Frontiers of Science is a series of prestigious international meetings for outstanding early career scientists, organised by the Royal Society in conjunction with national academies and scientific organisations around the world.
To date, meetings have been held with:
Germany (2006, 2008 and 2011) in partnership with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Brazil (2010) in partnership with FAPESP, the State of São Paulo Research Council.
India in partnership with the Indian National Science Academy.
Japan in partnership with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.
Hong Kong (2011) in partnership with the Croucher Foundation.
Frontiers of Science meetings bring together future leaders in science in all disciplines to forge new and innovative links with their counterparts from different countries, and to explore opportunities for international and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Participants are encouraged to present and discuss the most pressing or stimulating research questions at the frontiers of their field, and to identify new and emerging scientific challenges on the horizon of current knowledge. The meetings usually involve around eight sessions, spread over three or four days, and their content is devised by a mixed team of scientists from the participating countries.
The Frontiers of Science programme was originally conceived by American geophysicist Frank Press, who was President of the US National Academies of Science from 1981 to 1993. Since then, 8 of the US Frontiers alumni have won Nobel prizes and the format has been adopted around the world.
Notable alumni from the Royal Society’s Frontiers programme include 2010 Nobel Laureate Dr Konstantin Novoselov, and Professor Angela McLean FRS, Co-director of the Institute for Emerging Infections at Oxford University.