Title VIII Funding Returns
By Lynda Park, Executive Director
I am delighted to announce that the US State Department has appropriated funding for Title VIII Research and Training for Eastern Europe and Eurasia for the federal fiscal year of 2014 and has announced a new competition for institutions to apply for support.
The Title VIII program has been instrumental in supporting language training and advanced research in our field for thirty years, but failed to receive appropriations in 2013, leading to suspension or reduction of Title VIII-supported programs.
The proposed program amount for the current competition is $1.5 million, which is less than half of the 2012 program budget. Nonetheless, after having been zeroed out in 2013, revival of Title VIII at this critical time is tremendously important for supporting research and training in our field. In addiiton, re-appropriation of funding allows the State Department to maintain the Title VIII program, which makes our future advocacy for the program possible. We thank all those who tirelessly advocated for Title VIII, especially Dan Davidson, President of American Councils for International Education, who just recently testified before House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations regarding the 2016 budget.