Les liaisons fructueuses - RUIG-GIAN

III – Le fonctionnement du RUIG
One of our hopes was to diversify sources of funding
for the GIAN and in 2003 the Secretariat made
substantial efforts to do so, essentially through Swiss
and U.S. foundations. It proved impossible to acquire
funds that the GIAN would subsequently
distribute. Research teams of GIAN-approved
projects, however, often obtained supplemental
and/or follow-up funding from other sources – the
EU, U.S. foundations, Swiss entities – in part, we
and they believe, thanks to the GIAN “label of quality”.
This was often explicitly stated by the donors,
who trusted the GIAN’s quality control.
One of many press conferences organised by the GIAN
Secretariat in collaboration with an IO partner, in
this case, the World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO), concerning the project «Research Networks
and Intellectual Property». From left to right,
Ambassador Clemencia Forero Ucros (Colombia),
Marco Aleman (WIPO) and Cynthia Cannady,
28 September 2005.
A Little Help from Our Friends
The Secretariat relied on or subcontracted partner
institutions in order to rationalise administration
and diminish costs. While the Secretariat prepared
and managed the budget and disbursements, several
accounting tasks were subcontracted to the GIIS,
as were the GIAN’s IT needs. In launching the annual
tendering procedure each autumn, university
partners relayed information via e-mail to professors
and researchers. The GIAN also conducted information
campaigns via the newsletters and websites
of its partner institutions.
As I reflect upon the “GIAN experience”, the human
component comes to mind first. Collaborating
with hundreds of dynamic, creative and thoughtful
individuals concerned with improvement of the
human condition was particularly enriching. An
important aspect of my role was to help make the
connections between IOs and the academic community
and to assist applicants prepare the best
proposal possible, in conformity with the GIAN’s
selection criteria. One of my principal and preferred
functions was discussing research ideas, and often
numerous other issues, with prospective candidates
for GIAN funding.
In many cases, after initial discussions a potential
applicant would send a one-page summary of the
project proposal that the Secretariat would circulate
among potential partners. In each academic institution
we had a contact point that targeted professors
and other collaborators who might be interested in
participating in a particular project. In almost all IOs
we had formal or informal contact persons that fulfilled
the same function, often persons who had participated
in a GIAN project or by another affiliation.
We also contacted professors or IOs directly to solicit
their participation or follow their leads. The system
functioned well but these mise en réseau activities
were time consuming ; nor did they guarantee that
we could locate a counterpart for all requests.
The submission procedure has been valued positively
by the project leaders, although a few research proposals
had to be rewritten several times. In some
cases, RUIG-GIAN was actively involved in bringing
together research teams and in formulating the
research objectives. This support was appreciated.
Report of the Experts, Centre d’études de la science
et de la technologie, March 2003.
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