NATO PROGRAMMES AND RUSSIA
Your letter of 10 November to Mark Hutton asked
for a note about NATO programmes, in particular the science programme,
in Russia.
Since the Kosovo conflict began, all NATO programmes
which involve official contact between the Russian government
and NATO have been frozen by the Russians. This includes the science
programme. After the signature of the NATO-Russia Founding Act,
a Memorandum of understanding on science co-operation was agreed
by NATO and the Russian government which provides for a programme
of seminars and other events. All these events have been postponed
until further notice.
However, the main part of NATO's science programme
has been unaffected: Russian Scientists are still participating
in joint research funded by NATO with scientists from Allied countries.
This is because applications for funding are received direct from
Russian scientists (or from their partners in Allied nations)
and do not pass through any official channel like the Russian
Academy of Sciences.
Of the 627 projects and workshops that have
been awarded funding from the programme this year, NATO's International
Secretariat have told us that 45 per cent involve Russian scientists.
Of these awards, only about one-fifth are for research activity
"in Russia", the majority would be for activity in Allied
countries. This is very much a rough estimate as awards facilitate
many types of collaborative research and meetings of scientists,
all of which would involve some preparatory work "in Russia".
The important point is that Russian scientists are continuing
to work with scientists from NATO countries, but these contacts
are not organised through official channels.
Finally to complete the picture, the NATO programme
also funds fellowships for scientists to study in Allied countries.
There are no up-to-date statistics across the whole programme
as funding is devolved to each of the 19 Allied countries. Of
the 95 awards given out in this financial year by the Royal Society,
the British agents for NATO fellowships, 51 of the 95 awards went
to Russian scientists.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if
you require any further information.
Sue Hodgetts
Parliamentary Relations Department
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