Table
4-15).
Awardees meeting in India: 300 thousand USD
Loan to HFSP Publishing: payment of a third instalment
of 300 thousand EUR
Payments
in FY2009
Program Grants
69
24.40
PG 07
25
3rd year
PG 08
18
2nd year
24.15
3rd year
26
1 year
2 & 3rd years
Young Investigator Grants
33
11.08
10.60
YI 07
10
YI 08
14
17.60
20.16
6.80
6.50
YI 09 (new)
LT 04 and LT 05
419
(few)
LT 06
93
LT 07
100
LT 08
106
LT 09 (new)
120
CDA 07
24
CDA 078
21
CDA 09 (new)
22
0.20
Awardees Meeting Tokyo
0.30
TOTAL
nd
9
Career Development Awards 67
58
Awards committed
beyond FY2009
PG 09 (new)
st
60.38
FY 2008
Program activities
Annual balance
Program activities
Budget FY 2009
5.1
Operation costs (incl. tax and depreciation)
61.40
59
0.4
0.6
127.3
124.3
4.3
8.4
131.6
132.7
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4.5
HFSPO BUDGET AND
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Chaired by Graeme Fraser (New Zealand), ordinary
members of the Committee are Kaoru Naito (Japan), Kathie
Olsen (USA), Ulrich Schlüter (Germany) and Piergiorgio
Strata (Italy). The Finance Committee met before the 39th
Board meeting, on 30 March 2009. The Committee reviewed
the FY 2008 provisional accounts, the investment strategy
and the FY 2009 budget. The role and membership of the
Committee were reviewed and an updated version of its
terms of reference presented to the Board. It was agreed
that these should be subject to regular review.
Notes on FY 2008 accounts
Accounts for FY 2008, consolidated in EUR, have been
prepared by the Accounting Firm SEGEC. The firm Deloitte
audited and certified these accounts.
HFSPO’s legal accounts are reported on an accrual basis.
They follow the French GAAP applicable to not-for-profit
organisation).
Legal accounts are consolidated and stated in EUR. The
currency of consolidation used for HFSPO’s internal
reporting, including this annual report, is the USD.
4.6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
HFSPO is grateful for the support of the following
organisations:
Australia
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Canada
Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
(NSERC)
European Union
European Commission – Directorate General Research (DG
RESEARCH)
European Commission – Directorate General Information
Society (DG INFSO)
France
Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (MAE)
Ministère de la Recherche (MER)
Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg (CUS)
Région Alsace
Germany
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
India
Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science
and Technology
Italy
Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche (CNR)
Japan
Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT)
Republic of Korea
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)
New Zealand
Health Research Council (HRC)
Norway
The Research Council of Norway (RCN)
Switzerland
State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER)
UK
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
(BBSRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
USA
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
60
61
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Appendices
A.1 History of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
..
66
....................................................................
72
A.2 Joint Communiqué of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Human Frontier Science Program, 15 June 2008
A.3 Summary of decisions of the Board of Trustees in FY 2008
A.4 Research Grants awarded in 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
..............................................................
76
......................................................................................
79
........................................................................................
80
.....................................................................................................................
81
A.5 Long-Term and Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships awarded in 2008
A.6 Career Development Awards made in 2008
A.7 Short-Term Fellowships awarded in 2008
A.8 Public Relations
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Leadership and management
A.1
HISTORY
OF THE PROGRAM
Beginnings
1986. A feasibility study was carried out by leading Japanese
scientists under the auspices of the Japanese Prime
Minister's Council for Science of Technology, to explore
possible means to encourage international collaboration in
basic research.
1987. Discussion was expanded to include scientists from
the G7 summit nations and the European Union, resulting in
the "London Wise Men's Conference" in April 1987, which
endorsed the suggestion.
Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan proposed the Human
Frontier Science Program at the Venice Economic Summit in
June. The Economic Summit partners and the Chairman of the
European Community welcomed the initiative and activities
aimed at implementing it as soon as possible were started.
1988. Further international talks were held from November
1987 to March 1988 in the form of an International HFSP
Feasibility Study Committee, which culminated in April
1988 in the "Bonn Wise Men's conference". This established
an outline of the program activities and defined the general
scientific areas and types of activity to be supported.
Prime Minister Takeshita of Japan reported the conclusions
of the international feasibility study at the Toronto
Economic Summit in June. The assembled Heads of State
welcomed the proposal for implementation in the near
future.
1989. An International Scientists Committee, which had
started work in 1987, gave further shape to the Program,
defining its organization and the details of its program activities,
research areas and selection procedures. Intergovernmental
conferences were held in June and July 1989 in Tokyo and
Berlin, respectively, which led to endorsement of the plan by
the participating governments. It was agreed to implement
the HFSP for an initial experimental phase of 3 years.
64
The Secretariat of the Program, the International Human
Frontier Science Program Organization, was founded in
October 1989 in Strasbourg, France. The first President of
the Program was Ambassador Miyazaki (Japan), the first
Chairman 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 first
awards were made in March.
Further development of the Program
Intergovernmental Conferences bring together representatives
of the Management Supporting Parties, i.e. those countries
that support the Program directly, plus the European Union,
representing the remaining EU countries, to discuss overall
policy and strategy. Since 2004, they also establish an indicative financial framework for the following three years.
st
1 Intergovernmental Conference, Tokyo, January 1992:
This conference recognised the achievements made in the
initial phase of the Program and the desirability of continuing
the HFSP. It was decided to carry out a general review of the
program from both scientific and organisational standpoints.
