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IN CONFIDENCE
post-doctoral fellowships for scientists in the FSU. For all
these programmes, the initiative in identifying targets in the FSU came from scientists in the UK. The primary objective of the
Society's activities in the FSU and Central and Eastern Europe was to prevent the brain-drain from these countries. This
objective was much less evident in the programmes pursued by the
USA and Germany.
2. Dr McLaren said that the Society had now established an
office in Moscow. The Society's liaison officer had initially
been based in the British Council office, but was now housed in
the same building as Amersham International. The Society was also assisting FSU scientists by sending its journals free of
charge to a number of institutes. Scientific isolation was one
of the major problems facing scientists of the FSU. Another
symptom of this isolation had been the threat to the continued
participation of FSU States in international activities. The
Society had been able to help in this sphere also; for example, by helping to pay the Russian subscriptions to the International Seismological Centre and the Cambridge University
Crystallographic Database. If the overall situation of scientists in the FSU was not improving there were signs, at
least, that it was not deteriorating further.
3. Mr Garrett emphasised that the Society's operations in the
FSU were highly selective, and depended very much on the
judgement of British scientists. He noted that the payment of the Russian subscription to the Cambridge University
Crystallographic Database and the International Seismological
Centre had been made possible by financial support from the FCO.
The Society was also in contact with the FCO over possible assistance in the transportation to Moscow of back numbers of scientific journals.
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