ACS NEWS
ACS FOSTERS GLOBAL NETWORKING Society offers seed funding for international COLLABORATIONS
tions across geographic borders and disciplinary boundaries is critical to solving the grand challenges facing science and society,” according to American Chemical Society President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri. “Collaboration, especially among the next generation of chemical scientists, is key to advancing the chemical enterprise and to serving society.” The concomitant shifting realities of international collaboration and innovation and the need for problem solving on a global scale provided the rationale for the creation of the ACS Global Research Experiences, Exchanges & Training (GREET) program in 2011. The program, which originated from recommendations made by former ACS president Joseph S. Francisco’s 2010 International Center Task Force, aims to provide intensive, high-impact, international research and collaboration opportunities to U.S. chemical scientists from both the public and private sectors. “GREET provides a novel approach and
GREET APPLICATION CALL Program details: ACS is offering seed funding for five teams to establish collaborations with international partners in 2012 Award coverage: Approximately $11,000 per team for round-trip international airfare, daily stipend, supplies, language training, visa fees, insurance, and ACS national meeting travel expenses to New Orleans in spring 2013 Applicant eligibility criteria: Mentor and mentee must be ACS members, U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and enrolled or employed at a U.S. institution Application deadline: April 10 Learn more by attending the GREET symposium at the ACS national meeting in San Diego, or apply at www.acs. org/greet
pathway for these individuals to establish lasting international collaborations so that their talents and expertise can be activated to benefit their own careers, institutions, and nations, and to serve society,” says ACS Committee on International Activities Chair Judith L. Benham. GREET provides teams—which consist of a mentor and a mentee— with up to $11,000 in seed funding to work with international partners on topics of mutual interest. The awards enable team members to spend several weeks abroad at a host institution of their choice. “For maximal impact, projects should be mutually beneficial for both the home and host partners and be sustainable so that these nascent international networks have every opportunity to flourish,” Benham says. In its inaugural year, the program provided five teams with awards. Five new awards are available this year. perience “to help add knowlCOLLABORATION Applications can be submitted to ACS Piper (left) and edge and a global perspective Stockholm through April 10. to the curriculum of the uniUniversity’s “GREET is open to everyone and versity’s research course for Maria Wegner is very inclusive in its application undergraduate students.” work on joint research. process precisely because teams The teams are also making shouldn’t be creatively stifled by too plans with their host partmany requirements,” comments ners for additional researchBradley D. Miller, director of the ACS Office er exchanges, joint funding proposals, and of International Activities, which manages manuscript preparation to further solidify the program. “Applicants don’t need pretheir bonds. liminary data to apply, just a codified plan, The GREET experience is intended as a a great idea, and an international partner first step on a long collaborative journey, willing to support their efforts.” but teams have already achieved results that directly address the grand challenges PROPOSALS SUBMITTED to ACS last year facing science and society. “Many rather spanned a gamut of locations, fields, and simple medicines are just not available in topics, including collaborative research, inAfrica,” says Fortunak, whose team coldustrial training experiences, international laborated to use green chemistry to manudevelopment, and chemistry education. facture pediatric antimalarial medicines in ACS awarded the inaugural grants to AlTanzania. “We are working with the African vin A. Holder and Dorothy C. Horton from Union and United Nations Industrial Dethe University of Southern Mississippi velopment Organization to write a [phar(GREET U.K.); Joseph M. Fortunak and maceutical] manufacturing plan for Africa, Christopher L. King from Howard Univerpartially because of the outcomes of our sity (GREET Tanzania); Craig A. Aspinwall GREET experience.”—STEVEN MEYERS, and Mark T. Agasid from the University of special to C&EN
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Arizona, Tucson (GREET France), Scott M. Reed and Aundrea R. Piper from the University of Colorado, Denver (GREET Sweden), and Ryan M. Richards and Kenneth Finch from the Colorado School of Mines (GREET Romania). These teams “were approved because they gave careful thought to how their projects would continue and were realistic about what they hoped to achieve,” Miller says. Successful applicants also described events they would organize to enrich their communities once they returned home. Holder, for instance, says he wanted to spread GREET’s benefits by using the ex-
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