Activities on forming the Russian ISS RS Science Research and Experiments Program were initiated in 1995 following the announcement of a competition among scientific establishments, industrial companies and higher education establishments. Four hundred and six applications from more than 80 organizations in eleven major research areas were received.

In 1999 with regard to the technical feasibility study of the received applications performed by RSC Energia specialists the Long-Term ISS Russian Segment Science and Applied Research and Experiments Program was developed and approved by Yu. N. Koptev, General Director of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and, Yu. S. Osipov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Beginning with the docking of the Soyuz-TM 31 transport vehicle carrying the ISS-1 crew (W. Shepperd, expedition commander, Yu. Gidzenko, pilot, S.Krikalev, flight-engineer) on November 2, 2000 a manned space station operation and research and experiments phase has been started.