GRANT-MAKING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATIONS
IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

Let me note how important these are. Probably the best known are federal governmental foundations such as:

CONACYT in México
http://www.conacyt.mx/

Colciencias in Colombia
http://www.colciencias.gov.co/

CNPq - Conselho Nacional De Desenvolvimento Científico E Tecnológico in Brazil
http://www.cnpq.br/

The Brazilian Innovation Agency
FINEP - Financiadora De Estudos E Projetos
http://www.finep.gov.br

There are also state S&T Foundations, especially Brazil’s state Foundations for Support of Research, (Fundações de Amparo à Pesquisa):

Most notably, perhaps, FAPESP in Sao Paulo (Fundação De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado De SP)
http://www.fapesp.br/

FAPERJ in Rio de Janairo (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado Do RJ)
http:// www.faperj.br

In general, these follow a model in which funding allocations are somewhat separated from political processes, and scientific expertise is brought to bear via peer review.

There are a number of bilateral foundations, such as the US-Israeli foundations:

The Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
http://www.bsf.org.il/

The Binational Industrial Research Foundation (BIRD)
http://www.birdf.com/

The Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
http://www.bard-isus.com/

The Luso-American Foundation (A Fundação Luso-Americana) is in Portugal,
http://www.flad.pt/

The United States-Mexican Science Foundation,
http://www.fumec.org.mx/ingles/ingles.htm

Or the German Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development
http://www.gifres.org.il/

There are also in some cases important private S&T Foundations (which may be operating foundations as well as, or instead of grantmaking foundations) such as:

The Tata Trusts in India
http://www.tata.com/0_beyond_business/trusts/

Fundación Polar in Venezuela
http://www.fpolar.org.ve/index.html

The Mexican Health Foundation (specialized in biomedical S&T)
(La Fundación Mexicana para la Salud (FUNSALUD))
http://www.funsalud.org.mx/

Fundación Chile
http://www.fundch.cl/fundch_i/index_i.cfm

The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in India
http://www.mssrf.org/

The Habibie Foundation for Human Resources in Science and Technology in Indonesia
http://www.habibie.net/

Thus in developing nations, local or locally-managed foundations or foundation-like organizations that benefit from scientific peer review and expertise can be important vehicles for science and technology. Notice, that official multilateral donors may have trouble reaching such foundations, since they usually fund central government agencies.