2nd Intergovernmental Conference, Washington, DC, May
1997: It was decided to continue the HFSP for another five
years. The MSPs reaffirmed the goals of the Tokyo Joint
Communiqué aimed at increased and equitable funding for
the Program. A further review of the Program was requested
for March 2001.
rd
3 Intergovernmental Conference, Berlin, June 2002: The
MSPs agreed to the continuation of HFSP for a further five
years on the basis of its scientific value and the implementation of a number of initiatives introduced by the Secretary
General. A working group was set up to consider the future
finances, status and scope of the Program.
4th Intergovernmental Conference, Berne, June 2004: The
delegates agreed upon a general indicative financial framework for 2005-2007 in order to reach a total budget of 60
million USD and a 50:50 distribution of contributions from
Japan and the other countries. An annual increase was
recommended to maintain the awarding capacity of the
Program.
Membership of HFSPO
HFSPO was established at the initiative of the Japanese
government, led by Prime Minister Nakasone. The founding
MSPs were Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, UK and USA. Switzerland took up membership in 1991.
At the 3rd Intergovernmental Conference, Berlin, 2002, MSPs
agreed to take active steps to expand the membership of
HFSPO to enhance the intercontinental balance of the
Program and promote international collaboration. The
Guidelines for membership were subsequently revised and
the Board accepted the following new members:
2004 Australia and Republic of Korea
2006 New Zealand and India
2008 Norway
Reviews of HFSP
A number of reviews have been carried out at the request of
the MSPs.
1996 General review: a questionnaire based review, with
comments 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’s
Initiatives 2000-2005: a questionnaire based review to
evaluate the success of the initiatives introduced under the
leadership of Secretary General, Torsten Wiesel.
2007 Report of the expert review panel on HFSP: an additional
review by a panel of eminent scientists, who were invited to
comment on the 2006 report and to identify issues for
further evaluation.
The MSPs nominate representatives to the Board of Trustees
to take responsibility for the management of the Program in
collaboration with the Council of Scientists. A President and
two Vice-Presidents are elected by the members from among
the Trustees for a three-year term. The Board of Trustees
appoints a Secretary General for a term of three years to
execute the Program in accordance with the decisions of the
Board of Trustees and the Council of Scientists.
President of the Board of Trustees
Hiromichi Miyazaki (Japan)
November 1989-March 1995
Kozo Iizuka (Japan)
April 1995-March 2000
Masao Ito (Japan)
April 2000 to March 2009
Akito Arima (Japan)
From April 2009
Chair of the Council of Scientists
Edward 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)
Arturo Falaschi (Italy)
Pierre Magistretti (Switzerland)
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)
Secretary General
James Gowans (UK)
November 1989-March 1993
Michel Cuénod (Switzerland)
April 1993-March 2000
Torsten Wiesel (USA)
April 2000 to present
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker (Germany)
From July 2009
5th Intergovernmental Conference, Ottawa, June 2007:
The representatives agreed on an indicative three year
budgetary plan 2008-2010 and endorsed the Board
recommendation of March 2007 that an annual minimum
contribution be required of any new MSP.
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Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships are intended for postdoctoral
fellows with a Ph.D. degree in the physical sciences, chemistry,
mathematics, engineering and computer sciences who wish
to receive training in biology.
A.2
JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ
OF THE
INTERGOVERNMENTAL
CONFERENCE
ON THE HUMAN
FRONTIER SCIENCE
PROGRAM,
15 JUNE 2007
Introduction
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) supports
novel, innovative, and interdisciplinary basic research
focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms. It
emphasizes support for novel collaborations that bring
together biologists with scientists from fields such as
physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and
engineering to focus on problems at the frontier of the life
sciences.
Research Grants are awarded to teams of scientists working
in different countries and in different disciplines who have
not previously collaborated. Two types of grant are available:
Young Investigator Grants and Program Grants.
Postdoctoral Fellowships are available for scientists who
wish to work in foreign laboratories, with emphasis on
individuals early in their careers who wish to obtain training
in a different field of research. Fellows who return to their
home countries are eligible to apply for a Career Development
Award.
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 United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United
States of America and of the European Union met at an
Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on 15 June 2007 in
Ottawa to review the progress made and discuss the future
of the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP)6.
b) Representatives noted with approval the recent positive
evaluation of the program by a leading research and analysis
institute, and by a distinguished expert panel. They endorsed
the opinion of the expert panel that “the HFSP is a great
success, and it enjoys great prestige in the international
scientific community… HFSP occupies an important, unique
niche in the world of science through its mode of supporting
the best innovative, international, interdisciplinary research”.
They were pleased to learn that the panel was very favourably
impressed by the changes made since 2000 by the Secretary
General of HFSP, Torsten Wiesel. The representatives also
noted the strong recommendation addressed to the MSPs
by the panel seriously to consider increasing their financial
commitment to HFSP in future years.
c) Representatives appreciated the continued efforts made
to enhance the value and visibility of HFSP by the introduction of new initiatives, and hold the achievements of
HFSP in high regard. Conscious of the important role of the
Program in promoting interdisciplinary and international
cooperation in basic life sciences among excellent researchers,
and in providing training for the most talented young
researchers, the representatives enthusiastically agreed to
the continuation of HFSP on the basis of the following
understanding:
Paragraph 2
Three-year indicative budgetary plan and target levels for
FY2008-2010
a) The MSPs participating in the IGC for the first time were
commended for their financial discipline, as was the success
of most MSPs present at the Berne IGC in implementing the
three-year indicative budgetary plan, helping HFSP to
achieve its mission and progress toward the objective of an
equal match between the contributions of Japan and of the
other MSPs.
