Richard Stone
The stage was set in Moscow earlier this week for a private U.S. foundation--the Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the FSU (CRDF)--to unveil its initial grant winners throughout the former Soviet Union (FSU). But Russian scientists will have to keep the champagne on ice. At the last moment, Russia's Ministry of Science asked to evaluate the results of CRDF's peer-review panels to ensure that they conform with the Ministry's own ranking of proposals and spending priorities. CRDF is now planning to announce the Russian grant winners in September. CRDF is, however, moving ahead with projects in other FSU countries with grants that will average $50,000 over 2 years, and it has also set aside $400,000 for travel grants for non-Russian FSU scientists and $800,000 for a few large grants for equipment that could be used throughout an entire region.
