In February of 1997 the United States and the Russian Federation signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) calling for cooperation in the area of high speed computing, applied to problems in academic science and engineering research. This MOU is in the context of the Science and Technology (S&T) committee of the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economics and Technological Cooperation.
Following meetings of the Telecommunications Working Group (TCWG) of the S&T committee, it was agreed that such cooperation should be between individuals and groups supported by their own countries. In order to identify and establish such cooperation, it was further agreed at the TCWG meeting in February of 1998 that a joint workshop should be held in Russia to introduce Russian computational scientist to their U.S. counterparts. At this workshop both sides would describe their current research and discuss possible collaborative activities.
