The Foundation Board reviewed the performance of the Foundation in 2008 and a budget plan for 2009.

The Board noted that, during the latest reporting period, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR):

- carried out work to organize, fund and support 17,123 projects during 2006-08, including 8,349 projects under the initiative-based research projects competition;

- supported 1,422 projects under its new program Young Scientists Mobility;

- funded 1,304 projects from 45 regions of the Russian Federation together with the administrations of the relevant regions of the Russian Federation;

- expanded considerably the geography of RFBR's international competitions, conducted merit reviews and financed 702 projects being implemented by joint research teams;

- developed actively competitions with the CIS states which included a new competition held jointly with the State Foundation for Basic Research of Ukraine and a tripartite interregional competition -- Russia / Byelorussia / Ukraine, other competitions held jointly with the CIS states;

- supported 782 projects to organize Russian and international scientific events in the territory of Russia;

- supported 2,717 projects to support the participation of Russian scientists in international scientific events abroad;

- supported young scientists participating in international scientific events which held within the territory of Russia (out of 276 applications, 204 applications were supported);

- 585 projects were funded as part of the oriented basic research competition;

- supported 354 projects out of 482 applications under the program for providing support to projects aimed at developing the material and technical basis (MTB) of scientific research;

- conducted competitions for projects to organize expeditions and field research (223 projects out of 309 applications), competitions for publishing projects of 2009 (287 projects out of 489 applications), competitions for popular scientific articles of 2008 (56 projects out of 147 applications), analytical reviews competitions and others;

- 600 grant holders received online access to journals and databases of 10 foreign scientific publishing houses as part of the program for the development of RFBRs scientific electronic library.

The Board of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research does hereby resolve as follows:

- It is resolved that the performance of the Foundation for the period from October 1 to December 17, 2008 should be approved and that the corresponding resolution of the Foundation Board should be adopted.

- It is resolved that the final allocation of funding by type of activity for 2008 and a planned allocation of funding by type of activity for 2009 should be approved and the distribution of funds among knowledge areas in the orientation Initiative-Based Research Projects and Other Competitions of RFBR for 2009 should be approved.

- It is resolved that applications to take part in the RFBR publishing projects competition should be started to accepted continuously, in an uninterrupted process, with results to be announced twice a year.

- It is resolved that a competition for projects of oriented basic research on important inter-disciplinary subjects should be conducted in 2009.

- It is also resolved that the possibility of the Foundations participation in the following events should additionally be considered:

- work to purchase licensed information products;

- supporting probation / trainee work by young foreign scientists;

- supporting participation by outstanding foreign scientists in the work of conferences held within the territory of the Russian Federation.

- It is resolved that the signing of new agreements with the administrations and governments of the following republics of Russia: Altai, Dagestan, Sakha (Yakutia), Kabardino-Balkaria, Karelia, Komi, Tatarstan; the governments of the following regions of Russia: Arkhangelskaya, Belgorodskaya, Brianskaya, Voronezhskaya, Ivanovskaya, Irkutskaya, Kaluzhskaya, Kemerovskaya, Murmanskaya, Orlovskaya, Tambovskaya, Tomskaya, should be approved.

- It is resolved that the first interregional (Krasnodarsky Kray, Orlovskaya and Tambovskaya oblasts) competition titled Fundamental Scientific Research to Support Priority Development Areas of the Agro-Industrial Complex should be approved.

- It was resolved that RFBR's efforts to implement competitions as part of existing agreements with foreign partners and also its efforts to prepare and sign new international agreements on scientific cooperation, negotiations protocols and protocols on mutual understanding with the National Center for Scientific Research (CRNS, France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany), the Royal Society of London (Britain), the Spanish National Research Council (Spain), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN, Switzerland), the Scienttific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Turkey), the Baltic Organizations Network for Funding Science EEIG (BONUS), the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA, France), the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (Germany), the Austrian Science Fund (ASF, Austria), the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport (MSCS, Israel), the Department of Science and Technology Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India (DST, India), the E.I.N.S.T.E.IN Consortium (Italy), the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC, Taiwan) should be approved.

- It is resolved that the activity of the Foundation carried out within the framework of membership in the International Association of Academies of Sciences (IAAS) should be approved. It is resolved that the importance of developing cooperation between the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the IAAS members-states should be noted.

- It is resolved that the work of the Foundation in information- and analytical activity should be approved.

Chairman of the RFBR Board, V. Ya. Panchenko

The full text of the announcement is posted on the Russian webpage of RFBR,