IUCr finances

It is one of the missions of the IUCr to stimulate the development of crystallography all over the world - in particular, in countries where there is limited funding.  The IUCr lends support to the development of crystallography in a variety of ways; for example, by Visiting Professorships that enable the participation of eminent scientists in workshops and seminars held in developing countries, by sponsorship of international meetings and by providing grants that allow young scientists to participate in international meetings. This support is a very important component of the activities of the IUCr and about $ 150,000 is given yearly in support of meetings and young scientists.

The IUCr has three main sources of income: membership subscriptions, publications and returns from investments built up from income from the journals since 1982; 90% of the total income comes from publications. Publication of crystallographic journals was the driving force in the creation of the IUCr more than 60 years ago, and it is also the publishing activity of the IUCr (the eight journals and International Tables) that has provided the financial basis for the support of young scientists and international crystallographic meetings. Scientific publishing has undergone significant changes requiring major investments in the last 10 years, and in this period it was valuable to have income from the investments.

The IUCr investments are held in the US ($) and the UK (₤), and in 2008 they suffered a similar drop in value as other investments in these countries. However, as the IUCr accounts are given in Swiss francs  (the IUCr is domiciled in Switzerland) and the Swiss franc strengthened in 2008 relative to the $ and the ₤, this led to a further decrease of the value of the assets when expressed in Swiss francs.  The good news from the 2008 accounts is that the publishing activity brought in sufficient money to enable the IUCr to operate with a small surplus overall so that there was no need to sell any assets to finance its activities. [In fact, thanks to the improving markets, the value of the assets expressed in Swiss francs has increased by about 30% since December 2008.]

The IUCr Finance Committee continues to monitor carefully the international financial situation and appreciates the small overall surplus provided by the publishing activity.

The above is based on the Letter from the President in IUCr Newsletter Vol. 17 No. 1