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This approach enabled the academies to control the funds and, of course, the selection of candidates for the programs from their countries and the acceptance of candidates proposed by counterpart academies. There were many exchanges among the countries of Eastern Europe outside the framework of the quota systems of the academies. But the academy systems were widely recognized in Eastern Europe as a good, although tightly controlled, international route for research scientists to follow in order to help ensure availability of funding and to avoid at least some potential political and security problems.

In the late 1960s, the political situation in Czechoslovakia, and to some 14 Interacademy Programs Between the United States and Eastern Europe 1967-2009 extent in Hungary and Poland, became more liberal, enabling scientists to communicate and travel internationally more freely. More researchers, regardless of political affiliations, began to enjoy the benefits of formal and informal international research arrangements. Thus, there was considerable interest in the scientific communities in the newly evolving interacademy arrangements.

An annual quota for visits specified in months was prescribed. For example, Box 1-4 sets forth the quotas in 1978, although the quotas changed frequently, depending on availability of funds and on application pressures in the United States and in partner countries. Because the programs were supported by NSF, the topics that could be covered were limited to the following: physical, biological, or engineering sciences; social or behavioral sciences, with an emphasis on empirical and quantitative analysis of individual and group behavior; and biomedical sciences.