Coordinated Research Activities
Historical Background
In 1958, the IAEA began concluding research contracts with laboratories and other scientific institutes in Member States. At the time this was a novel activity for an Agency of the United Nations.
Funding was provided to a handful of research contracts; the 1959 budget included $315,000 to defray the costs of small research contracts and studies concerning radioactive waste disposal. The research was related to safeguards, radiation protection, safety, and health, and preference was given at that time to research where the results were likely to have an immediate bearing on the Agency's functional activities in these fields.
Considerable emphasis was placed on research of a more fundamental nature. In the early 1960s, however, the Agency promoted a shift of emphasis towards research of a practical nature, based on the importance of results of this type of research for the more immediate interests of developing Agency Member States. Today, research activities span the majority of the Agency's technical programmes, with a budget of more than $6 million, and over 1000 research contracts, and 200 research agreements.