July Deadline for AAAS Grant Program
for Women Scientists, Engineers

Researchers interested in applying for a grant from WISC—AAAS's Women's International Science Collaboration program—are facing a 15 July deadline for grants that will be awarded in October 2002.

Launched in 2001, the WISC program aims to increase the participation of women in international scientific research. The program is administered by AAAS and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It provides women scientists in the United States with funds for planning research projects with a collaborator from a partner country. The WISC program was inspired by the low application rate of women scientists and engineers among applicants for NSF grants to work with colleagues overseas. The program provides grants to individual U.S. scientists who plan to establish new research partnerships with colleagues in Central/Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union, Near East, Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Pacific, and Asia.

WISC researcher Lyn Gualtieri and her Russian counterpart, Oxana Savoskul, took shelter one night in this shack in the forest of Kamchatka.

Each grant, up to $4,000 or $5,000 (depending on region), provides travel and living support for the U.S. scientist. In the spirit of international collaboration, however, the program encourages research that also benefits the foreign partners. A key requirement is that the applicants do not already have NSF funding for their proposed projects. Their preparatory projects should then lead to full research proposals.

More information is available on the AAAS WISC website.

For more on the Spring 2002 WISC awards, read related article.

27 June 2002