In response to NSF REP No. SEE 92-008, the Office for Central Europe and Eurasia (OCEE) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will continue a postdoctoral fellowship program which supports collaborative research between American scientists and their colleagues from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Eastern Europe (EE) for the period of January 1, 1993 through December 31, 1994. The funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support primarily individual American scientists to either travel to or host colleagues from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for one to six months. Up to 40 percent of the fellowships will be provided for two-week project development visits which allow participants to develop plans for long-term cooperative research projects, with special emphasis on developing concrete proposals for submission to NSF's FSU/EE cooperative science programs. The project development visits are also intended to provide support for scientists to respond, with relatively short lead time, to unusual scientific opportunities of exceptional merit and potential benefit to U.S. science. Young investigators will be given special consideration in the selection. At least 25 percent of the fellowships, both in long-term research and project development visits, will be awarded to young investigators as an encouragement to and investment in long-term collaboration. In the absence of a U.S. government science and technology agreement with Romania, the Romania twinning program will continue to foster interaction between American scientists and their Romanian colleagues, who remain largely isolated from the international scientific community. A small portion of the requested funds will support compilations of information about science and technology development in the region obtained through these individual visits and other OCEE activities. This project fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling leading researchers in the United States and Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union, to combine complementary efforts and capabilities in areas of strong mutual interest and competence in the field of basic scientific research on the basis of equality, reciprocity, and mutuality of benefit.
