Mr. Jousten started his professional career in 1970 in the private industry. In 1980 he joined the European Commission. His successive assignments were in the Euratom Safeguards Directorate, the Euratom Supply Agency, the Commission Delegation in Vienna (IAEA, UN, Relations with Austria). In 1992 he joined the External Relations Directorate General in Brussels, to be in charge of important sectors of the EU's Tacis Program. From 2001 till 2004 he was Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova in Kiev. Mr. Jousten joined the ISTC in April 2004.

I had the honor and pleasure to begin my tenure as Executive Director of the International Science and Technology Center in 2004; a year that saw the ISTC celebrate the proud milestone of its 10 year anniversary of operations, and charge forward in developing new and innovative programs to meet the changing goals of the ISTC. I am very grateful to the Governing Board, the representatives of the ISTC Parties, ISTC Partners as well as to my colleagues at the Moscow Secretariat and at the regional Branch Offices, for the patience and assistance they provided me as I began my duties this past spring. Scientific innovation moves at an ever-quickening pace; the staff of the ISTC works just as amazingly fast to stay ahead of the cutting-edge nature of our work.

While remaining ever focused on our founding objectives, the Parties to the ISTC have provided our organization with a powerful mandate to continue to evolve into our role as an effective catalyst of innovative research and a loyal supporter of sustainable scientific structures throughout the CIS. Taking a theme raised at the ISTC Ten-Year Anniversary Conference held in Moscow in October, the ISTC cannot rest on its past achievements, we must continue to demonstrate our relevance and value through self-examination and ambitious goal setting.

In 2004 the ISTC moved forward in developing the Programmatic Approach, an effort to more effectively manage the wealth of scientific expertise at CIS institutes and match this talent with real international needs. This past year also saw the ISTC achieve significant progress in our efforts to develop Targeted Initiatives; ISTC project participants successfully demonstrated technology in the framework of the ISTC Fuel Cell Targeted Initiative, and the launch of a Targeted Initiative on Law Enforcement Technology

was announced in cooperation with the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs.

We have also heightened our attention to Intellectual Property issues and expanded our continuously growing network of Partners and collaborators spread across the globe. All this while remembering our founding commitment to nonproliferation and international security.

As the ISTC continues to evolve and expand, we must draw on our unique combination of mutual trust and unprecedented access to unique hi-tech talent, to the benefit of all involved. I witnessed the power of ISTC to bring together various scientific and governmental interests for mutual benefit not long ago, at the opening of the International Science Laboratory in Minsk in June 2004, where Belarusian scientists at the Stepanov Institute will now work on joint projects of international significance with German colleagues from the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing.

Providing CIS scientists and institutes with long-term sustainability remains one of our key tasks. We do this by constantly expanding the ISTC network, bringing new government organizations and private companies into the ISTC framework so they can better realize their scientific and technology goals. Assisting in this process is the Commercialization Support Program, which assists scientific teams bring their promising technology to the global market, with ISTC acting as the conduit to unite global market needs with real CIS expertise. I am confident for the future of the ISTC. With the competence and the dedication of our staff and the continued commitment of our Parties, we will be able to cope with the challenges of the future to the satisfaction of all our stakeholders