The Elsevier Foundation has announced the 2009 grant recipients, committing a total of $600,000 to twelve institutions from around the world to support the work of libraries and scholars in science, technology and medicine. The grant recipients were selected from 250 applicants worldwide for their innovation and potential for impact in the developing world, academic workplace and nursing community.

Innovative Libraries
Six new grants have been awarded under the Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries program. The award recipients include institutions across Africa and Asia, and demonstrate how information resources can be used to address a variety of development issues - emergency management, the environment, boosting authorship and research skills and the distribution of clinical care information:

• Developing a Service-Oriented Database of Cases of Emergency Management, JINAN University, China


• 'Librarians Without Borders®' E-Library Training Initiative Grant, Medical Library Association


• Transformation of ICIMOD's Traditional Library into a Mountain Learning and Information Center, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal


• Supporting Research Communities in Writing, Publishing and Sharing their Works in Thai Nguyen University, Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam


• Enhancing Access to Current Literature by Health Workers in Rural Uganda and Community Health Problem Solving, Makerere University, Uganda


• Increasing access to relevant health information for primary healthcare providers through Kenyan public libraries, Book Aid International

New Scholars
Within the New Scholars program, the Elsevier Foundation has awarded four new grants to a range of international institutions pioneering new approaches to childcare, mentoring, networking, and policy advocacy in order to support scholars during the early stages of their demanding careers in science and technology:

• Third World Organization for Women in Science, Third World Women in Science (TWOWS)


• STEM Family Travel Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst


• Enhancing the Academic Climate for STEM Women Scholars through Family-Friendly Policies, UCLA Los Angeles


• Special Childcare Program, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

The International Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration
An additional Elsevier Foundation grant has been awarded to the International Council on Nurses (ICN) and the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) to hold "The International Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration," a three day 2010 policy summit on the economic and health ramifications nurse faculty migration has had on both developing and developed countries. The summit will host thirty internationally recognized global nurse leaders who will commit to using the outcomes from the summit to advance the issue at the global level, consult with local entities on implementation, and coordinate and disseminate the results of local initiatives.

"Learning from past lessons, we know that nurse faculty migration may pose a high risk problem for many countries," said David Benton, Chief Executive Officer, International Council of Nurses, "ICN and STTI welcome Elsevier's contribution to ensuring sound understanding of faculty migration so as to proactively manage the looming crisis and improve healthcare delivery by preparing sufficient numbers of nurses to meet the needs of the future."

"We are delighted by the breadth of the 2009 Foundation grant awards which promise to make both immediate and long term contributions to our science and health communities," said Y.S. Chi, Vice Chairman of Elsevier and CEO, Elsevier Science & Technology. "We view each of these projects as an opportunity to partner with innovative organizations around the world, supporting their critical efforts to address the global nursing shortage, the role of women in science and the developing world access to research and clinical health information. Each year the Elsevier Foundation strives to identify projects and regions where we can help make the most difference."

Notes to Editors:
Full project descriptions are included below. Please visit www.elsevierfoundation.org or contact foundation@elsevier.com for further information.

About The Elsevier Foundation
The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to institutions around the world, with a focus on support for the world's libraries and for scholars in the early stages of their careers. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 50 grants worth over a million dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. The Elsevier Foundation is funded by Elsevier, a leading global publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. www.elsevierfoundation.org

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet (www.thelancet.com) and Cell (www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com), Scopus (www.scopus.com), Reaxys (www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (www.nursingconsult.com), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (www.scival.com) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media Contact:
Ylann Schemm
Corporate Relations, Elsevier
+31 (0) 20 485 2025
foundation@elsevier.com

Elsevier Foundation Grants "“ 2009 Award Recipients

Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries

Developing a Service-Oriented Database of Cases of Emergency Management, JINAN University Library, China
This Elsevier Foundation grant will create the first of its kind large scale online "Service-Oriented Database of Cases of Emergency Management" (SODCEM) for use by Chinese researchers, students, policymakers and the public to raise the level of national expertise and reduce the losses caused by disasters. In 2008 alone, natural disasters caused a direct economic loss of 1.1752 trillion Yuan, while manmade disasters resulted in 1.01 billion Yuan and over 91,000 deaths in China. Partnering with the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, SODCEM will be a multimedia subject database which contains 400 cases constituted by more than 2000 records of images and multimedia documents, using a web 2.0 environment to improve accessibility and analysis.

"Librarians Without Borders®" E-Library Training Initiative Grant, Medical Library Association
This Elsevier Foundation grant will enable hundreds of information professionals and researchers in developing countries to gain the necessary skills to exploit the wealth of information within the Research4Life programs locally through HINARI training workshops and the online distance learning course. Building on 2007 Elsevier Foundation grant, this renewal award ensures that the momentum established in research skills outreach over the last few years is sustained an continues to boost scientific scholarship in the developing world.

Transformation of ICIMOD’s Traditional Library into a Mountain Learning and Information Centre, Library of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal
Dedicated to sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and environmental conservation, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, is supported by the eight countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan as well as other sponsor countries. This Elsevier Foundation grant will enable the ICIMOD Library to transform a highly specialized regional traditional print library into a mountain development research portal on climate change, watershed, biodiversity, conservation, gender, medical plants, and the market serving researchers, NGOs, policymakers and rural mountain communities.

