AbstractUnesco initiated the ICSOPRU project to improve the ways in which scientific research is utilized. The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences has been involved in this project since 1979. The six stages of the national machinery of the ICSOPRU are described and examples given of how the recommendations made have lead to decisions being made in the USSR.The Unesco project should be built upon to form a permanent national data bank. This could be used to help identify the capabilities of scientific teams in different countries. Further development of computerized data bank networks would improve the approach to data collection, analysis and simulation.