Under its science without borders programme, the Brazilian government will provide 75,000 scholarships for promising students to study overseas during the next four years. The first 1,500 students have already been selected, and the next round is for a further 12,500 scholarships. Successful students will take up their fully funded places at universities in the US, UK, Germany, Italy and France starting this year.
Launched in July 2011, the scholarship programme aims to address this expanding economy’s shortage of chemists, physicists, computer scientists and engineers. It includes funding for 34,000 doctoral students, although most places would be for undergraduates and run for one year.
Brazilian ministers have challenged business to fund an additional 26,000 scholarships. The government is also looking to attract foreign scientists to Brazil by funding 390 three-year grants for visiting researchers. In addition, it is offering posts for 860 outstanding young researchers. “With strong growth, economic stability, democracy and increasing investments in research, Brazil has become attractive for scientists,” says Aloizio Mercadante, minister of science, technology and innovation. In all, there are 238 foreign universities involved in the scholarship scheme, which were selected on the basis of rankings, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Announcing the latest round of applications, which closed last month, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said: “We will need in the coming years men and women very well prepared and trained to ensure an increase in competitiveness of our economy and our country through science and innovation.”
(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)