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The US Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), set up to aid scientists in the former Soviet Union, may return to its original practice of sponsoring basic, investigator-initiated research if a hefty increase in funds proposed by the Clinton administration is approved by Congress.

The CRDF, which awards grants averaging $50,000 for joint research between scientists in the United States and the former Soviet Union, was set up in 1995 under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, using $5 million in start-up funds from the US Defense Department and $10 million from philanthropist George Soros (see Nature 375, 170 ; 1995 ). The foundation's budget is around $10 million a year.

Principal support has come from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of State. Another 35 or so US agencies have used the CRDF as a conduit for funding cooperative projects with former Soviet Union scientists, according to Gloria Duffy, chief executive of the Commonwealth Club of California, and chair of the foundation's board of directors.

While that has kept the money flowing, it has confined the research agenda to areas of interest to sponsors. According to Duffy, the CRDF wants a separate endowment to enable it to return to its original practice of funding a range of investigator-proposed research, rather than merely “performing a federal agency's task”.

At a conference held in Washington last week to highlight results from CRDF collaborations, White House science adviser Neal Lane reiterated the administration's support for increased aid to Russian scientists. President Bill Clinton has proposed that spending should be tripled from $64 million this year to $176.5 million in 2000. Annual funding for the CRDF would increase from $10 million to $23.5 million, and it would receive $111 million over five years.

Support for the CRDF is strong in Congress, claims Duffy. But factors such as US-Russian tensions over the war in Kosovo and concerns about security in US government laboratories make it difficult to predict whether law-makers will grant the administration's spending request.

The proposed boost comes at a critical time for former Soviet Union scientists. With the Russian government unable to support its own research establishment, and with Soros pulling back on his commitments (see page 628), Russian scientists have become heavily dependent on US and European aid to continue their work.