IFS was founded in 1972 as a non-governmental organization in Sweden, where its Secretariat is located in Stockholm. Its establishment was initiated after the 1965 Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash Conference in Venice, in order to foster original Research and Scientific growth within Low- and Lower -Middle Income Countries (LLMICs). IFS is a global organization that is supported by a multicultural Secretariat, is governed by an international Board of Trustees that has representation from all regions in which it operates, as well as expertise in fund-raising, management and finance, and has a membership of 92 scientific academies, three-quarters of which are located in LLMICs. IFS has a vision of LLMIC scientists assuming ownership and development of local and regional research agendas and contributing to a global research community committed to supporting sustainable development and building science literacy. The IFS Mission is to secure resources and draw on its extensive global network of reviewers, scientific advisors, alumni and secretariat to enhance the capacity of promising early career women and men scientists in LLMICs to acquire the skills necessary to: o conduct original research that relates to genuine problems and generates fundamental and / or applicable scientific knowledge that can be put to use; o contribute to science literacy; o communicate their results to the public at large, including scientists, politicians and policy makers, donors and private interest groups; o influence science priority setting; and o network and collaborate with the global research community to shape research agendas, both local and global.