OSA / Guide / Fonds / HU OSA 116

HU OSA	116 C
Authority entry:	International Science Foundation

Parallel Entry/Entries ISF

Names International Science Foundation

Date(s) and Place(s) of existence 1992-1997

Legal status Private charitable organization

Mandate, functions and sphere of activity

On December 9, 1992, George Soros officially announced about allocation of $100 million over two years to support former Soviet scientists through an “International Science Foundation for the Former Soviet Union” especially established for this purpose. Legally, the foundation was registered as a private charitable organization.
The idea of this foundation was supported by the different American scientific societies and the United States Civilian Research and Development Foundation for Support the Former Soviet Union researchers.
The primary purpose of the ISF was to enable the most scientifically meritorious scientists of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the field of civilian fundamental research to maintain productive careers in science in their countries during the financial crisis by means of a system of competitive research grants. The ISF had no interest in intellectual property resulting from the research it funded and renounced all claims to such rights. Because the ISF’s support was temporary in nature, the ISF had a strong preference for directing its funding awards toward individual researchers and not to the financing of long-scale, permanent institutional structures.

There were several programs to fulfill the ISF’s goals: Long Term Research Grants, Travel Grants to international scientific meetings, emergency grant support, library assistance program, support for development of large –scale telecommunication networks, discretionary grants, grant assistance program.

First of all, the Emergency Grants Program (1993) had two phases. During the first the researchers who had 3 publications in recognized scientific journals during last 5 years received 500 USD. During the second phase the 1000 research groups under the leadership of researchers with the highest impact-factor received 1500 USD. In addition, the same amount of money was granted to the institutions where those groups worked in order to buy new equipment.


Second, the Library Assistance Program (1993) was aimed to buy and transport foreign scientific journals to the public and scientific libraries of the FSU and countries of the Former Soviet Bloc. Special attention was given to the libraries of those scientific institutions where the researchers with high impact-factor worked.

Third, Conference Travel Grants Program (1993) supports travels to the international scientific conferences, symposiums and other meeting. In 1996 this program was renamed into Logovaz Travel Grant Program because of huge financial help of Logovaz to the program.

Fourth, the Telecommunications Project (1993) was realized in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl.

Fifth, the Long Term Research Grants Program (1993) occupied 63% of the ISF’s financial support. The huge international expertise was organized for the grant applications. There were nearly 15 thousand of researchers supported by the program during two years.

Finally, the Grant Assistance Program (1994) was aimed to coordinate additional help to the development of the civilian research in the FSU. The main donators were Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the United States Civilian Research and Development Foundation.

In 1996 the ISF’s budget was expended. The official close of the Foundation took place in 1997.

Administrative structure

The organizational structure of the ISF changed during its history. To begin with, the Board of Trastees was established. A foundation Board of Trustees was headed by George Soros. As the chairmen of the board of trustees, he approved the budget and had the right to veto al decisions made within the foundation. The executive board was subordinate to the board of trustees.It was authorized to formulate main principles of the organization and set up the foundation’s programs.
The Executive Board was under the Board of Trastees’ control and its responsibilities contained the developing of the main working principles of the ISF including the program elaboration. Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel Awarder in Biology, became the chairman of the Executive Board. P. Arseniev was appointed as a head of the Russian (Moscow) branch of the ISF.
A.D.Goldfarb served as the director of foreign operations for almost all period of ISF existence.
The Executive Director of the Foundation was Harley Balzer, the Director of Studying Russia Program in Georgetown University. Later Harley Balzer became a head of the Executive Board, and in 1993 he was replaced by the Nobel Awarder James Watson, a Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Due to Watson a new branch appeared – the Executive Committee. This committee was aimed to make emergency decisions between the Executive Board Meetings. It consisted of James Watson, A. Goldfarb and the Chief Operating Officer G. Sher. A.D.Goldfarb, a leader of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory of the Institute of Health of the New York University served as the director of foreign operations for almost all period of ISF existence.

Relationships

The members of the ISF Board of Trustees were George Soros, (founder and donor of ISF); Dr. James Watson (Director of Cold Springs Harbor Laboratories); and John Allen (Board Chair of Spring Investment Corporation).
The Executive Committee consists of three persons: the head James Watson (he also was an Executive Board Chairman), Chief Operating officer Gerson Sher, and Director of foreign operations A.D.Goldfarb (served as the director of foreign operations for almost all period of ISF existence)
The New York Office coordinated the financial issues, including buying equipment, tickets, and transportation of journals, materials and equipment. The Washington Office was responsible for grant expertise, administrative support of the Executive Board meetings, and developing the annual ISF reports.

There were also branches in St. Petersburg, Nizhnii Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok, Kiev and Vilnius.

In addition, after the establishment of the Russian Advisory Committee the net of other national committees was formed, for example, the Ukrainian Advisory Committee.

Rules or conventions

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families General Intenational Standard Archival Description; OSA Internal Rules.

Dates of description

Online version updated 18 December 2008