Schizosaccharomyces pombe is well established as an experimental organism for basic research, with well developed technologies for molecular biology, genetics and cell biology. Its full genome sequence has recently been published. Here, the prerequisites for functional genomics studies in Sch. pombe are examined and compared with those of some established prominent functional genomics model organisms, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is argued that functional genomics studies in certain areas of cellular and molecular biology could potentially be more efficiently performed in Sch. pombe than in most other experimental organisms.