b) Taking into account past achievements and the need to
maintain the number, value, and prestige of HFSP grants and
awards, representatives recommend as a desirable objective
an annual increase, overall 4%, in the HFSP budget in order
to maintain the levels of program activity as set out in Table 1.
c) A priority for the funding period 2008-2010 is to achieve
an equal match between the contributions of Japan and the
other IGC members. Therefore, Japan is to be exempt from
this annual increase until the match is achieved. At the same
time, this plan was formulated with the strong expectation
that Japan would maintain its current high level of support
and that the other IGC members would make every effort
to achieve the target levels.
d) Recognizing that the contributions of MSPs were originally
based on Gross Domestic Products (GDP), and that the
value of relative GDPs has changed among the MSPs over
the past 10 years, the overall 4% increase in each MSP’s
contribution, as shown in Table 2, will be adjusted by an
amount proportional to the change in relative GDP. Representatives recommended to the Board that this adjustment
be applied for subsequent three-year budget planning periods
in order that member contributions will more closely reflect
relative GDPs.
e) The representatives endorsed the Board recommendation
of March 2007 that an annual minimum contribution would
be required of any new MSP.
Paragraph 4
Evaluation of HFSP
a) Representatives request that the evaluation of the
scientific programs to be considered at the next IGC should
be focused on the outcomes and impacts of the initiatives
introduced since 2000. As far as possible, these should be
compared against comparable international programs.
b) The Board and Council of Scientists were asked to
continue to monitor the outcomes of HFSP competitions, to
ensure that the selection process is fair and unbiased to all
applicants.
Paragraph 5
Initiatives and Future Developments
a) Representatives welcomed the steps taken since 2000 to
enhance support for young scientists and increase the
interdisciplinary profile of the scientific programs. The Board
was requested to continue to review and refine the programs
where necessary to support scientists working at the frontier
of the life sciences, in particular, those early in their careers,
and to encourage women to apply to the program.
b) The next IGC will be held one year after the 20th anniversary of HFSP. Representatives expect that HFSP will use
this anniversary as an opportunity for reassessing the vision
and strategic directions of HFSP.
f) Taking paragraphs (b)-(d) into account, representatives
agreed to adopt a new three-year indicative budgetary plan
(FY2008-2010) as the framework for establishing the annual
budget of HFSPO (Table 1), thereby providing target levels
for contributions by IGC members, as shown in Table 2.
Paragraph 6
Next Meeting
Paragraph 3
New membership
b) MSPs are requested to give their representatives on the
next IGCWorking Group a strong mandate to discuss proposals
from the Board of Trustees on strategy, finance and operations,
in order to permit a debate on the future structure and
function of HFSP prior to the next IGC.
a) Representatives welcomed the membership of Australia,
India, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand as approved
by the Board at its meetings in 2004-2006.
a) It was decided that the next meeting of HFSP IGC will be
held in 2010, unless unforeseen circumstances make it
necessary to hold a meeting before that date.
b) The representatives agreed that MSPs should continue to
encourage potential candidates to apply for membership of
HFSP, subject to the quality and capacity of fundamental
biological research conducted by the candidate nation, and
by its willingness and ability to support the HFSP financially.
c) It was noted that the contributions of any new members
are to be added to the total amount contributed by the
other MSPs.
6 Representatives from Italy, also an MSP,
were unable to attend: its endorsement
of the Joint Communiqué will be sought
separately.
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Table 1: Three-year indicative budgetary plan
Table 1B:
Table 1A:
4% annual increase on the basis of actual FY 2007
contributions
4% annual increase on the basis of FY 2007 guideline or MoU
MSP contributions (million USD)
MSP contributions (million USD)
MSP
MSP
Reference
Ottawa - Budgetary guideline
Berne IGC
guideline or MOU
Japan
Berne MSPs*
New MSPs
TOTAL
30.00
30.66
1.97
62.63
* EU includes the 10 new MSPs which joined in FY 2006
Japan in % of Berne MSPs
49.5%
Japan in % of total
47.9%
Reference
Ottawa - Budgetary guideline
Actual FY 2007
contribution
2008
2009
2010
Total 3 years
31.25
28.04
2.07
61.36
31.25
31.22
2.18
64.65
31.25
34.43
2.28
67.96
93.75
93.69
6.53
193.97
52.7%
50.9%
50.0%
48.3%
47.6%
46.0%
Japan
Berne MSPs*
New MSPs
TOTAL
31.25
24.83
1.97
58.05
* EU includes the 10 new MSPs which joined in FY 2006
Japan in % of Berne MSPs
55.7%
Japan in % of total
53.8%
2008
2009
2010
Total 3 years
31.25
25.86
2.07
59.18
31.25
26.87
2.18
60.29
31.25
27.93
2.28
61.46
93.74
80.66
6.53
180.93
54.7%
52.8%
53.8%
51.8%
52.8%
50.8%
Assumption on expenditures (thousand USD)
Assumption on expenditures (thousand USD)
2008-2010
2008-2010
Secretariat
Program Grants
Awardees meeting
(% of total expenditure)
(total cost per award)
(per annum)
(per annum)
6.5-7%
1.150
950
300
170
200
300
Secretariat
Program Grants
Awardees meeting
(% of total expenditure)
(per annum)
(per annum)
6.5-7%
1.150
950
300
170
200
300
Awarding capacity (Number of new awards possible per year)
Awarding capacity (Number of new awards possible per year)
Programs
Program Grants
2007 (f.i)
Programs
2008
25
10
24
100
2009
2010
24
25
25
10
11
12
23
23
24
99
99
107
Distribution subject to modification
Contributions are calculated on the basis of the Berne IGC
target FY 2007 contribution level, or resulting from the MoU
implementation for MSPs joining subsequently.
