Posted on November 21, 2009

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MacArthur Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to Support Higher Education in Russia

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced a $1.5 million grant to a network of twenty scientific research and education centers across Russia to support training opportunities for young scientists and international peer-review of research proposals submitted to the Russian government.

To be administered by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, the grant will support the final phase of the Program on Basic Research and Higher Education, a joint effort of CRDF and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Funded in part by MacArthur and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the program was launched in 1998 to assist in rebuilding Russia's scientific workforce following the Soviet era by helping state universities integrate teaching and research, modernize their scientific equipment, and train a new generation of scientists in Russian higher education.

The final phase of the program is designed to protect and enhance the investments MacArthur and its U.S. and Russian partners have made over the past decade, as the Russian government takes on more responsibility for the funding and development of the network. The grant will fund joint conferences for young scientists; an annual three-week English-language immersion course for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers; and the international peer review of grant proposals submitted to the Russian MES to reinforce merit-based grantmaking in the country.

"Russia has made tremendous strides in strengthening higher education," said John Slocum, co-chair of MacArthur's Higher Education Initiative in Russia. "The MacArthur Foundation is pleased to work closely with Russian universities to help develop a generation of scholars who can produce groundbreaking research to address Russian and global concerns."