Frontiers was founded in 2007 by Henry and Kamila Markram, two neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Their vision is to empower researchers in the scientific publishing and communication process and make quality-controlled science freely available for the benefit of humanity.

They launched Frontiers with a very clear goal: harness the power of technology and create an Open Science platform that truly serves researchers’ needs and empowers them in the scientific publishing process.

Henry and Kamila are the main shareholders in Frontiers. Henry is a full-time neuroscientist at the EPFL, director of the Blue Brain Project and founder of the EU’s Human Brain Project. Kamila is a neuroscientist, autism researcher and Frontiers’ Chief Executive Officer, who, together with the Management Team, runs day-to-day Frontiers operations.

Our award-winning Open Science platform addresses the publishing challenges faced by the academic community and provides solutions to effectively review, publish and communicate research findings.

The evolution

2007. Frontiers is launched as a not-for-profit foundation, the Frontiers Research Foundation, relying on philanthropic donations to operate. The foundation continues to exist today, supporting purely philanthropic initiatives, such as Frontiers for Young Minds.

2008. Operations are taken over by Frontiers Media SA, a company created by the founders to enable long-term economic and operational sustainability. The Gold Open Access business model is adopted.

The same year, Frontiers receives an investment from Kaltroco, the private holding company of the Koltes family. They strongly support the vision to make science open and their investment kick-starts the ensuing growth of Frontiers.

2012. Frontiers becomes financially self-sustainable with the Article Processing Charges business model.

2013. The Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (at the time owner of Nature Publishing Group and now majority shareholder of Springer Nature) makes an investment in Frontiers, enabling further growth of the Open Science vision. The two organizations run as independent businesses.

2018. Frontiers publishes its 100,000th article, which have been viewed and downloaded over 500 million times.