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Special Targeted Projects
In 1997 the CRDF agreed to undertake several FSU projects as an agent representing other organizations.
The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requested CRDF assistance in developing and managing a joint research effort with Russia's Pacific Fisheries Research Center (TINRO) to conduct a pollock survey in the Bering Sea. Pollock, a major food resource in the North Pacific, migrates seasonally across the transnational boundary. An accurate estimate of the size of the annual pollock population underlies such important economic and policy issues as fishing rights and national quotas.
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For NOAA, the Foundation developed a program to implement the research project; re-outfit a Russian research vessel, the Professor Kaganovskiy; and manage the $927,000 award. CRDF staff secured the approval of the Russian authorities to carry out the proposed research and secured bids for ship repairs, spare parts, and supplies. In late 1997 major repairs to the Professor Kaganovskiy were completed in Pusan, Republic of Korea. An American scientist was able to join the researchers on the Russian vessel and participate in the pollock population study.
The CRDF received a $45,500 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to coordinate a study of opportunities for future support of basic research in the FSU by U.S. private foundations. The resulting study recommended a $60 million, five-year program to strengthen basic research in Russian higher educational institutions and an expansion of the initiative to other FSU countries subject to the availability of funds. It proposed an initiative with two major elements: (1) a $50 million program of five-year awards to selected Russian university-based centers of excellence; and (2) a $10 million program of five-year grants to exceptional young university investigators.
The study has been well received by American foundations and by Russian government officials. The Russian Ministry of General and Professional Education has offered to provide up to $12 million per year in matching funds if the proposed Higher Education Initiative comes to fruition.
At the end of 1997, the MacArthur Foundation awarded the CRDF a one-year planning grant of $250,000 to develop an implementation plan and to seek further financial participation from Western foundations. The Ministry of General and Professional Education is providing matching funds. The effort is likely to include a jointly-funded demonstration project for a science and technology center of excellence at a Russian university that has already received major competitive funding from the CRDF.
At the invitation of the Department of State, and with $500,000 in support from the Agency for International Development (AID), the CRDF has developed a special program of scientific and technical assistance to Armenia. The core of the program is the establishment of a new Armenian non-governmental organization, the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technologies (NFSAT). NFSAT will offer merit-based, competitive support for Armenian investigator-initiated scientific and engineering research projects.
The CRDF is providing management training of key NFSAT officials at U.S. grant-making organizations such as the NSF and the NIH; funding NFSAT's initial competition for Armenian/U.S. research grants in chemistry, biotechnology, and biology; and assisting in the initial phases of project selection and management. In addition, a portion of the AID funds has been allocated to five new CRDF Cooperative Grants Program awards from applied research proposals submitted by Armenian/U.S. teams.
In 1997 the Department of State/AID also asked the CRDF to administer a targeted assistance and cooperation package of $250,000 for Kyrgyzstan. The funds provide start-up and operating expenses for a new International Geodynamics Research Center and provide sustaining support for the existing Kyrgyz Seismic Network.
(Click on photo to enlarge and see caption.)
In response, the Foundation assisted the two geodynamics institutions in Bishkek—the Kyrgyz Institute of Seismology and the Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences—to prepare a joint proposal for the establishment of the new center. The CRDF also convened a working group of interested U.S. Government agencies that will follow the progress of the project.
The Center is expected to become a reality in 1998. Plans include annual cost-shares by the Kyrgyz and Russian governments of $5,000 and $50,000, respectively, for the operation of the center as a shared facility that is also available to visiting researchers from other countries.
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