The living allowance for Long Term Fellowship is increased
by 5% in FY 2008 as adjustment to inflation since FY 2005.
The amount paid for Research Grants and CDA is kept
constant.
68
2007 (f.i)
2008
2009
2010
Total 3 years
Total 3 years
74
33
70
305
Program Grants
25
10
24
100
23
23
24
10
10
10
20
20
21
94
98
98
Distribution subject to modification
Contributions are calculated on the basis of the actual MSP
contributions according to the budget approved by the
Board of Trustees in March 2007
The living allowance for Long-Term Fellowship is increased
by 5% in FY 2008 as adjustment to inflation since FY 2005.
The amount paid for Research Grants and CDA is kept
constant.
69
70
30
61
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Table 2 : Ottawa IGC budgetary guideline
Target levels of contributions by MSPs for the three-year
period FY 2008 - FY2010
Table 2A:
4% annual increase on the basis of FY 2007 guideline
or MoU
MSP
Reference
Annual Contributions (thousand USD)
Berne IGC guideline or MoU
Australia
Canada
EU
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Republic of Korea
Switzerland
UK
USA
TOTAL
505
1 043
4 572
2 674
4 174
780
2 022
30 000
99
591
587
1 956
13 630
62 623
2008
2009
2010
534
1 090
4 770
2 768
4 299
812
1 339
31 248
103
624
603
2 053
11 117
61 360
566
1 139
4 976
2 865
4 428
844
1 803
31 248
108
658
620
2 155
13 234
64 645
598
1 190
5 191
2 966
4 561
879
2 267
31 248
113
694
638
2 263
15 352
67 959
Contributions are calculated on the basis of the Berne IGC
target FY 2007 contribution level, or resulting from the MoU
implementation for MSPs joining subsequently.
Table 2B:
4% annual increase on the basis of actual FY 2007
contributions
MSP
Reference
Annual Contributions (thousand USD)
Actual FY 2007 contribution
Australia
Canada
EU
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Republic of Korea
Switzerland
UK
USA
TOTAL
505
1 043
4 572
2 626
4 174
780
875
31 248
99
591
587
1 956
9 000
58 056
2008
2009
2010
534
1 090
4 770
2 768
4 299
812
909
31 248
103
624
603
2 053
9 364
59 177
566
1 139
4 976
2 865
4 428
844
944
31 248
108
658
620
2 155
9 743
60 295
598
1 190
5 191
2 966
4 561
879
981
31 248
113
694
638
2 263
10 137
61 459
Contributions are calculated on the basis of the actual
MSP contributions according to the budget approved by
the Board of Trustees in March 2007.
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News Release
Professor Akito Arima appointed
President of the Human Frontier Science
Program Organization (HFSPO)
A.3
SUMMARY
OF DECISIONS
OF THE BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
IN FY 2008
31 March 2009
42th Board meeting (March 2009)
The Board unanimously approved the appointment of Prof.
Akito Arima as President of HFSPO, from 1 April 2009 (see
Press release).
On the recommendation of the Council of Scientists, the
Board agreed to make the following awards: 9 Young
Investigator Grants and 26 Program grants, 100 fellowships,
including 93 Long-Term Fellowships (with 30 on the waiting
list) and 7 Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (with 4 on the waiting list), 22 Career Development Awards, or 27 if funds permit.
The program activity plan and budget for FY 2009 were
approved.
The auditors’ report for FY 2007 was approved.
The Board approved the nomination of three auditors for a
term of one year.
The International Human Frontier Science Program
Organization (HFSPO) is pleased to announce the election
of Professor Akito Arima as President and Chair of the Board
of Trustees. Professor Arima will take office on April 1st 2009
and succeeds eminent neuroscientist, Professor Masao Ito,
who has presided over the major changes to the HFSP
programs introduced in collaboration with the Secretary
General, Professor Torsten Wiesel, since 2000.
Professor Arima is a prominent theoretical physicist, who
has received many awards and prizes for his research into
nuclear structure and he continues to be actively engaged in
research in nuclear physics. In addition, with a strong
commitment to policy in education and research he has
served the scientific community in a number of policy and
administrative roles. He was President of Tokyo University
from 1989-1993 and President of The Institute of Physical
and Chemical Research (RIKEN) from 1993-1998. From
1998 to 1999 he was Minister of Education, Science, Sports
and Culture and Minister of State for Science and
Technology. Among his other current activities he plays an
important role in supporting the public understanding of
science as Chairman of the Japan Science Foundation. As
Co-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the international
graduate university, the Okinawa Institute of Science and
Technology (OIST-PC) that is now under construction, he
continues to advance science worldwide.
Professor Masao Ito comments “I am delighted that Professor
Arima has agreed to take on the Presidency of the HFSPO.
During his distinguished career he has dedicated himself to
promoting research at the highest level as well as being
concerned with science education and the public understanding of science. He brings a sound appreciation of the
need for interdisciplinary approaches to scientific research,
which is a hallmark of the HFSP.”
