The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) is a nonprofit organization established in 1995 to promote international scientific and technical collaboration through grants, technical resources, and training. Headquartered near Washington, DC, CRDF has offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; Kyiv, Ukraine and Astana, Kazakhstan. The Foundation’s unique combination of international partners; experience developing and selecting collaborative scientific projects; and logistics and financial infrastructure make it an important resource for the Arctic research community. CRDF’s support for Arctic research is divided in three categories:

1) Moscow-based programmatic support for grantees of the NSF Office of Polar Programs (Arctic Sciences Section) and Geosciences Directorate. Under a contract with NSF, CRDF assists with outreach and communications with the Russian research community, interactions with government agencies, travel and visa support, and on-site office support for visiting U.S. travelers and their Russian colleagues. Projects supported in this work include the large, multi-national International Polar Year drilling project at Lake El’gygytgyn

2) Support for competitively-selected U.S.-Russian collaborators in Arctic sciences and geosciences. These are typically two-year research grants averaging approximately $65,000, in some cases jointly funded with our partners, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Projects supported to date include

• Remote monitoring of ocean stream temperature, stream velocity, and salinity

• Modeling the effects of climate change on ice layer thickness

• Sources, impacts, and transport of pollutants (PDBEs)

• Microwave and acoustic remote sensing

• Sea ice biology

• Thermodynamics of ice caps

• Bioremediation of Black Oil at Cold Weather Sites

• Siberian Tree Effects on Greenhouse Gases

3) Financial and administrative support for projects managed by U.S. Government agencies, universities, and other organizations. This support includes payment transfers, equipment and material procurement, contracting, and other project management services. Projects include:

• Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring System (Joint project between the Earth Cryosphere Institute (Russia) and the University of Delaware)

• EPPIM: Modeling the Polar Ionosphere(Joint project between St. Petersburg State University and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

• Seismic Monitoring Stations in Arctic Regions (Joint project between Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team and the U.S. Geological Survey)

CRDF is continuing to expand its activities in Arctic research, participating in the Arctic Energy Summit Action Team and presenting at the 2006 and 2007 Arctic Science Summit Weeks, the 2007 Arctic Energy Summit Technology Conference, and the 2007 ARCUS Annual Meeting. In autumn 2008, CRDF will hold a special competition on climate change, hoping to receive a significant number of proposals related to Arctic research.