Elsevier Foundation Awards 2011 Grants to Advance Women in Science and Support Libraries in Developing Countries

AMSTERDAM, January 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –

$650,000 awarded to Innovative Libraries, New Scholars and Nurse Faculty Programs

The Elsevier Foundation [http://www.elsevierfoundation.org ] announced today the 2011
grant recipients for the Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries and New Scholars
award programs. In total, $650,000 has been committed to nine institutions around the
world in addition to seven ongoing multiyear grants and the Nurse Faculty program. The
Elsevier Foundation is funded by Elsevier [http://www.elsevier.com ], a global provider of
scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

“Each of the diverse projects supported by the Elsevier Foundation has the potential
for an immediate and enduring impact on our health and science communities,” said David
Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation and Senior Vice President Global
Communications, Elsevier. “We welcome the chance to support these organizations’ efforts
to foster new ways to leverage science and health information for development and to
facilitate career development in STM fields.”

Innovative Libraries

The Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries program awards grants to libraries
for innovation in improving access and use of scientific, technical and medical
information. Past projects include: expanding information resources through digitization
and knowledge preservation; training and education for librarians and researchers, and
developed-developing world partnerships providing longer term technical assistance and
training.

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

        - A Solution in Sight: Eight Developing Country Resource Centers Improve
          Access to the World's Ophthalmic Information,Seva Foundation [http://www.seva.org ],
          US
        - Strengthening Agricultural Researchers and Extension Staff's Skills for Access
          to, Use and sharing of Agricultural Information Resources in Tanzania, Sokoine
          National Agricultural Library [http://www.suanet.ac.tz/lib ], Tanzania
        - Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare, Library Training, Royal Tropical
          Institute [http://www.kit.nl/-/INS/52859/Royal-Tropical-Institute ] (KIT),
          Netherlands
        - Nuclear Claims Tribunal Records Preservation, Nuclear Claims
          Tribunal [http://www.nuclearclaimstribunal.com ], Republic of the MarshallIsland
        - Improving Library Resource Sharing Through the Union Catalogue Among Laos
          Libraries Central Library, National University of Laos
          [http://www.nuol.edu.la/index.php ], 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, doctors and nurses 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 careers and addresses
the attrition rate of talented women scientists. Recent grants have promoted institutional
research, advocacy, and policy development to retain, recruit and develop women in science
and have enabled researchers to attend conferences critical to their careers by assisting
with childcare, mentorship and networking.

The 2011 grants include

        - Scenario Toolkit for Advancing Careers in Science, Portia Ltd
          [http://www.portiaweb.org.uk/index.html ] (EU)
        - STEM CIC Writing Retreat Board of Regents,University of Nebraska
          [http://www.unl.edu ], University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US
        - Get Ahead with Optics: Career Development for Women in Science, University of
          Carthage,Engineering School of Communications [http://www.cnas.org.tn/home.htm ],
          Tunisia
        - Rethinking the Future of the STEM Workforce: Best Practices in Work-Life
          Effectiveness, Association of Women in Science [http://www.awis.org ], US

“The attrition of top talent from the scientific workforce severely hampers countries’
ability to lead in innovation and stay 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.”

In 2011, the Elsevier Foundation’s Nurse Faculty Program
[http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews05_01839 ] also
awarded a multiyear grant to Sigma Theta Tau International Foundation for Nursing
[http://www.nursingsociety.org ] to develop an 18 month leadership academy and alleviate
the nursing faculty shortage through retaining and transitioning new nurse educators to
the faculty role.

# # #

About The Elsevier Foundation

The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate charity funded by Elsevier, a global provider
of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The Elsevier
Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a
focus on developing world libraries, nurse faculty and scholars 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 local and global communities. http://www.elsevierfoundation.org

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider 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
[http://www.thelancet.com ] and Cell [http://www.cell.com ], and close to 20,000 book
titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online
solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect [http://www.sciencedirect.com ], SciVerse Scopus
[http://www.scopus.com ], Reaxys [http://www.reaxys.com ], MD Consult
[http://www.mdconsult.com ] and Nursing Consult [http://www.nursingconsult.com ], which
enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite
[http://www.scival.com ] and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review [http://www.medai.com ], which help
research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier [http://www.elsevier.com ]
employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC
[http://www.reed-elsevier.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).

Elsevier Foundation

2011 Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries

Grant Awards

A Solution in Sight: Eight Developing Country Resource Centers Improve Access to the
World’s Ophthalmic Information, Seva Foundation [http://www.seva.org ],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 centers and trained 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; and Lumbini
Eye Institute in Nepal will work with the Seva Foundation and the Association of Vision
Science Librarians (AVSL) to provide training, mentoring, and tool development to
significantly enhance the librarians’ ability to make relevant scientific, technical, and
medical information available to eye doctors and health care workers locally, regionally,
and globally.

