Apply for Research Grants
Any person, institution, government, or intergovernmental or non-governmental organization may submit a proposal.
The Science Project Program is the most comprehensive nonproliferation activity conducted by the ISTC. Through this program, the ISTC solicits scientific project proposals from institutes throughout the CIS countries and Georgia and provides funding and logistic support to project teams. Project teams receive written concurrence from the host country on whose territory their research will be conducted, and then develop and execute their project with foreign collaborating organizations. Foreign collaborators ensure the project goals contribute to the state-of-the-art in the field, and that results will find applications in real problems in basic and applied research.
Areas of Interest (AOI) focus on areas of thematic interest allowing a guided approach to addressing pressing global issues of common concern. Areas of Interest are identified collaboratively in response to members’ needs and priorities and are used to help direct the selection of new projects. Current Areas of Interest focus areas include:
General Application Process
In order to prepare an application, you must first register on this Proposal Portal (please see User Manual #1). After you have registered you will be welcomed to your Applications Home page, which is where you will fill out and manage your profile, application form and all information relating to your application(s). The Application guideline will specify whether and how you need to do so.
ISTC gives you the opportunity to launch new Project Proposals and discuss them with other scientists, collaborators and potential partners. You can also join ongoing discussions on being interested in your themes.
ISTC does not accept a Project Proposal as a hard copy (paper) document. But to get the Host Government Concurrence Letter a hard copy document is needed on Step 2. That's why it is possible to generate a MS Word file, which can be printed out. By this way you get the Proposal document in English. If necessary, the Proposal should be translated into other languages – as before. All the information you will need to fill will be listed in the Application guideline for your chosen call (please see User Manual #2, User Manual # 3). Be sure to follow these guidelines closely. Proposals not compliant with the criteria and instructions will be returned to the authors for revision.
Complete proposals will be submitted to the members of ISTC Scientific Advisory Committee SAC for evaluation. The ISTC Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), conducts an impartial review for scientific-technical merit. The Governing Board approves proposals and considers project funding. A proposal may be approved with funding, approved without funding, recommended for redrafting or rejected. The applicants are informed in writing of the results of consideration by the Governing Board.
ISTC is currently preparing the next Call for Project Proposals, which is planned to be launched no earlier than Spring 2026. Details regarding the timeline, application guidelines, and submission requirements will be published on this website and on the ISTC Proposal Portal as soon as they become available.
We kindly invite interested applicants to check this page regularly for updates. Information on the new call — including deadlines for Step 1 (summary submission) and Step 2 (full proposal submission) — will be announced well in advance to allow sufficient time for preparation.
For questions, please use the FAQ section or contact us at portal@istc.int.
Executive Memo on the change of procedure/policy on scanned documents (issued on 24 July 2014)
The ISTC Proposal Portal link: https://www.portal.istc.int
The ISTC Portal Instructions: https://www.portal.istc.int/help/Instructions/
