MISSION:  The mission of F-STE is to advance the fields of a) the patient-clinician relationship and b) placebo studies by supporting targeted research that leads to improvements in healthcare delivery.​ HISTORY:  F-STE was founded in 2014 by a philanthropic donor who invited Harvard Medical School Professor Ted Kaptchuk to be its principal scientific advisor.  F-STE seeks to inspire, mentor, facilitate, partner with, and support likeminded scientist and researchers worldwide. We also disseminate our findings through diverse outlets, academic journals and mass media with the aim of influencing protocols for care and health policy. ​ Beginning in early 2014, F-STE launched a series of seed grants at domestic and international research institutions.  These pilot grants and feasibility studies will have immediate medical and scientific impacts and will, it is hoped, go on to generate much larger studies such as those funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Science Foundation (NSF) and their  European or Australian counterparts.​F-STE has already demonstrated that strategically deployed funds can stimulate significant leverage.  In a short amount of time F-STE has engaged researchers with remarkable interdisciplinary breadth and geographic diversity, involving studies taking place locally and internationally.