Strengthening Agricultural Researchers and Extension Staff’s Skills for Access to, Use
and Sharing of Agricultural Information Resources in Tanzania, Sokoine National
Agricultural Library [http://www.suanet.ac.tz/lib ], Tanzania While information and
communication 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 researchers and extension staff, who play a central role in economic
development, is significantly enhanced by tailored training in the search, use and sharing
of the information that is now accessible through these technologies. Sokoine National
Agricultural Library, a university and national 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 production and security. It will strengthen the
agricultural network within the country and will specifically target farmers–the most
challenging link in the information literacy chain.

Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare, Library Training, Royal Tropical
Institute [http://www.kit.nl/-/INS/52859/Royal-Tropical-Institute ] Evidence Based Health
Care or Medicine (EBHC) is major priority in medical faculties, schools of public health,
national ministries in wealthier countries and in the WHO. This project focuses on the key
role played by information specialists in the practice and implementation of EBHC in the
developing world. Medical doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers across eight
African countries will be taught the skills of searching and retrieving, evaluating and
implementing medical literature and evidence into clinical and public health to improve
patient care. Courses will be conducted in medical schools, schools of public health and
libraries 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 [http://www.cebha.org ]), a network of faculties of
medicine, schools of public health, ministries and NGOs that support an African healthcare
system based on informed and evidence-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 issues and alternative and
complementary medicine.

Nuclear Claims Tribunal Records Preservation, Nuclear Claims Tribunal
[http://www.nuclearclaimstribunal.com ] 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
contamination and international 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 RMI and the 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 scientific and medical reports, papers, articles and other
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,
and digitize the library holdings and official files of the Tribunal in order to ensure
that those records can be made available to future researchers, students, decision-makers,
and other interested parties.

Improving Library Resource Sharing Through the Union Catalogue among Laotian
Libraries, Central Library, National University of Laos [http://www.nuol.edu.la/index.php
], Laos

With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, the National University of Laos will
provide the Laos Library and Information Consortium (LALIC) with a unified and
comprehensive open source digital library information system to increase library staff and
users’ access to scientific, technical, and medical information and materials. Researchers
from across the 20 member library consortium will be able to access one search engine that
compiles all metadata from the library collections’ network and electronic databases;
access library collections across member libraries; and 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, Portia Ltd
[http://www.portiaweb.org.uk/index.html ] (EU)

The European Commission’s recent public consultation on strengthening the role of
women in science yielded professional development feedback: the need for career models and
pathways; balancing career aspirations and family responsibilities; childcare issues and
costs, mobility, dual career couples, and 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 events and decisions that
shape a scientist’s professional development through the doctoral and postdoc stages.
Portia, a UK-based non-profit, will pilot the scenario method through workshops delivered
with two partners; the Technical University Berlin and Tel Aviv University. Portia’s
scenario toolkit moves beyond traditional mentorship to provide an innovative new strategy
for improving the career success of female scientists and engineers.

STEM CIC Writing Retreat, University of Nebraska [http://www.unl.edu ], University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, US

With a grant from the Elsevier Foundation, the University of Nebraska aims to retain
women scientists by improving research productivity and promoting 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 success and social connections,
this program has the potential to serve as a model that can be easily replicated across
institutions and disciplines to help retain STEM women in academia.

Get Ahead with Optics: Career Development for Women in Science, University of
Carthage,Engineering School of Communications [http://www.cnas.org.tn/home.htm ], Tunisia

Over the last years, optics research has become an indispensable part of daily life.
Fiber optics for telecoms, medical imaging and cancer research, optical parts in cars,
computer and 3D screens are at the core of the world’s technical infrastructure. This
interdisciplinary proposal from Tunisia aims to orient young women scientists in the
dynamic and rapidly evolving field of optics and photonics while providing them with
professional development skills and a 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, Tunisia and Philipps
University from Marburg, Germany and offers recent Tunisian and German graduate students
with scientific orientation, career coaching and international exchange to lay the
groundwork for a successful scientific career.

Rethinking the Future of the STEM Workforce: Best Practices in Work-Life
Effectiveness, Association of Women in Science [http://www.awis.org ], 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, mentoring and
travel 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 survey and a New Scholars Roundtable, AWIS aims distill recommendations into
a report that will serve as an action plan to help employers, working women, and
policymakers identify, create and sustain systemic changes.

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

SOURCE Elsevier