IOCD Founders Fund

Dr. Pierre Crabbé
(1928-1987),
IOCD Founder

Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg,
IOCD President (1981-1992)

Dr. Elkan R. Blout,
IOCD Vice President and Treasurer
(1982-2005)

THE IOCD FOUNDERS FUND COMMEMORATES the pioneering work of three scientists who were founders of IOCD: Pierre Crabbé, the first Director; Glenn Seaborg, the first President; and Elkan Blout, the first Vice President and Treasurer.

With resources of the Founders Fund, IOCD finances capacity-building with promising early-career scientists of developing countries, especially by helping them network with distinguished specialists in the US and Europe to set up research collaborations with the specialists, or to obtain training opportunities in their laboratories.

FOUNDERS FUND FINANCES TRAVEL GRANTS

To date, IOCD has drawn on the Founders Fund to award travel grants to 40 early-career scientists, including post-doctoral researchers, from developing countries such as Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, India, Nigeria, and Sudan, for their participation in international congresses and conferences sponsored by IOCD and collaborating institutions in the US and Europe. These conferences have included:

• The 2007 Annual Congress of the COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action B22, entitled 'Drug Development for Parasitic Diseases', held in collaboration with over 20 European universities;
• The 2007 conference on 'Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Clinical Studies of Asian Plants', organized by the IOCD Working Group on Plant Chemistry, Surabaya, Indonesia, which brought together 100 leading specialists in plant chemistry from around the world.

Participation in these international meetings enables the early-career scientists to network with internationally distinguished scientists, thereby acquiring new ideas and cultivating relationships that can translate into working visits and on-going collaborations.

ENLARGING THE FOUNDERS FUND TO FINANCE RESEARCH GRANTS

IOCD is enlarging the Founders Fund so that small research grants may be awarded to early-career scientists carefully selected from among those receiving IOCD travel grants. The modest research grant supports collaborative research by the awardee with a distinguished international specialist whom he/she has met at an international meeting.

The first research grant of $5,000 was awarded to Dr. Marco Sealey-Cardona, who had received an IOCD travel grant to the COST B22 Congress in 2007. Under the research grant, Dr Sealey-Cardona is receiving advanced training in the laboratory of a collaborating scientist he met at the COST congress.

THE FOUNDERS FUND: AN ONGOING IOCD MISSION

Initially, funds in the IOCD Founders Fund came from the current grant to IOCD from the Aventis Foundation, but IOCD now seeks to expand the resources of the Founders Fund with the support of other foundations and donor agencies, both public and private. Serving as the Honorary Chair of the IOCD Founders Fund is Ms. Gail Blout, wife of the late Elkan Blout, founding Vice President and Treasurer of IOCD.  In this way, she is paying tribute to her late husband's years of work helping scientists in developing countries develop to their fullest potential. Ms Blout currently works as a Selectman for the town of Gosnold in Dukes County, Massachusetts.

For further information about the Founders Fund, Ms. Blout invites you to contact her.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

You can contribute to this important initiative by donating here.