The NSF, an independent US federal agency with an annual budget of about $3.3 million, has issued a $4 million (5 year) cooperative agreement to The University of Tennessee. This funding will cover the trans-Atlantic telecommunications cost and basic operations/personnel costs for the US portion of FASTnet, a joint US-Russian project to provide next generation Internet services to collaborating US-Russian scientists and educators.

The FASTnet team expresses its gratitude to the NSF and, in particular, to NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program officer Steve Goldstein whose efforts over the years have been largely responsible for the Internet's evolution into a global network.

We received a $60,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in February, 1997, to initiate a planning project - studying development of Civic Networksin Russia. (please see CivNET-Russia fora description of this project). Subsequently, we have received a $255,000 grantin January, 1998 to implement civic networks in the three communities selected during the previous planning grant. We are most grateful to the Ford Foundation and toprogram officer Chris Kedzie for all they have done to make this project possible andfor their broader support of Friends and Partners. 

It was largely due to the support and encouragementof Dr. A.M. Boronin and Dr. V.K. Akimenko that Natasha was allowed to initiate this project. Their constant support over the past two years has meant a great deal to the project.

It has been largely due to the vision and support of Mr. Homer Fisher,Senior Vice President of the University of Tennessee, that we were allowedto initiate and grow this project from the U.S. side. Mr. Fisher has been a firm supporter of this project since its start and in 1995 established a new center for work on the Friends and Partners project as well as other international networking initiatives. We are very indebted to Mr. Fisher, to Chancellor Bill Snyder, President Joe Johnson and to many others throughout the University of Tennessee system for all the support which has made this project possible.

We received a $56,000 grant in January, 1995 to help fund the implementation of a faster, more reliable Internet connection from Pushchino to Moscow and to pay for the cost of Internet traffic used by the Friends and Partners project. We are especially grateful to Dr. Jean-Paul Nadreau, our Grants Officer with NATO, for believing in the project and for his active support. We are hoping to continue our work with NATO on various other initiatives to bring together people and organizations between our countries.

We received a $40,000 grant from the US State Department in November, 1995, to establish a center in Pushchino, Russia to further develop Friends and Partners and to help us prepare for activities related to the January, 1996, Gore/Chernomyrdin Commission meeting. We are especially grateful to Bud Rock and Lisa Mount for the support and encouragement they have provided to this initiative.

The principal host system for Friends and Partners in Pushchino, Russia,was provided by Sun Microsystems. We are especially indebted toKevin Roebuck and Bob Kloak of Sun for all their support of ourvarious initiatives and for the support which led to the provision of thepowerful workstation in Pushchino. We also wish to thankTom Rittenberry and Linda Gatti of Sun Microsystems in Knoxville,Tennessee, for another equipment grant we received that suppliedadditional memory for our machine, as well as software and hardwarefor advanced audio-video capabilities. Sun Microsystems has beena tremendous help to our project (both financially and with theirencouragement) and we look forward to continuing that good relationship.

The ISF provided the first equipment used for Friends and Partners in Pushchino, a Sun Sparc 1 server which functioned as the initial mirror server of Friends and Partners and still is used for development work associated with this project. The ISF has done a lot of good work with Internet connectivity and information infrastructure development and we are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them.

Ed Bryson of Esper Systems is a very special friend of Friends and Partners, donating the www.friends-partners.org name, providing name service, providing lots of good technical advice, and, most recently, helping usease into the world of linux servers (low-cost unix servers). We look forward to continued and increased work with Ed and the good folks of Esper Systems.

RELARN provided the financial assistance to help payfor our Internet traffic during the early days of Friends and Partners.It was largely due to their support that we were enabled to startwork on this project.

STACK, in Pushchino, Russia, is the network provider for theSouth Moscow region and does an excellent job with ensuringthe reliable Internet connectivity for the several communitiesin this area. They were particularly helpful during the early daysof our Friends and Partners project by giving Natasha time towork on the project, by supporting her efforts technically,and by even contributing funds to pay for our initial Internettraffic. We hope to continue the relationship with the goodfolks at STACK.