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Japan can be a science heavyweight once more if it rethinks funding
The nation must lose its tight focus on individual disciplines if it is to keep pace with the evolving requirements of scientific enquiry.
For example, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Investigator Program provides outstanding scientists with flexible, long-term funding to pursue high-impact biomedical research — some US$11 million over a seven-year term, which can be renewed. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and providing institute directors with generous internal funding, free from the continual need to secure external grants, this strategy has enabled breakthroughs including the development of CRISPR–Cas9 as a gene-editing tool and structural insights into ribosomes. Another example is the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in California, which supports interdisciplinary teams comprising biologists, engineers and data scientists to work on ambitious goals, such as the eradication of infectious diseases.
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