The Beacon will feature news items about innovative program initiatives and the academic achievements of rescued scholars, as well as messages from IIE-SRF allies on why they have committed their essential resources: time, expertise, wisdom, and funding to the mission of rescuing threatened scholars and national academies.

"Every day, scholars around the world are threatened with violence, imprisonment, surveillance, censorship, and even death on account of their academic status," writes Mark Angelson, Chairman, IIE Scholar Rescue Fund. "In this inaugural issue, our remarkably able staff sets forth some of the most critical areas of our current work, such as helping scholars from Syria and Iraq."