Final Report: CREST Center for Energy Efficient Technologies in Ukraine

The goal of CEET was to develop innovative solutions and new technologies to improve energy conservation and efficiency in Ukraine. CEET allowed established researchers, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, to conduct research on energy efficient technologies to international standards using equipment and materials purchased with Global Development Alliance (GDA) funds. During the course of the GDA, CRDF Global accomplished several activities, including holding an open competition to select the Center, organizing a ribbon-cutting ceremony for CEET, training CEET and PNU personnel in financial management, and authorizing CEET to purchase new equipment to upgrade their laboratories. CRDF Global also managed CEET's progress, which included approving personnel changes, payment requests, and periodic reports. Additionally, CRDF Global completed two post-award site visits to CEET and held a competition for young scientists at PNU to participate in research visits to the United States through a program funded by the National Science Foundation. CEET accomplished several activities during the subaward, including receiving and putting into service new equipment and supplies, training 52 students on the new equipment, introducing 16 new courses, publishing 13 new textbooks and educational materials, initiating 36 new research projects, publishing 89 articles in research journals, and receiving four patents. CEET also presented research results at 22 international conferences and hosted two scientific conferences. By most of the quantitative indicators, CEET may be considered a success. One striking achievement is in the number of women participating in CEET. The percentage of female students participating in CEET remained nearly constant at 46-51% throughout the three-year grant period, with numbers of both male and female students approximately doubling. The number of female faculty members also doubled from 5 to 10 while the number of male faculty grew only slightly from 25 to 28. Meetings with students during site visits revealed that the female students were more likely to be outspokenly ambitious, which bodes positively for continued female advancement in this Center. Another area of notable success is the degree to which students and young researchers authored scientific publications. The number of students included as co-authors increased markedly during the course of the project, as did the number of young investigators publishing scientific articles as the primary author. Since an important goal of CEET was to empower early-career scientists to do independent research, this indicator is a direct measure of attainment of this goal. Both undergraduate and graduate students have expressed greater interest in research careers as a result of the experience of being able to do intellectually challenging research in an economically significant research field on state-of-the-art equipment. The record of CEET in establishing and benefiting from collaborations is somewhat mixed. CEET reported a large number of new collaborations with Ukrainian collaborators, and reported a significant number of research publications co-authored with these collaborators. CEET also reported establishing collaborations with nine international research groups, but these interactions yielded a disappointingly small number of jointly-authored papers, suggesting that the level of joint work was not as robust as with other Ukrainian colleagues. The biggest obstacle to success involved the promised cost-share from the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine (MESU). Funding from this source to CEET was chronically delayed and sometimes unpredictable restrictions were imposed on its use. The situation worsened following a change of leadership at MESU in early 2010 and the creation of the State Agency (originally the State Committee) on Science, Innovation and Informatization of Ukraine, which led to protracted confusion over which entity had responsibility for the CREST program. The narrative that follows describes the selection procedure for the CEET host university, the research and educational achievements of CEET, and the monitoring and evaluation activities of CRDF Global. Numerical indicators are then presented with brief descriptions, and a discussion of lessons learned and suggestions for further work. Appendices present certain data such as a listing of scientific publications and conference abstracts prepared by CEET.