Scientific research has traditionally been left to professionals in Russia. Here, though, graduates and undergraduates work alongside established scientists from different fields, on modern equipment. Some even earn enough money to support themselves. The students have been given this chance under a joint program of the United States and Russia founded nearly a decade ago with one primary aim: to revive Russian science nationwide by strengthening basic research in universities. The program, which supports 20 research and education centers at state universities, has been so successful that the Russian Ministry of Education and Science used it as a model in 2006 when it unilaterally founded 15 similar university-based centers focusing on the natural sciences and four in the humanitarian and social sciences. Today Southern Federal is the only university in southwest Russia that houses a research and education center under the Basic Research in Higher Education program of the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation.