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The Solvay Science Project

From subsidies to Nobel Prizes

Immediately after its foundation, the International Solvay Institute for Physics launches a programme intended to subsidize experimental research.

This programme is to be implemented by the Institute’s International Scientific Committee and its Secretary, the Danish physicist Martin Knudsen. 

Almost 80,000 Belgian francs (i.e. about 21,181,000 Belgian francs or 525,000 euros in 2017) worth of subsidies are distributed over the course of the first three financial years of the IIPS (in Europe, Russia, the US and Argentina).

The ‘subsidies’ programme of the International Solvay Institute for Physicsare put on hold after the First World War because of the depreciation of the Belgian franc. Only some projects of exceptional interest still receive a Solvay subsidy, such as the Marton subsidy in 1933.

http://bib56.ulb.ac.be/uploads/r/null/e/0/f/e0f7c353bac69f9fe36fd393852c18fa839baae781cf5e19a667632ff25b8752/Solvay_1_193.pdf

Notice sur l'Institut international de physique Solvay : épreuve

Summary of the structure and organization of the IIPS, composition of the International Scientific Committee and of the Administrative Committee. 

http://bib56.ulb.ac.be/uploads/r/null/0/b/e/0bebb5969481ca8e463649d6341c590958375c34c7eebeb724c3011271c9aff9/Solvay_1_1165.pdf

Télégramme d'Ernest Solvay à Hendrik Lorentz, 18 août 1912

Ernest Solvay gives his agreement for a subsidy to be sent to the laboratory of Piotr Lebedew.  

http://bib56.ulb.ac.be/uploads/r/null/6/c/c/6cc2d22503b106c2f33a07bf17c5dde9d6f4e34db52f10e9860309a7581a0934/Solvay_1_MARTON_MICROSCOPE_2.pdf

Microscope électronique de Ladislas Marton 

http://bib56.ulb.ac.be/uploads/r/null/b/c/e/bcef09b2f25c91b93e78e8b103c217b89a1d75c86c92d88fa4fbabb42a45d8c7/Solvay_1_MARTON_MICROSCOPE_1.pdf

Microscope électronique de Ladislas Marton

From subsidies to Nobel Prizes