The Organization originally started as a voluntary collaboration by a group of nations responding to a call by former Prime Minister of Japan, Yasuhiro Nakasone, to initiate a program that would focus on basic research support across national boundaries. Participation was a testimony to the belief that the need to understand the world through scientific exploration is a quintessential human activity – hence the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) was born. Now 30 years and 28 Nobel Prizes later, HFSP remains a stalwart for basic research that pushes the boundaries of current knowledge and succeeds like no other funding program in forging international research collaborations of scientists from different disciplines.
In 2019, HFSP will organize several anniversary events that will bring together past and present members of the global community of life science scholars and representatives of the supporting Members:
- The US-Japan Relationship: Celebrating 30 years of the Human Frontier Science Program. A scientific symposium hosted on May 10 by the Ambassador of Japan to the USA in the Ambassador's Residence in Washington DC in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) > read more.
- Three Decades of Frontier Science Advances celebrated with HFSP: an article in the May/June 2019 Global Health Matters issue of the Fogarty International Center at the NIH in Bethesda, MD > read more.
- Investigating in interdisciplinary global research collaborations: Q and A with Warwick Anderson of HFSP. Fogarty International Center, Global Health Matters, May/June 2019 issue. > read more.
- The HFSP 30th anniversary celebration in Japan: 30 years of HFSP science was celebrated at a special symposium at Hitotsubashi Hall in Tokyo on 9 July 2019 > read more.
- Celebrating 30 years of Frontier Science: the final 30th anniversary celebration, hosted by the Consul General of Japan in Strasbourg and the Eurométropole de Strasbourg will take place on 14 November 2019 > read more.