U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation
for the Independent States of the former Soviet Union

CRDF is a private, nonprofit foundation created in August 1995 by the National Science Foundation in response to the dramatic decline of resources for science and engineering research in the former Soviet Union. The CRDF's initial endowment of $10 million derived from a $5 million contribution from the U.S. Department of Defense's Nunn-Lugar program to promote demilitarization in the FSU, and from a $5 million gift from philanthropist George Soros to the U.S. National Science Foundation.

All research activities funded by CRDF must be carried out in a civilian environment and directed toward non-defense uses. The three major assignments of CRDF are:

• To provide productive research and development opportunities within the independent states of the FSU that offer scientists and engineers alternatives to emigration and help prevent the dissolution of the scientific and technological infrastructure of the independent states
• To advance defense conversion by funding civilian collaborative research and development projects between scientists and engineers in the United States and in the independent states of the FSU
• To assist in the establishment of a market economy in the independent states of the FSU by identifying and partially funding joint R&D ventures between U.S. and FSU businesses, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs; to provide a mechanism to promote understanding of commercial business practices; and to provide opportunities to develop mutually beneficial trade with the countries of the FSU based on the products of advanced scientific and technological research

Among the more creative of the CRDF's programs is its Closed Cities program, designed to promote collaborations between Americans and Russian researchers living in so-called "closed cities" (e.g., Sarov or Snezhinsk, formerly Arzamas-16 and Chelyabinsk-70). There were dozens of such cities in the Soviet Union, all involved in defense research. Today, according to CRDF, "the facilities have become somewhat less restricted, but access remains tightly controlled. Researchers working in closed cities have few contacts with foreigners and only limited communication with their own civilian research community."

The premise of the Closed Cities program is that civilian research opportunities won't materialize for scientists in these closed cities until, through international collaborations, they are exposed to industry and better understand some of the markets that may exist for their skills.

Last updated:    June 1999

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

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