Iowa State’s International Women in Science and Engineering recently received a $300,000 U.S. Information Agency grant to retrain women scientists in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

IWISE applied for the grant after being informed that the agency would be accepting proposals to help link universities in the United States to Ukraine, said Mary Ann Evans, IWISE co-director and director of ISU’s Program for Women in Science and Engineering.

“After working for two years with scientists in Ukraine, it was clear to us that there are many scientists with fine backgrounds who are not employed,” Evans said. “We convinced the agency through our proposal that it would be a worthy project.”

ISU will be working with Kharkiv State Polytechnic University to assess the situation and to organize programs that will aid in retraining women scientists.

“Kharkiv enjoyed a well-earned reputation as one of the top education and science centers of the former Soviet Union and today occupies an important place as an intellectual center in independent Ukraine,” Ardith Maney, IWISE co-director and political science professor said in the press release.

“However, as a result of the economic shocks which have hit Ukraine, thousands of women with advanced scientific and technical training are currently unemployed or underemployed in Kharkiv and the surrounding region,” Maney said.

Maney is in Ukraine now leading the first ISU team on a workforce needs assessment. A group of Ukranian women scientists, faculty and administrators will travel to Iowa in March, after which Evans will lead the second ISU group to Ukraine to launch the program, according to a press release.

The goal of the three-year project is to retrain women scientists to enhance their career opportunities specifically in areas such as business management and computing and environmental engineering, Evans said.

The retraining also is intended to give women more involvement in political and economic decision making in Ukraine.

“Our ultimate goal is to help the university establish a continued education center for retraining after the grant ends,” she said.

A difference in culture and experience will provide a challenge for the ISU team working in Ukraine, Evans said.

She said the Ukranian people they will be working with have been taught not to trust the private sector or to take responsibility for themselves as an entrepreneur.

“The same thing that makes this project a challenge also excites us,” she said. “If we are successful, we will be doing something wonderful.”