The program is sponsored by the Special American Business Internship Training Program (SABIT) which provides funding to U.S. firms for internships for business managers and scientists from the Independent States of the former Soviet Union.

Deadline: March 31, 1998.

Objectives: The SABIT program is designed to assist the former Soviet Union's transition to a market economy. The program matches business executives and scientists from the NIS with U.S. firms which sponsor them for short-term management training programs. Qualified firms receive funds through a cooperative agreement to help defray the cost of hosting interns. The U.S. firms will be expected to provide the interns with a hands-on, non-academic, executive training program designed to maximize their exposure to management operations. At the end of the program, interns return to the NIS.

The internships are available to fund Managers and Scientists:

• The Business Executives internships are designed to assist the economic restructuring of the NIS by providing top-level business managers with practical training in strategic planning, financing, production, distribution, marketing, accounting, wholesaling, and labor relations. This first-hand experience in the U.S. economy enables interns to become leaders in establishing and operating a market economy in the NIS, and creates a unique opportunity for U.S. firms to familiarize key executives from the NIS with their products and services.

• The Scientist internships provide opportunities for gifted scientists to apply their skills to peaceful research and development in the civilian sector, in areas such as defense conversion, medical research, and the environment, and expose them to the role of scientific research in a market economy where applicability of research relates to business success. Sponsoring firms in the U.S. scientific community also will benefit from the exchange of information and ideas, and different approaches to new technologies.

Interns may be from any of the following Independent States: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Restrictions: Eligible applicants are any for-profit or non-profit U.S. corporation, association, organization or other public or private entity. Agencies or divisions of the Federal government are not eligible. Applicants involved in any industry sector may apply to the program, however, priority consideration is given to those operating in the following sectors: agribusiness, including food processing and distribution, and agricultural equipment; defense conversion; energy; environment, including environmental clean-up; financial services, including banking and accounting; housing, construction and infrastructure; medical equipment, supplies, pharmaceuticals, and health care management; product standards and quality control; telecommunications; or transportation.

Monetary: Internships are for three to six months. The sponsor will reimburse companies for the round-trip air travel of each intern from the intern's home city in the NIS to the U.S. internship site. In addition, the sponsor will reimburse companies a stipend of $30 per day per intern for up to six months. Each award will have a cap of $7,500 per intern for total cost of airline travel and stipend. There are no specific matching requirements for the awards. Host firms, however, are expected to bear the costs beyond those covered by the award, including visa fees, housing, insurance, any food and incidentals costs beyond $30 per day, any training-related travel within the U.S, and provision of the hands-on training for the interns. The maximum amount of funding available for this program is $1million. Additional funding may become available during this funding period.

Source of Information: Federal Register; 1998-01-23; 3540

The URL for this page is: http://www.friends-partners.org/~ccsi/announce/sabit.htm
Last updated: February 19, 1998

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