1. Destination Europe Conference
San Francisco
December 6-7, 2012
David Stonner
Office of International and Integrative Activities
National Science Foundation

2. Why Collaborate?

3. Why Europe?

4. SAVI catalyzes the development of virtual institutes to facilitate research collaboration; networking; and technical exchanges between U.S. students, post docs, and junior faculty and their international partners.
SAVI seeks to encourage and facilitate collaboration between teams of NSF-funded scientists and their international partners, moving beyond an institution-to-institution relationship to create virtual institutes with an international dimension around a topic of collective interest
SAVI pays particular attention to STEM workforce development and global awareness by fostering international and cross-institutional engagement of students, post docs, and early career scientists
Although administered by NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering (Bonnie Thompson, DeAndra Beck), SAVI proposals flow from the research directorates and the community and require both directorate level endorsement and financial commitment, demonstrating a commitment to leverage resources within NSF

5. Examples of Currently Funded SAVIs
Innovations in Learning and Education – Finland
Yeast Chromosome Synthesis and Analysis – UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France, China, India
Plasma Physics – Germany
Mathematics and Climate Change – Netherlands, UK, Australia, India
Student Network in the Physics of Living Systems – France, Germany, UK, India, China
Thematic Network in Spatial Cognition – Germany, UK, Australia, Netherlands

6. NSF/European Commission Implementing
Arrangement (July, 2012)
Provides opportunities for NSF-funded early career scientists and engineers to pursue research collaborations with European colleagues supported through the European Research Council (ERC) awards..
3 pilot SAVI awards
10 FY12 SAVIs
2 framework SAVIs with EC (CAREER Focus) and East Asia (GRF) agreed upon in principle; working groups finalizing the implementation arrangements