U.S. Academy of Sciences creating science and innovation fund for Ukraine

MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is working to establish a new multimillion-dollar joint science and innovation fund for Ukraine, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker said.

"It will commercialize cutting-edge research in the service of Ukraine's economic development," Ukrainian media quoted Pritzker as saying at the U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum in Washington.

This is similar to initiatives the National Academy of Sciences has with Israel, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico, she said.

"This comes in addition to the $230 million committed to support Ukraine's private sector including new financing for farmers, craftspeople, manufacturers, and small businesses in rural and under-banked communities," Pritzker said.

According to information on the NAS website, the academy is launching the fund with approximately $8 million of support from the Simons Foundation and commitments from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and other U.S. philanthropic organizations, with the goal of raising at least $15 million to secure the fund's first three years of operation. ETH Zurich is also helping create this fund for Ukraine.

The fund will provide merit-based grants to individuals and organizations to enable them to hold a range of events, including workshops to address scientific issues that are critical to Ukraine's long-term recovery, as well as bilateral and multilateral initiatives to advance the practice of science policy.

It will also support institutes on priority science and technology topics that contribute to Ukraine's future, will offer fellowships and research grants to support early and mid-career scientific exchanges and will provide training on commercializing research.

In addition, the initiative envisages glue funds to support Ukrainian researchers' participation in international scientific research.

The fund will be managed by a secretariat, based at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, that will engage partners in Ukraine, raise additional funds, manage the proposal review process, distribute and monitor fund expenditures, and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the fund, the information on the NAS website shows.