Professor Torsten Wiesel adds “I have come to know Professor
Arima while serving with him as Co-Chair of the Board of
the OIST-PC and have learned to appreciate his formidable
qualities of leadership. Not only is he a man of great
professional stature but also of broad culture, as is clearly
shown by his acclaimed haiku poetry. It is a great pleasure
to know that he will be steering the HFSPO in the coming
years.”
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A.4
RESEARCH
GRANTS
AWARDED
IN 2008 *
Information processing in developing cells
GOLDING Ido, (Israel), USA
SAWAI Satoshi, Japan
SEGEV Ronen, Israel
Epigenetic program of human cytomegalovirus
pathogenesis
GOODRUM Felicia, USA
NEVELS Michael, Germany
SEGAL Eran, Israel
Integrating single molecule imaging techniques
to unravel Mast-Dendritic cell interplay
LIDKE Diane, USA
CAMBI Alessandra, (Italy), Netherlands
Biophysics of bacterial gliding motility
MIGNOT Tâm, France
SHAEVITZ Joshua, USA
Olfactory receptor neurons – linking membrane
organization to neuronal functionality
REISERT Johannes, (Germany), USA
GAUS Katharina, (Germany), Australia
Neuronal correlates of hemodynamic signals
SHMUEL Amir, (Israel), Canada
SEGHOUANE Abd-Krim, (Algeria), Australia
1. Young Investigators
The gut microbiota as a novel target to treat
metabolic diseases
BÄCKHED Fredrik, Sweden
ORESIC Matej, (Slovenia), Finland
Gene-regulatory functions and evolutionary logic
of co-opted LINE3 repeats in mammals
SPITZ Francois, (France), Germany
BEJERANO Gill, (Israel), USA
Tri-Probes: Ligand-directed tethered fluorophores
for monitoring receptor dynamics in living cells.
CHAMBERS James, USA
HAFEZ Ismail, Canada
Probing the mechanism of the cleavage reaction
in catalytic RNAs
TANAKA Yoshiyuki, Japan
KATO Masato, (Japan), USA
MATSUDA Yoshiyuki, Japan
SYCHROVSKY Vladimir, Czech Republic
Interplay between mechanical and biological
mechanisms during cell cortex assembly
CHARRAS Guillaume, (Canada), UK
PALUCH Ewa, (Poland), Germany
ROMET-LEMONNE Guillaume, France
ROUX Philippe, Canada
Quantitative modeling of expression pattern evolution
in insect development
TOMANCAK Pavel, (Czech Republic), Germany
BERGMAN Casey, (USA), UK
OHLER Uwe, (Germany), USA
Identifying and characterizing bacterial cytoskeletal
elements and small molecules that target them
GITAI Zemer, USA
GARSTECKI Piotr, Poland
THANBICHLER Martin, Germany
WEIBEL Douglas B., USA
Reconstructing bacterial ribosomal assembly in vitro:
Unusual factors and their mechanisms
WILSON Daniel, (UK), Germany
BLANCHARD Scott, USA
SERGIEV Petr, Russia
2. Program Grants
Spatial organization of cadherin junctions by dynamic
microtubules: an integrated model
AKHMANOVA Anna, Netherlands
BROWN Nicholas, (USA), UK
MALY Ivan, (Russia), USA
YAP Alpha, Australia
Structure and mechanism of cytoplasmic dynein
BURGESS Stan, UK
HIGUCHI Hideo, Japan
KON Takahide, Japan
VILFAN Andrej, Slovenia
Learning from the unlearnable: probing the architecture
of control in tool manipulation
D'AVELLA Andrea, Italy
PAI Dinesh, Canada
Evolutionary implications of virus-encoded gene-silencing suppression
ELENA FITO Santiago F., Spain
CHUA Nam-Hai, (Singapore), USA
SOLÉ Ricard, Spain
Infrared light for neural stimulation
FRENS Maarten, Netherlands
JANSEN E. Duco, (Netherlands), USA
Modeling cell fate during Drosophila heart development
FURLONG Eileen, (Ireland), Germany
HARTENSTEIN Volker, (Germany), USA
MOCHIZUKI Atsushi, Japan
Comparative analysis of RF- transmitted neural activity
underlying visual flight control in insects
GABBIANI Fabrizio, USA
DRAKAKIS Emmanuel, (Greece), UK
EGELHAAF Martin, Germany
KRAPP Holger G., (Germany), UK
Polyglutamylation of microtubules as an epigenetic
regulator of motor traffic
JANKE Carsten, (Germany), France
GIANNIS Athanassios, (Greece), Germany
SURREY Thomas, Germany
VERHEY Kristen, USA
Structure and dynamics of neuronal granules that regulate RNA localization
KIEBLER Michael, (Germany), Austria
LEVITT Michael, USA
LUKAVSKY Peter, (Austria), UK
ULE Jernej, (Slovenia), UK
From molecular mechanics to the dynamics of cell
shape change and tissue morphogenesis.
