FREDERICTON (GNB) – The provincial government, through the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, announced today that 192 students were awarded the first New Brunswick Graduate Scholarships.
The students received a total of $1.3 million from the foundation plus an additional $712,000 from their host universities and $2.3 million from national granting agencies.
“Our government’s priority is creating jobs and growing our economy,” said Premier Brian Gallant, who is also the minister responsible for innovation. “Innovation is a big part of New Brunswick’s economy, and our government is happy that our universities are being given the incentives they need to help create New Brunswick’s most job-ready generation by attracting and training outstanding students.”
Some of the projects being funded by the scholarships include an actuated arm for capturing unmanned underwater vehicles launched by submarines, a new holographic stenography technique and more efficient nozzle designs for aircraft de-icing.
The New Brunswick Graduate Scholarship fund awards scholarships ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 per year for masters or doctoral studies at publicly-funded New Brunswick post-secondary institutions. It is administered by the foundation on behalf of the provincial government.
“This is the first time graduate students have received provincial scholarships, allowing our universities to compete with other provinces in the recruitment of the best candidates,” said foundation chair Robert Hatheway. “Building an innovation-based economy for New Brunswick involves a number of mechanisms, and providing scholarships for science, technology, engineering, math and social innovation is part of our long term strategy—to educate and retain the human capital we need to feed our innovation-based companies.”
With masters’ student receiving between $4,000 and $7,000, and doctoral candidates up to $21,000 each, the purpose of the scholarships is to encourage students already studying in the province to undertake their graduate studies and launch their careers here. It also attracts talented graduate students from other parts of Canada and around the world. Of the 192 recipients, 76 per cent are New Brunswick residents, 14 per cent are from other provinces, and 10 per cent are from other countries including the United States, Belgium and China.
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06-11-14