Elsevier Foundation Awards 2013 Grants to Champion Libraries in Developing Countries and Women in Science

$700,000 awarded to Innovative Libraries, New Scholars and Nurse Faculty Programs

Amsterdam, December 9, 2013

The Elsevier Foundation announced today the 2013 grant recipients for the Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries and New Scholars award programs. In total, $700,000 has been committed to ten institutions around the world in addition to five ongoing multiyear grants and the Nurse Faculty program. The Elsevier Foundation is funded by Elsevier, a global provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

“We are always on the lookout for game-changing projects that can serve as models with lasting impact on our health and science communities,” said David Ruth, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation and Senior Vice President Global Communications, Elsevier. “This year, we’ve identified some very compelling new opportunities to support big data, research capacity building, transparency and evidence-based medicine in the developing world. Our New Scholars grants focus on boosting team science diversity and innovation, targeting STEM inclusion in community colleges and a unique tropical health partnership between Portuguese speaking women scientists in Africa and their Portuguese counterparts. We are excited to able to add these excellent projects to the Foundation’s record of support for advancing science and health in new and innovative ways.”

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. The 2013 library grant recipients address real developing world issues through the use of STM information resources and include:

• Author Capacity Building in Africa, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
• Towards the Collaborative repository for Ethiopian academic and research institutions, Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries (CEARL) and African Digital Library Support Network (ADLSN).
• Library Information Resources to Enhance the University of Ghana, School of Public Health Program, Morehouse School of Medicine
• Strengthening education, research and practice in emergency care: Information skills integration in the Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative, Taubman Health Sciences Library, University of Michigan Library
• Developing a Globally Connected LIBRARY 4 SAFE SEAFARING (L4SS), Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation, Philippines

Joy Paulson, Director, TEEAL Project and International Projects Librarian, Cornell University, remarked, “We are very excited to receive support from the Elsevier Foundation for the development and implementation of our author capacity building program. Building on the access to Research4Life and TEEAL and the e-resources training connected to them, this new program will focus on developing the skills to enable young faculty in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Malawi to publish the results of their research in international journals. In the long run, this will ensure that the results of African agricultural research are disseminated more widely.”

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. The 2013 grants include:

• Strengthening Team Science & Work Life Satisfaction in the UC System, University of California Santa Barbara
• African Network of Portuguese speaking women in Tropical Health, Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Portugal
• Cambridge Equality Collaboration: Advancing Women in Science within & beyond Cambridge, University of Cambridge
• Motivating Enrollment of Women into STEM Majors, LaGuardia Community College
• Womens IS Network, Worcester Polytechnic University

Jeremy Sanders, the University of Cambridge’s Pro-Vice Chancellor said, “The New Scholars funding from Elsevier is very welcome as it will enable us to expand and extend some of our most exciting collaborative gender equality projects over the next two years. The University of Cambridge is committed to supporting the advancement of women in STEMM disciplines in recruitment, retention and promotion. Our aim is to develop the best possible practice in this area and the funding from Elsevier will allow us to continue this innovative and partnership work.”

In 2013, the Elsevier Foundation’s Nurse Faculty Program committed to an additional multiyear grant (2014-2016) to Sigma Theta Tau International Foundation for Nursing to continue developing an 18 month leadership academy and alleviate the nursing faculty shortage through retaining and transitioning 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, 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. 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 and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby’s Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. The group employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 15,000 in North America. Reed Elsevier Group plc is owned equally by two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. Their shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL.

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Ylann Schemm
Senior Corporate Responsibility Manager, Elsevier
+31 (0) 20 485 2025
newsroom@elsevier.com