LECUIT Thomas, France
LENNE Pierre-François, France
MUNRO Edwin, USA
Self-organized wiring of the cerebral cortex through
thalamocortical growth cones: an integrated approach
LOPEZ-BENDITO Guillermina, Spain
GOODHILL Geoffrey, (UK), Australia
PAULSEN Ole, (Norway), UK
SHIMOGORI Tomomi, Japan
Advancing the frontier of enzyme reaction mechanisms
in the ADP-ribosyltransferase family
MERRILL A. Rod, Canada
LIM Carmay, (Malaysia), Chinese Taipei
OPPENHEIMER Norman, USA
PAI Emil F., (Germany), Canada
Gastrulation in the chick embryo: a quantitative study
using live imaging and computer modeling
NEWMAN Timothy, (UK), USA
WEIJER Cornelius, (Netherlands), UK
Motions in macromolecular function: new approaches to
visualize and simulate protein flexibility
NOGALES Eva, (Spain), USA
CHACÓN Pablo, Spain
LLORCA Oscar, Spain
PESONEN Janne, Finland
Molecular basis of photochemical magnetic sensing
RITZ Thorsten, (Germany), USA
AHMAD Margaret, (Canada), France
Integrating the antigenic, genetic, and epidemiological
analyses of antigenically variable pathogens
SMITH Derek, UK
BARR Ian George, Australia
COX Nancy J., USA
FOUCHIER Ron, Netherlands
TASHIRO Masato, Japan
Translation by single ribosomes one codon at a time
TINOCO Ignacio, USA
NOLLER Harry F., USA
RITORT Felix, Spain
YOSHIMURA Shige, Japan
Designing molecular hydrogels to control and direct cell
behaviour
ULIJN Rein, (Netherlands), UK
MERRY Catherine, UK
XU Bing, People's Republic of China
*These grants were initiated during
FY 2008. For a list of the grants awarded
in 2009, see the HFSP website.
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A.5
LONG-TERM
AND
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
FELLOWSHIPS
AWARDED
IN 2008 7
1. Long-Term Fellowships
Name
Nationality
Host institute
Host country
AMIT Ido
ANGGONO Victor
AUWETER Sigrid
BAJAJ Kanika
BAJARD Lola
BELTRAO Pedro
BRODERICK Nichole
CINNAMON Yuval
COUDREUSE Damien
DARRASSE-JEZE Guillaume
DELERIS Angélique
DOWNEY Michael
ISRAEL
AUSTRALIA
GERMANY/USA
INDIA
FRANCE
PORTUGAL
USA
ISRAEL
FRANCE
FRANCE
FRANCE
CANADA
Broad Institute, Boston
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
University of California, Berkeley
MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
University of California, San Francisco
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
The Rockefeller University, New York
University of California, Los Angeles
7 These fellowships were initiated
during FY 2008. For a list of fellows
awarded in 2009, see the HFSP website
(http://www.hfsp.org/).
76
USA
USA
CANADA
USA
GERMANY
USA
SWITZERLAND
UK
USA
USA
USA
USA
Name
Nationality
ENDO Motomu
FALKENBURGER Bjoern
FLEIRE Sebastian
GEERTSMA Eric
GOGOLLA Nadine
GRANSETH Erik
GUETTLER Sebastian
HAESLER Sebastian
HENDRICKSON Heather
HIRSCH Anna
HOTHORN Michael
HUGHES Joseph
IMASAKI Tsuyoshi
INDA Maria Del Carmen
IVANOVSKA Irena
JIANG Fang
KAMETANI Yoshiko
KING Carolyn
KIRSTEIN Janine
KNUTSEN Per Magne
KO Jaewon
KOBILER Oren
KOHLMAIER Alexander
KOSTER Daniel
KVITSIANI Duda
LEAO Richardson
LEE Jun Hee
LEMPE Janne
LEVY Emmanuel
LIONNET Timothée
LISTERMAN Imke
MATTILA Pieta
MEDYOUF Hind
MESSER Philipp
MICHELOT Alphée Tristan
MIKELADZE-DVALI Tamara
JAPAN
University of California, San Diego
GERMANY
University of Washington, Seattle
ARGENTINA
New York University
THE NETHERLANDS University of Zurich
GERMANY
Harvard University, Cambridge
NORWAY
Technical University of Munich
GERMANY
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto
GERMANY
USA
Oxford University
GERMANY/LUXEMBOURG Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg
GERMANY
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla
AUSTRALIA
Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau
JAPAN
Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis
SPAIN
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
BULGARIA
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
USA
Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve
JAPAN
USA
University Hospital, Basel
GERMANY
Northwestern University, Evanston
NORWAY
REPUBLIC OF KOREA University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
ISRAEL
Princeton University
AUSTRIA
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Seattle
THE NETHERLANDS Weizmann Institute for Science, Rehovot
GEORGIA
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories
BRAZIL
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
REPUBLIC OF KOREA University of California, San Diego
GERMANY
University of Washington, Seattle
FRANCE
University of Montreal
FRANCE
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx
GERMANY
FINLAND
UK Cancer Research, London
FRANCE/MOROCCO University of British Columbia, Vancouver
GERMANY
Stanford University
FRANCE
University of California, Berkeley
GERMANY
The Swiss Institute for Experimental
