Dynasty: A Non-Profit Foundation

The non-profit Dynasty Foundation was founded in 2002 by Dmitry Zimin, president emeritus of Vimpelcom, Inc. (Beeline).

The Dynasty Foundation seeks out talented scientists, scholars, and educators. It supports their ideas and projects in the natural and social sciences.

The Foundation's priorities are the development of fundamental scientific research and education in Russia, creating conditions so that scientists can research and teach at home in Russia, the popularization of science and civic education.

The Dynasty Foundation is the first private nonprofit foundation supporting science and education in modern Russia. It is managed by a Board of Directors, who make decisions about strategic development and set the Foundation's priorities.

Dynasty runs thirty programs and projects for the support and popularization of science and the development of formal and civic education. These include programs that support gifted schoolchildren, future scientists, young physicists, mathematicians, biologists and teachers.

The Foundation is especially proud of its popular science website Elements (elementy.ru, Russian) and the Dynasty Foundation Library publishing project.

Each year, the Foundation holds fifteen open grant competitions. Grants are awarded to young theoretical physicists, young mathematicians, young biologists, teachers of physics, and others.

Russia's leading scientists, teachers, and experts in education, publishing, and museum work are members of our Academic Council, which judges our science and education grant competitions. They also serve on the advisory councils that help us manage our other programs.

The Dynasty Foundation is a Steering Committee member of the Grantmakers East Forum and the member of the Donors Forum, a major association of Russian and foreign grantmaking organizations.

The Foundation also focuses on the development of Russian philanthropy. We actively cooperate both with major philanthropic organizations and the expert community. Among the Foundation's partners are the Donors Forum; the International Center for Fundamental Physics, Moscow; the Natural Science Foundation; and such internationally recognized institutions of higher learning as the New Economic School and the European University at Saint Petersburg.

In 2012, the Dynasty Foundation elected to the Governing Council of the European Foundation Centre. The Dynasty Foundation is currently the only Russian foundation in the EFC Governing Council.

Since it upholds the principles of openness and transparency, the Foundation makes its annual reports available to the public.

In a mere ten years, Dynasty has gone from being a small private foundation to becoming one of the most professional major philanthropic foundations in Russia.

The planned 2015 budget for programs and projects of the Foundation is 435 million rubles (352 million rubles in 2014, 328 million rubles in 2013, 314 million rubles in 2012).

Anna Piotrovskaya Executive Director tells about the activities of the Dynasty Foundation.15^th Annual Grantmakers East Forum. 2010 (video)

Quick Facts about the Foundation

In 2007, for the first time in Russian history, a private foundation—Dynasty—was turned over to a board of trustees appointed from members of the public.
In 2013, Dmitry Zimin was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. The founder of the Dynasty Foundation is the first Russian philanthropist to be recognized with this prestigious award.
In 2015, Zimin was awarded a national prize “For Faithfulness to Science” in the category “For Patronage of Science” for significant contribution in popularizing science and supporting the scientific community.
In 2015, the Foundation’s operating budget is 435 million rubles.
In 2012, the Dynasty Foundation was elected to the Governing Council of the European Foundation Centre.
Each year, the Foundation runs 15 open grant competitions. Grants are awarded to young theoretical physicists, young mathematicians, biologists, high school math and science teachers, and others..
Preeminent scientists from Russia’s leading centers for research in theoretical physics and mathematics join our country’s best teachers on the advisory boards that name the winners of our grant competitions.
Each year, more than 100 young physicists—students, grad students, postdocs, professors—receive stipends and grants from the Foundation that enable them to do their research work at home in Russia.
The Foundation has supported more than 400 international and local scientific conferences and seminars on fundamental physics.
Each year, 490 Russian math and science teachers win grants from the Foundation for their outstanding work.
Four Dynasty laureates entered the finals of the all-Russian competition “Teacher of the Year–2012.”
In 2009 the support program for teachers was widened: in addition to physics and mathematics teachers, chemistry and biology teachers will also participate beginning in 2010.
In 2012 the Dynasty Foundation started a project for supporting biologists' participation in short-term thematic courses organized by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and European Molecular Biology Organization.
In 2012 the Genome Data Analysis educational course with participation of teachers from the Cold Spring Harbor was held for the first time in Russia.
In 2012 the first school on molecular and theoretical biology for high school children was held at the RAS Pushchino Scientific Center laboratories on the initiative of the Dynasty Foundation.
In 2013, the Biochemical Pharmacology journal accepted for publication a scientific paper co-authored by school students—the participants of the first school of molecular and theoretical biology for upper-grade school students, which was organized in 2012.
In 2013, a project for supporting seasonal schools in the area of biology, mathematics, physics, and chemistry was launched.
In 2013, new competitions were conducted with support from the Yandex founders Ilya Segalovich and Arkady Volozh—Competition for Organizing Instructional Courses at Russian Colleges, Science Project Competition in the area of Computer Science, and Competition for Young Scientists' Participation in Conferences and Seasonal Schools in Computer Sciences.
In 2008, the popular science website Elements, which was developed with support from the Foundation, was recognized the best science education website on the Russian segment of the Internet.
The Foundation organizes public lectures by world-class scientists and scholars—physicists, mathematicians, biologists, and economists.
In 2009 the project “Science Without Borders” started: in the framework of this project, the world's leading scientists give open public lectures accessible at any point of Russia and the world via the internet.
In 2009 two categories of the “Enlightener Prize” were established: natural science and the humanities.
In 2011, the second international popular science festival ScienceArtFest was held by the Dynasty Foundation. It lasted 25 days and was visited by over 15,000 people.
In 2013, a competition for conducting popular science festivals in Russian regions was organized for the first time in the framework of the Science Days project. This year 25 applications were submitted from 20 Russian regions. Dynasty supported two projects, from Novosibirsk Oblast and Irkutsk Oblast.
In 2014, the annual Dynasty summer school on theoretical physics acquired an international status and was held in English for the first time.
The school “X-ray astronomy and particle astrophysics” was held in Zelenogorsk near Saint Petersburg 15–26 July 2014.
In 2014, the Science Days Festival was successfully held in Kamchatka—one of the most remote Russian regions.
In 2014, the annual festival for inquisitive Muscovites “Enlightener Day” was nominated for the prize “The Moscow Times Awards 2014” in the category “the event of the year in the area of culture.”
In 2014, the Dynasty Foundation and Independent Moscow University held the competition “Life dedicated to mathematics” to encourage scientists with significant contribution in mathematics and its development in Russia. Ten Russian scientists were awarded the prize.
In 2014,the paper, “Comparative genomics of transcriptional regulation of methionine metabolism in proteobacteria,” was published in the international journal PLOS ONE. The paper was coauthored by school student participants of the Summer Molecular and Theoretical Biology School organized by the Dynasty Foundation in 2013.