Science Initiative Group

The Science Initiative Group (SIG) is an international team of scientific leaders and supporters dedicated to fostering science in developing countries. SIG serves as facilitator and catalyst for the Millennium Science Initiative (MSI), bringing together groups whose involvement is needed to establish a country or regional MSI and providing scientific guidance and oversight. SIG is governed by a seven-member board consisting of four scientists from developing countries, two leading US scientists and an entrepreneur. SIG is administered by a small staff based at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

SIG works closely with The World Bank, local scientific communities and governments to adapt the MSI model to each country's particular situation, and then to assemble an appropriate financing package. (For further discussion of the MSI design process, see MSI Program Implementation.)

Besides its involvement with the Millennium Science Initiative, SIG is spearheading the establishment of the Global Science Corps, which will send scientists from the US and other developed and advanced developing countries to train and collaborate with their counterparts in developing countries.  Its newest project is the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), which emphasizes the establishment of training networks for scientists in sub-Saharan Africa.

In an effort to foster cooperation among initiatives with complementary objectives, the SIG board and staff are pleased to work with other institutions engaged in S&T capacity building. Among its informal collaborations, SIG is lending its expertise to the implementation of recommendations in the report of the InterAcademy Council, "Inventing a Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in Science and Technology," and several SIG board members serve on the Independent Scientific Advisory Board of the African Institute of Science and Technology (AIST).  Individual SIG board and staff members also serve in a variety of advisory and support capacities.

SIG's work is supported by grants from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation,  The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York.