ISP provides long-term support for the development of active and sustainable research environments within these basic sciences in developing countries. The support is directed to research groups and regional networks. The work is carried out in close cooperation with research groups at more advanced host institutions. Although Uppsala Univ. is the base of the operation, ISP functions as a national programme and host laboratories may be located at other Swedish universities, in other Nordic and European countries, and in the regions. This is to meet the requests from developing countries on their own terms.

ISP support includes equipment, spare parts consumables, technical services, literature, computer hard- and software, and all costs associated with participating in meetings, exchange visits, training, etc. Besides what has been achieved in terms of development and maintenance of resources, contacts, etc., the outcome of ISP support in 2008 can be summarized by the following figures (assuming that one € equals 10 SEK):

• 19 PhD graduations per M€ invested.
• 54 MSc/MPhil graduations per M€ invested.
• 80 international publications per M€ invested.
• 27 regional or national publications per M€ invested.
• 129 conference contributions (> 40% of which international) per M€ invested.