This advanced research workshop is designed to enhance and assistance international science & technology cooperation with Institutes in Russia, the Former Soviet Union and China in order to rapidly prototype and commercialize developing technologies in priority research areas where Russia/FSU and China has innovative expertise.

Nonproliferation initiatives in Russia and the CIS have had considerable success in stabilizing the Russian science base and encouraging international scientific cooperation between former Soviet institutes and their counterparts overseas. However, the global financial upheavals since 2008 have strained national research and development budgets, and the time is now ripe to reinforce the mechanisms of cooperation and encourage further East-West partnerships to identify developing technologies with commercial potential.

This Advanced Research Workshop will identify the principal mechanisms for nonproliferation through science cooperation, highlight the key elements required for successful cooperation projects, examine existing program challenges and shortfalls, and identify actions needed to improve them. This event is envisaged as the first in a series of workshops that will explore how the international science cooperation programs can be strengthened to best respond to post 9/11 security challenges and to cope with the impact of the 2008 credit-crunch on the research economy.

The participants will be drawn from the public and private sectors, and will include international relations experts from academia, government representatives from the nonproliferation cooperation programs, scientists from western and Russian institutes, and commercial partners with direct experience of international R&D projects.

The workshop is also specifically intended to highlight NATO’s role in promoting peaceful and friendly international relations as envisaged under Article 2 of the Atlantic Treaty, whereby the signatories pledge to “contribute towards the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and wellbeing.”

Key Workshop Issues:

* The evolution of nonproliferation assistance programs.

* The programs are now 20 years old and their initial mission to engage former Soviet Weapons Scientists in non-military work in the short-term and create private sector jobs in the medium-term needs to be reassessed.

* Successful exit/evolution strategies for the programs may need to be developed.

* Post 9/11 security threats place require international cooperation in developing new security technologies.

* The global credit crunch of 2008-2010 has strained national research and development budgets.

* Fostering international science and technology cooperation. Case studies of international R&D cooperation.

* Future prospects and challenges for international science cooperation.