Board 15, December 12, 2002

Joint Statement

The Governing Board of the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) convened on 12 December, 2002, in Kyiv, Ukraine, approving US $1.5 million and EU €1.3 million on new scientific projects. The STCU, an intergovernmental organization established by Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States, and joined in 1998 by the European Union, has been in operation for 6 years. The main objective of the STCU is to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction by providing scientists and engineers from the former Soviet Union opportunities for employment on peaceful scientific projects. In addition to carrying out its work in the scientific community of Ukraine, the Center's membership includes the republics of Uzbekistan and Georgia, where STCU project work has been underway since 1998.

The 21 new projects approved at this meeting bring the total value of projects funded by the STCU to over US $58.7 million. This total also includes new projects valued at over $5 million funded by STCU Partner organizations.

Projects funded at this meeting cover a wide range of research: the surface hardening of titanium alloys to improve the physical properties, the development of a technology of processing perchlorate rocket propellants into civil explosives, the reactive functional colloidal carriers for chemical, biological and microelectronic technologies, conducting investigations into an information videoscope of ultrahigh resolution for investigation of programmed death (apoptosis) of human tumor cells, the development of polycrystal composite superhard materials based on diamond ultrafine powders, the development of semipermeable membranes with bacteriostatic action for water treatment system, the creation of collection of extremophilic mycelial fungi isolated from all ecological niches of the Caucasus, investigation of their pathogenicity and elaboration of the technologies based on their degradational, oxidizing synthesizing potential, and the cooperative international study of contamination of transboundary rivers in central Asia. They will employ 354 scientists, 250 of whom are from former weapons of mass destruction or delivery system programs. This is in addition to 7,770 scientists supported by the STCU since 1995. The projects will be carried out at institutes in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Tashkent and Tblisi.

The Board recognized five new STCU Partner organizations introduced since its previous meeting: Max System Inc, Manitoba, Canada; Ralemik Ltd., Seinajoki, Finland; Selor EEIG, Amsterdam, Netherlands; VIARA Research Inc., Ohio, USA; and AMPAC Inc., Maryland, USA. Six partner project contracts were executed. These entities join the growing number of organizations (total of 76 companies) funding research and development activities in Ukraine as STCU Partners. The Board also noted with satisfaction that that the STCU patent support fund supported 3 new Ukrainian patents, bringing the total to 17 in 2002.

The Board also noted with satisfaction the STCU's involvement and support of the "Health & Environment International Workshop" which had over 200 participants from 12 different countries.

The Governing Board discussed the force majeure situation declared by the STCU Executive Director in October, as a result of the loss of the STCU headquarter facilities that the Secretariat had used since the Center was established in 1995. The Governing Board re-affirmed that the provision of a headquarters facility is the responsibility of the Government of Ukraine, under Article IX of the international STCU Agreement. The Board appreciates the efforts of the STCU staff, the Government of Ukraine, and the Embassies of Canada, EU and the USA to resolve this problem. The Board took note of the written commitments from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), which stated that the MFA will promptly pay lease expenses through the end of 2002 to cover the STCU offices in Kyiv. In a separate commitment, the Government of Ukraine will fund future year lease expenses through the budget of the Ministry of Science and Education. Together, the implementation of these commitments should lead to a resumption of normal STCU operations, once transfer of personnel, equipment and telecommunications links are completed at the new Secretariat headquarters facility. The Governing Board, upon a positive recommendation from the Executive Director will revoke the force majeure condition.

The Governing Board approved the request of the Government of Azerbaijan to accede to the international STCU Agreement, and welcomed the participation of the scientific community in Azerbaijan to participate in STCU activities. The Governing Board welcomed the applications of the Governments of Moldova and Tadjikistan to join the STCU agreement, which will be considered in accordance with accession procedures set forth in the STCU Agreement.

The Governing Board meeting included a visit by Academician Borys Paton, President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, whose comments to the Board underscore the importance of the STCU to science in Ukraine during the seven years of the Center's operations.

The Governing Board approved a program of research on anti-personnel land mine destruction technologies to which the EU has pledged EU €400,000.

Board 15, December 12, 2002

•  Declaration
•  ED's Report
•  Funding Table
•  Minutes
•  Partner Projects Funding Table
•  Record of Desicions
•  Supplemental Budget

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* took place in February 2005