Cancer Research, Lausanne
JAPAN
Stanford University
JAPAN
Yale University, New Haven
ROMANIA
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
SWITZERLAND
Harvard Medical School, Boston
GERMANY
JAPAN
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
THAILAND
Center for Integrative Genomics, Lausanne
SPAIN
Children's Hospital, Boston
JAPAN
FRANCE
Columbia University Medical Center, New York
POLAND
Stanford University
SLOVAKIA
Harvard Medical School, Charlestown
GREECE
USA
GERMANY
Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute
MIZUMOTO Kota
MIZUNO-YAMASAKI Emi
MOLDOVAN George-Lucian
MOSIMANN Christian
MÜLLER Patrick
NAKANISHI Kotaro
NAWATHEAN Pipat
NOMBELA ARRIETA Cesar
OSHIMORI Naoki
OURY Franck
PACIOREK Marta
PANAKOVA Daniela
POLYMENIDOU Magdalini
PREHNA Gerd
REHWINKEL Jan
Host institute
Host country
77
USA
USA
USA
SWITZERLAND
USA
GERMANY
CANADA
USA
UK
FRANCE
USA
FRANCE
USA
USA
USA
BELGIUM
USA
SWITZERLAND
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
ISRAEL
USA
SWEDEN
USA
USA
CANADA
USA
USA
UK
CANADA
USA
USA
SWITZERLAND
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
SWITZERLAND
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
CANADA
UK
16/07/09
14:44
Page 78
Name
Nationality
RIEDEL Christian
RIMESSI Alessandro
RIOL BLANCO Lorena
ROCKS Oliver
ROSA Alessandro
ROUGEMAILLE Mathieu
SANTOS Silvia
SAPETSCHNIG Alexandra
SAUER Michael
SILVA-VARGAS Violeta
GERMANY
ITALY
SPAIN
GERMANY
ITALY
FRANCE
PORTUGAL
GERMANY
GERMANY
SPAIN
SINGH Karun
SLUSKY Joanna
SPIEGEL Asaf
SPIEGEL Ivo
STAERK Judith
SUZUKI Kazuhiro
THOMAS Christoph
TSUBOUCHI Tomomi
TZUR Yonatan
VAN ZON Jeroen
VERSINI Gwennaëlle
VOGEL Markus
YAJIMA Mamiko
YAKSI Emre
YIZHAR Ofer
YOSHIDA Hideyuki
Host institute
Harvard University, Boston
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto
University of Stanford
University of Cambridge
Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia CSIC, Madrid
Departments of Pathology, Neurology
and Center for Neurobiology, New York
CANADA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
USA
University of Stockholm
ISRAEL
ISRAEL/SWITZERLAND Harvard Medical School, Boston
GERMANY
JAPAN
GERMANY
Stanford University
JAPAN
Imperial College School of Medicine, London
ISRAEL
University of Massachusetts, Worcester
THE NETHERLANDS Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
FRANCE
University of Geneva Sciences III
GERMANY
Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel
JAPAN
Brown University, Providence
TURKEY
ISRAEL
Stanford University, Palo Alto
JAPAN
Host country
USA
USA
USA
CANADA
USA
USA
USA
UK
SPAIN
USA
USA
SWEDEN
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
UK
USA
USA
SWITZERLAND
SWITZERLAND
USA
USA
USA
USA
2. Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships
Name
Nationality
Host institute
Host country
BOIS Justin
BRUGUES FERRE Jan
CRYLE Max
DERR Julien
ENGLISH Brian
KOCABAS Askin
MONTEALEGRE-Z Fernando
MORA Thierry
SUZUKI Mototaka
TROEIN Carl
ZANIC Marija
USA
SPAIN
AUSTRALIA/UK
FRANCE
GERMANY/USA
TURKEY
CANADA/COLOMBIA
FRANCE
JAPAN
SWEDEN
CROATIA/USA
Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden GERMANY
Harvard University, Boston
USA
Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg
GERMANY
USA
Uppsala University
SWEDEN
USA
University of Bristol
UK
Princeton University
USA
Columbia University, New York
USA
University of Edinburgh
UK
MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
GERMANY
A.6
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT
AWARDS MADE
IN 2008 8
Name
Nationality
Host institute
Host country
AMEDI Amir
BUTT Simon
DE FELICE Fernanda
FOERSTEMANN Klaus
FRENKEL Dan
GOMPEL Nicolas
GOSHIMA Gohta
KADOW Ilona
LESSARD Julie
MARTIN Sophie
OP DE BEECK Hans
PAPP Balázs
PELLETIER Laurence
ROUX Aurélien
SANTORO Massimo
SCHULDINER Maya
TAKEUCHI Jun
TANENTZAPF Guy
TOMARI Yukihide
YERUSHALMI Roie
ISRAEL
UK
BRAZIL
GERMANY
ISRAEL
FRANCE
JAPAN
GERMANY
CANADA
SWITZERLAND
BELGIUM
HUNGARY
CANADA
FRANCE
ITALY
ISRAEL
JAPAN
CANADA
JAPAN
ISRAEL
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Imperial College London
Federal University, Rio de Janeiro
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
Tel Aviv University
CNRS / IBDML, Marseille
Nagoya University
Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried
University of Montreal
University of Lausanne
Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven
Biological Research Center, Szeged
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto
CNRS / Institut Curie, Paris
Molecular Biology Center, Torino
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama
The University of Tokyo
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
8 These awards were initiated during
FY 2008. For a list of the CDA awarded
in 2009, see the HFSP website.
