After serving as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Bioeconomics from 2012 to 2018 it is time for me to step back and hand over the task to a successor. It is a pleasure to announce that Professor Terence Burnham from Chapman University in California will take over from 2019 onwards. Professor Chapman introduced himself already as guest editor of the special issue on “Experimental Evolution and Economics” of this journal (Vol. 20, no. 1, 2018) as an excellently connected scholar with a strong interdisciplinary research record linking economics and biology. I am sure that he will do an outstanding job as the new editor-in-chief.

The seven years during which I had the responsibility for the journal were a splendid time in which I tried my best to advance the journal as a top outlet for cutting edge research at the interface of economics and biology. I had the privilege to work with, and get help from, wonderful colleagues and a dedicated Springer production team in India. I am deeply indebted to my biology co-editors Michael Ghiselin and David Sloan Wilson who generously offered advice and support in evaluating submissions. I found a magnificent counterpart in our book review editor Elias Khalil who will now resign as well after seven years of service. I wish to thank him for his great input. I also thank Deby Cassill who served as biology book review editor along with Elias until the end of 2015. The International Advisory Board members of our journal offered their expertise on many occasions and helped placing the journal as a unique exemplar of interdisciplinary research in the academic community. Needless to say, without the support of the countless number of reviewers who took their time and care to evaluate submitted manuscripts the work for this journal would not have been possible. I learned a lot from their comments and benefitted from their advice. Last but not least I should like to express my gratitude to the members of the Springer production team in India who were always extremely helpful and reliable in managing the technicalities of the editorial business.

Due to its interdisciplinary agenda the Journal of Bioeconomics has always been and still is a niche journal. As such it has been able to attract brilliant contributions that often had difficulties in finding the recognition they deserve in the disciplinary main stream journals. Praising interdisciplinary work in abstract terms is one thing. Actually acknowledging its concrete achievements is often a different issue. This discrepancy needs to be overcome because it is at the interface of the academic disciplines that many fruitful new ideas are generated that extend our scientific knowledge and correct possible disciplinary biases.

It is true, though, that the interdisciplinary dialogue always contains a speculative moment leading away from established disciplinary habits of thought—which is not to everybody’s taste. The dialogue between economics and biology is no exception. It requires openness to unusual views and also to unusual language and concepts. Many manuscripts published in our journal are witness of this openness, but have also profited from the openness we have tried to ensure in the processing of manuscripts. This is not least true also for a few special issues of this journal actively encouraging an unusual dialogue between the disciplines. Among them are the special issue “In Memoriam of Elinor Ostrom” (Vol. 16, no. 1, 2014), the special issue on “Evolutionary Biology Arguments in Political Economy” (Vol. 17, no. 1, 2015), the special issue on “Social Biomimicry: Potential and Limitations of Human Organizational Design” (Vol. 17, no. 3, 2015; guest editor Jennifer H. Fewell), and the already mentioned special issue earlier this year on experimental evolution which the incoming editor-in-chief put together as guest editor.

As outgoing editor-in-chief I should not only like to express my gratitude to all people who helped fostering the exciting interdisciplinary mission of this journal. I should also like to wish Terence all the best for his work for the Journal of Bioeconomics.