2013 HFSP Research Grant for Christian Fleck

Applicants went through a rigorous year-long selection process in a global competition that started with 715 submitted letters of intent. Each team member receives on average $110,000 - $125,000 per year for 3 years. One of the Program Grants has been awarded to the project of Christian Fleck of the Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology for the project Evolution of light perception networks in plants. He will work together with Andreas Hiltbrunner, Dept. of Molecular Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology II, Freiburg (Germany) and Enamul Huq, Dept. of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Texas at Austin (USA).

HFSP

HFSP collaborative research grants are given for a broad range of projects under the umbrella theme of “Complex mechanisms of living organisms”. Particular emphasis is placed on cutting-edge, risky projects. Two types of research grants are awarded: Young Investigator Grants for teams of scientists who are all within 5 years of obtaining their first independent position and Program Grants, which are open to teams of scientists at any stage of their careers. While there are bilateral or regional agreements for international collaboration, the HFSP grant program is unique because it is the only one that encourages bottom-up applications from teams involving scientists worldwide.

A strong preference is given to intercontinental collaborations. The awardees’ laboratories are located in 21 different countries, including 54 in Europe, 37 in N. America and 9 in Japan as well as laboratories in the non-member countries: Panama, Turkey, and Israel. In this round, the selected scientists are of 26 different nationalities with American, German and Japanese scientists being the most numerous. More information can be found on the website www.hfsp.org.