REED ELSEVIER : Elsevier Foundation awards 2011 grants to advance women in science...

10 January 2012

$650,000 awarded to Innovative Libraries, New ScholarsNurse Faculty Programs

announced today the 2011 grant recipients for the Innovative Libraries in Developing CountriesNew Scholars award programs. In total, $650,000 has been committed to nine institutions around the world in addition to seven ongoing multiyear grantsthe Nurse Faculty program.  The Elsevier Foundation is funded by , a global provider of scientific, technicalmedical information productsservices.

"Each of the diverse projects supported by the Elsevier Foundation has the potential for an immediateenduring impact on our healthscience communities," said David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier FoundationSenior Vice President Global Communications, Elsevier.  "We welcome the chance to support these organizations' efforts to foster new ways to leverage sciencehealth information for developmentto facilitate career development in STM fields."

Innovative Libraries
The Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries program awards grants to libraries for innovation in improving accessuse of scientific, technicalmedical information. Past projects include: expanding information resources through digitizationknowledge preservation; trainingeducation for librariansresearchers,developed-developing world partnerships providing longer term technical assistancetraining.  

The 2011 library grant recipients address real developing world issues through the use of STM information resourcesinclude:

• , US
• Strengthening Agricultural ResearchersExtension Staff's Skills for Access to, Usesharing of Agricultural Information Resources in Tanzania, , Tanzania
• Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare, Library Training, (KIT), Netherlands
• , Republic of the Marshall Island 
• Improving Library Resource Sharing Through the Union Catalogue Among Laos Libraries Central Library, , Laos

"With access to scientific information revolutionized in the Global South through diverse access initiatives, embedding the daily use of high quality peer reviewed journals within universities, remains the key challenge," said Jan Donner, President of the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands (KIT). "The Elsevier Foundation's library grants are so important because they emphasize the critical role that librarians play in supporting researchers, doctorsnurses in implementing evidence based work." 

New Scholars
The New Scholars Program supports projects to help early- to mid-career women scientists balance family responsibilities with demanding academic careersaddresses the attrition rate of talented women scientists. Recent grants have promoted institutional research, advocacy,policy development to retain, recruitdevelop women in sciencehave enabled researchers to attend conferences critical to their careers by assisting with childcare, mentorshipnetworking.

The 2011 grants include:

"The attrition of top talent from the scientific workforce severely hampers countries' ability to lead in innovationstay globally competitive in these disciplines," said Janet Bandows Koster, Executive Director & CEO of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). "We know that professional women with the skills needed for successful careers in these fields are available, yet often choose to leave the workforce because of outmoded institutional structures. The New Scholars program has been integral to exploring innovative approaches for a more family friendly academia.  We look forward to working with the program to spearhead a fresh, forward-looking dialogue with global thought leaders."

to develop an 18 month leadership academyalleviate the nursing faculty shortage through retainingtransitioning new nurse educators to the faculty role.

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About The Elsevier Foundation
The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate charity funded by Elsevier, a global provider of scientific, technicalmedical information productsservices. The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a focus on developing world libraries, nurse facultyscholars in the early stages of their careers.  Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 60 grants worth millions of 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 localglobal communities.

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technicalmedical information productsservices. The company works in partnership with the global sciencehealth communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including ,close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from MosbySaunders. Elsevier's online solutions include , , , , which enhance the productivity of sciencehealth professionals,the , which help researchhealth care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of   Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisherinformation provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLCReed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUKENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact 
Ylann Schemm
Corporate Relations, Elsevier
[phone]
[e-mail]

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Elsevier Foundation 2011 Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries Grant Awards

, US
80% of the world's blindness is avoidable through treatment or prevention. The WHO's Vision 2020: the Right to Sight campaign targets curable blindness in their global campaign to impact vision loss.  The Seva Foundation has proposed a compelling project aimed at benefiting hundreds of eye hospitals that lack organized resource centerstrained librarians. Eight collaborating resource centers in major recognized eye care institutions: Al Noor Magrabi Foundation in Egypt; Visualiza in Guatemala; Aravind Eye Care System, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya, & Vivekananda Mission Asram Netra Niramay Niketan in India; Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology in Tanzania;Lumbini Eye Institute in Nepal will work with the Seva Foundationthe Association of Vision Science Librarians (AVSL) to provide training, mentoring,tool development to significantly enhance the librarians' ability to make relevant scientific, technical,medical information available to eye doctorshealth care workers locally, regionally,globally.

Strengthening Agricultural ResearchersExtension Staff's Skills for Access to, UseSharing of Agricultural Information Resources in Tanzania, , Tanzania
While informationcommunication technologies have become more widely available in many developing countries, the skills needed to take full advantage of e-resources are still under-developed. The work of agricultural researchersextension staff, who play a central role in economic development, is significantly enhanced by tailored training in the search, usesharing of the information that is now accessible through these technologies. Sokoine National Agricultural Library, a universitynational library with a mandate to disseminate agricultural information to Tanzania's diverse stakeholders, has developed a project with the potential for major impact on food productionsecurity. It will strengthen the agricultural network within the countrywill specifically target farmers--the most challenging link in the information literacy chain.

Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare, Library Training,
Evidence Based Health Care or Medicine (EBHC) is major priority in medical faculties, schools of public health, national ministries in wealthier countriesin the WHO. This project focuses on the key role played by information specialists in the practiceimplementation of EBHC in the developing world. Medical doctors, nursesother healthcare workers across eight African countries will be taught the skills of searchingretrieving, evaluatingimplementing medical literatureevidence into clinicalpublic health to improve patient care. Courses will be conducted in medical schools, schools of public healthlibraries in Ethiopia, Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, with a continuously growing group of partners. The project is driven by the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands (KIT), the central partner in the Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare in Africa (  CEBHA), a network of faculties of medicine, schools of public health, ministriesNGOs that support an African healthcare system based on informedevidence-based decisions. CEBHA will also provide the expertise to adapt the program to issues that are commonly found in the developing world such as feasibility, limited resources, medication compliance issuesalternativecomplementary medicine.

On March 1st 1954, Bravo, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested by the US government, was detonated in the Marshall Islands.  One thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, it led to significant radiological contaminationinternational concern about atmospheric thermonuclear testing which continued in the Islands for another four years. With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation this project will preserve the library of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The Tribunal was established in 1987 as part of a settlement agreement between RMIthe US government. It gave the Tribunal exclusive jurisdiction to settle all claims arising from the Nuclear Testing Program. The library contains unique holdings with hundreds of scientificmedical reports, papers, articlesother documents relating to the nuclear weapons testing program conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. The goals of the proposed project are to organize, stabilize,digitize the library holdingsofficial files of the Tribunal in order to ensure that those records can be made available to future researchers, students, decision-makers,other interested parties.

Improving Library Resource Sharing Through the Union Catalogue among Laotian Libraries, Central Library, , Laos
With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, the National University of Laos will provide the Laos LibraryInformation Consortium (LALIC) with a unifiedcomprehensive open source digital library information system to increase library staffusers' access to scientific, technical,medical informationmaterials. Researchers from across the 20 member library consortium will be able to access one search engine that compiles all metadata from the library collections' networkelectronic databases; access library collections across member libraries;specifies the location (e.g., university, library) to access publications.

The Elsevier Foundation 2011 New Scholars Grant Awards

Scenario Toolkit for Advancing Careers in Science,  (EU)          
The European Commission's recent public consultation on strengthening the role of women in science yielded professional development feedback: the need for career modelspathways; balancing career aspirationsfamily responsibilities; childcare issuescosts, mobility, dual career couples,returning after career breaks. The Scenario Toolkit for Advancing Careers in Science targets this call to action to help European women scientists navigate the complex relationships between eventsdecisions that shape a scientist's professional development through the doctoralpostdoc stages. Portia, a UK-based non-profit, will pilot the scenario method through workshops delivered with two partners; the Technical University BerlinTel Aviv University. Portia's scenario toolkit moves beyond traditional mentorship to provide an innovative new strategy for improving the career success of female scientistsengineers.

STEM CIC Writing Retreat, , University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US                                   
With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, the University of Nebraska aims to retain women scientists by improving research productivitypromoting critical networks through a model STEM writing retreat. A week-long, multi-disciplinary, multi-rank writing retreat at the University of Nebraska (UNL) will be offered to STEM faculty across the "Big 10" universities.  With a concerted focus on writing successsocial connections, this program has the potential to serve as a model that can be easily replicated across institutionsdisciplines to help retain STEM women in academia.

Get Ahead with Optics: Career Development for Women in Science, University of Carthage, , Tunisia 
Over the last years, optics research has become an indispensable part of daily life. Fiber optics for telecoms, medical imagingcancer research, optical parts in cars, computer3D screens are at the core of the world's technical infrastructure. This interdisciplinary proposal from Tunisia aims to orient young women scientists in the dynamicrapidly evolving field of opticsphotonics while providing them with professional development skillsa deeper understanding of what is needed to succeed as a woman scientist.  The ten day summer school in optics is a partnership between the University of Carthage's Engineering School of Communications, TunisiaPhilipps University from Marburg, Germanyoffers recent TunisianGerman graduate students with scientific orientation, career coachinginternational exchange to lay the groundwork for a successful scientific career.

Rethinking the Future of the STEM Workforce:  Best Practices in Work-Life Effectiveness, , US            
While women comprise roughly half the US work force, they hold just 24% of STEM jobs according the Department of Commerce. Whether the root causes lie in a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, or a lack of family friendly flexibility, the resulting attrition in the academic pipeline means that the US is halving its potential for innovation. The Elsevier Foundation New Scholars program has focused on the holistic, work-life dimension of the STEM workplace including dependent care, dual career relationships, mentoringtravel to professional meetings. The Association of Women in Science (AWIS) will collaborate with the New Scholars program to leverage best practice testimony to impel systemic change in the global STEM workplace. Through an international work-life satisfaction surveya New Scholars Roundtable, AWIS aims distill recommendations into a report that will serve as an action plan to help employers, working women,policymakers identify, createsustain systemic changes.