ISTC ARMENIAN BRANCH OPENS RESOURCE CENTER

ARMENPRESS
May 30 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS: The International Science and Technology
Center (ISTC) has inaugurated today a resource center in Yerevan. It
will be operating as an affiliation of its Armenian branch.

The resource center is furnished with the state-of-the-art equipment
and is supposed to become a venue of different seminars and gatherings
of Armenian researchers.

ISTC Deputy Executive Director, Laura Schmidt Williams, said Armenia
is the first country that will have the resource center operating
alongside its branch.

President of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Radik
Martirosian said the ISTC work in Armenia has a very positive effect
on scientific researches. He said the resource center will be very
instrumental in terms of teaching Armenian researchers new skills.

The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) was established
by international agreement in November 1992 as a nonproliferation
program. It coordinates the efforts of numerous governments,
international organizations, and private sector industries, providing
weapons scientists from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent
States new opportunities in international partnership.

Through its political, legal, and financial frameworks, the
ISTC contributes to Fundamental Research, International Programs
and Innovation and Commercialization, by linking the demands of
international markets with the exceptional pool of scientific talent
available in Russian and CIS institutes.

Armenia joined ISTC in 1994, which has allocated $29 million for
funding 113 projects developed by Armenian scientists, 12 of which
were partner projects.