78
79
ISRAEL
UK
BRAZIL
GERMANY
ISRAEL
FRANCE
JAPAN
GERMANY
CANADA
SWITZERLAND
BELGIUM
HUNGARY
CANADA
FRANCE
ITALY
ISRAEL
JAPAN
CANADA
JAPAN
ISRAEL
16/07/09
14:44
Page 80
A.7
A.8
SHORT-TERM
FELLOWSHIPS
AWARDED IN 2008
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
Name
Nationality
Host institute
BHATTACHARYYA Suvendra
BORGES Ligia
BUSQUETS Núria
CIULLI Alessio
COLE David
FRIGON Alain
HARDY Simon
KOPCO Norbert
KRAVCHENKO Alexandra
KUSHNER Steven
LUNDSTROM Brian
MacINNES Alyson
MEGURO-HORIKE Makiko
MICHALAK Johannes
MITTAL Jeetain
NGO Quy
OCHALA Julien
PEARSON Joel
RYAN Robert Patrick
SHIAU Celia
SILBERMAN Dafne
ULMSCHNEIDER Martin
VERGOZ Vanina
WATSON Deborah
INDIA
BRAZIL
SPAIN
ITALY
UK
CANADA
CANADA
SLOVAKIA
USA
USA
USA
USA
JAPAN
GERMANY
INDIA
USA/VIETNAM
FRANCE
AUSTRALIA
IRELAND
USA
ARGENTINA
GERMANY
FRANCE
USA
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel
INRA, Versailles
University College, Dublin
Yale University, New Haven
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester
Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados, Mexico City
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore
The University of Sydney
University of Abertay, Dundee
University of Toronto
Universidad Miguel Hernández – CSIC, Alicante
Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona
University of California, Davis
Queen's University, Kingston
University of Cambridge
Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma
JASRI, Sayo
University of Utrecht
University of Oxford
University of Dundee
University of Utrecht
Macquarie University, Sydney
University of Auckland
80
Website
The HFSP web site (http://www.hfsp.org) continues to give
information on ongoing scientific activities of HFSP. The Hot
off the Press rubric on the home page features recent papers
of special interest published by HFSP awardees. Further
sections related to the awardees and their work are planned.
The Japan Science Foundation presents information on
HFSP in Japanese on its own site (http://jhfsp.jsf.or.jp).
Host country
SWITZERLAND
FRANCE
IRELAND
USA
USA
MEXICO
INDIA
AUSTRALIA
UK
CANADA
SPAIN
SPAIN
USA
CANADA
UK
JAPAN
JAPAN
NETHERLANDS
UK
UK
USA
NETHERLANDS
AUSTRALIA
NEW ZEALAND
According to the internet search engine AltaVista, over 6000
web pages in web sites around the world link to the HFSP
home page. These are mostly sites dedicated to summarizing
funding opportunities (e.g. GrantsNet, BioMedNet), academic
institutions (especially pages summarizing funding opportunities), other funding agencies and awardees’ own web
sites. In particular, efforts are continuing to link with the
web pages of academic societies both within and outside the
biological sciences so as to inform scientists in all disciplines
of the opportunities offered by HFSP. An occasional
electronic newsletter is sent out to over 7400 subscribers to
inform them about HFSP activities and point to new
information on the website.
81
16/07/09
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Page 82
Scientific and science policy meetings
The following scientific and science policy meetings were
attended by members of the Secretariat:
2008
Convegno di presentazione dell’Istituto Nazionale di
Neuroscienze, 27 June, Turin, Italy
Meeting of Nobel Laureates, 29 June – 1 July, Lindau,
Germany
6th FENS Forum of European Neuroscience, 12-16 July,
Geneva, Switzerland
BioVision Alexandria 2008, New Life Sciences: From
Promises to Practice, 12-16 April, Alexandria, Egypt
13th annual meeting of the RNA Society, 31 July, Berlin,
Germany
International Opportunities Expo, 15 May 2008, NIH,
Bethesda, USA
Annual meeting of ELSO, 30 August – 1 September, Nice,
France
Spring Meeting of the European Networks on Research
Careers (ENRC), 20 May, Brussels, Belgium
Integrative Plant Biology meeting, 16-17 September, IBMP
Strasbourg, France
Careers Day at the Ludwig Maximilian University
of Munich, 28 May, Munich, Germany
EMBO Young Investigator Programme PhD course,
21-27 September, Heidelberg, Germany
Careers Day at the Université de Nice, 30 May, Nice,
France
30th anniversary UNESCO, 30 September, Paris, France
TESSY Stakeholder meeting, Towards a European Strategy
for synthetic biology, 10 June 2008, Brussels, Belgium
European Commission and Technopolis, Drivers of
International Collaboration in Research, 13-14 October,
Brussels, Belgium
German Universities Rector’s conference, Penalized for
being mobile, 12-13 June, Berlin, Germany
EMBO Fellows meeting, 7-9 November, Boston, USA
Nobel Symposium, Genes, Brain and Behavior, 12-14 June,
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Career Day at the Max Delbrück Center of the Helmholtz
Society, 24 November, Berlin, Germany
Fourth Conference of Nobel Laureates, The King Abdullah II
Fund for Development and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity, Reaching for New Economic, Scientific and
Educational Horizons, 17-19 June, Petra, Jordan
ESF Science Policy Conference, Global Challenges and the
need for cooperation: lessons learned from global change,
26-27 November, Stockholm, Sweden
International Workshop on Accountability in Science
Funding, Evaluating and Managing Risks, 19-21 June,
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Joint Symposium of the DKFZ-ZMBH, 5 December,
Heidelberg, Germany
2009
Meeting of Indian Young Investigators,
24-28 February, Kerala, India
82
83
16/07/09
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Page 84
The International Human Frontier
Science Program Organization (HFSPO)
12 quai Saint-Jean - BP 10034
67080 Strasbourg Cedex - France
Fax: +33(0)3 88 32 88 97
email: info@hfsp.org
HFSPO
Registre des Associations de Strasbourg
Volume 58 - Folio 99
Achevé d’imprimé en juillet deux mille neuf
sur les presses de l’imprimerie Gyss
Obernai
Photos: HFSPO thanks BIOCOM, Marie Faggiano,
Martin Reddington and Sandro Weltin

Mise en page 1 - Human Frontier Science Program

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