The Third Revolution: Convergence of Life, Physical, and Engineering Sciences

This past decade has seen the evolution of new interdisciplinary research areas with further successes requiring true disciplinary integration. An important new research model – convergence – for the health science research community draws on an ongoing merger of life, physical and engineering sciences. Convergence will be the emerging paradigm for how medical research will be conducted in the future. However convergence faces a series of policy challenges that must be resolved to allow it to emerge at a scale that could be truly transformative.