Supporting Research Communities in Writing, Publishing and Sharing their Works in Thai Nguyen University and the Northern Mountainous area of Vietnam, Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam
This Elsevier Foundation grant will enable the Thai Nguyen Learning Resource Center, the central library of Thai Nguyen University, to substantially boost Vietnamese scholarship and Scientific, Technical and Medical information exchange at the regional, national and international levels. Faculty, researchers, administrators, information and library professionals, technologists, and postgraduate students will be provided learning opportunities for enhancing effective scientific writing skills and the use of online tools and digital repositories through a series of seminars and targeted training events. This project represents an innovative and scalable model in both Vietnam and the developing world providing a freely available and localizable training module for the developing world.

Enhancing Access to Current Literature by Health Workers in Rural Uganda and Community Health Problem Solving, Makerere University, Uganda
With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, Makerere University will combine information services with targeted rural medical outreach and reporting, demonstrating how librarians in developing countries can impact rural health workers and health outcomes. Critical medical information on rural health issues (infant mortality, HIV/AIDS etc.) will be repackaged to meet the information needs of Ugandan health workers. A team of doctors, nurses and midwives will provide hands on training and treatment for specific rural health crises which will be reported in expanded issues of the triannual medical digest produced by Albert Cook Medical library.

Increasing access to relevant health information for primary healthcare providers through the development of local resources and effective health sections in Kenyan public libraries, Book Aid International
This Elsevier Foundation grant supports Book Aid International's project to improve access to health information to primary care health workers and consumer health information users. In partnership with the Kenya National Library Service network and Healthlink Worldwide, the project will develop the skills of 30 library staff across 15 key public libraries and will effectively repackage and communicate critical content from medical books to two underserved Kenyan communities: healthcare providers and users.

New Scholars

Women Scientists in the Developing World Awards, Third World Women in Science (TWOWS)
This Elsevier Foundation grant will enable the expansion of TWOWS' recently launched prize awards from one young woman scientist in each of the four regions of the developing world (Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East) to a total of three $5,000 prizes per region in biological sciences, chemical sciences, and the physical and mathematical sciences. The expanded prizes will ensure that talented young women scientists in developing countries are recognized for excellence within their own disciplines and help to promote the overall participation and recognition of women scientists in the developing world.

STEM Family Travel Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The Five College system which includes the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire and Amherst colleges, has proportionately more women scientists and engineers with children than other US universities (72% at the Five Colleges vs. 42% nationally). This Elsevier Foundation grant will enable the Five College system to educate early-career STEM (Science, Technical, Engineering, Medicine) women about the critical importance of travel for professional advancement through biannual educational seminars, post-doc/faculty travel mentoring networks, dependent care travel funding and childcare support advocacy to professional societies and conference organizers. This project aims to make the need for professional travel childcare support "visible" and advocate for future conference organizers to take responsibility for on-site childcare.

Special Childcare Program, The University of Groningen, The Netherlands
The University of Groningen's Special Childcare Program targets ad hoc situations (a sick child, travel to conferences, and parental participation in international projects) as well as childcare for conference participants and temporary guest lecturers tackling a clear and present 'care gap', which prevents women scholars from maximizing their professional participation, travel, career development and competitiveness. At 14%, the percentage of women professors at the University of Groningen is only slightly higher than the Dutch average. The Elsevier Foundation grant will enable the University of Groningen to take a concrete steps to help recruit, develop and retain more female talent.

Enhancing the Academic Climate for STEM Women Scholars through Family-Friendly Policies, UCLA Los Angeles
Supported by an Elsevier Foundation grant, UCLA Los Angeles (the largest campus of the largest public university system within the US) has created an advocacy and travel grant action plan to confront family-related barriers to women's academic career progress in science, health and technology. UCLA will establish a five-member senior female and male faculty Work Group for a Family-Friendly Academy to maximize the use of existing policies to increase the retention of women STEM (Science, Technical, Engineering, Medicine) faculty and alleviate some of the stress associated with professional travel while caring for young children. In addition, 25-30 Travel Childcare Awards will enable women STEM faculty to attend professional conferences, meetings, workshops and symposia critical for the exposure and recognition of research, networking and solidifying career objectives.

The International Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration

The International Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), and the International Council of Nurses (ICN)
With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, STTI and ICN, both highly-respected international nursing organizations will undertake an International Summit on Nurse Faculty Migration to address the effects that ‘brain drain’ has on the quality of health care, nursing education and the number of new nurse graduates. In July 2010, 30 global nursing leaders will convene in a knowledge-building assembly with six key stakeholder organizations (e.g., World Health Organization, International Organisation on Migration, International Labour Organisation, and World Trade Organization, etc.) to develop a fuller understanding and action plan to address the global nurse faculty migration. The summit experts will commit to using the outcomes from the summit to advance the issue at the global level, consult with local entities on implementation, and coordinate and disseminate the results to the local initiatives.

Elsevier

Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com), bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com) is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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