Canada:Doctoral Student Research Award (DSRA) For All Countries

This program is designed to assist full-time graduate students at degree-granting institutions of higher education, whose dissertations are related in substantial part to Canada, to undertake doctoral research about Canada. The purpose is to increase knowledge and understanding of Canada and to support the development of Canadian Studies. The award provides assistance towards international airfare and a monthly flat rate allowance for up to a maximum of 6 months spent in Canada while doing research.

Research Fields

Awards may be granted for research in any of the following categories:

1. Although we welcome applications from all disciplines lending themselves most readily to Canadian Studies research development, we are particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada’s foreign policy. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada’s foreign policy include Democracy & Rule of Law, Economic Development, Environment, Managing Diversity, North American Partnership, Peace and Security;
2. Comparative studies with substantial Canadian content (33% or more);
3. Aspects of Canada's bilateral relations with participating countries.

(Purely scientific subjects such as physics, chemistry, medicine, engineering, etc. which would not lead to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada per se are not eligible, nor are proposals which focus exclusively on technological or methodological issues).

Eligibility

Applicants must be:

1. a citizen of the country (or have legal resident status) where he/she is submitting an application; NOTE: Applicants who are registered in institutions outside their home country should apply in their country of citizenships.
2. a graduate student in a recognized institution of higher education or equivalent degree-granting institute in the determined country who will have completed course and course-related doctoral requirements by the time a graduate student award would be granted;
3. proficient in either English or French.

Value of Awards

The maximum value of any award will consist of a contribution towards international airfare (ecomony class), an allowance of CDN$ 1,200 per complete month towards expenses while in Canada, up to a maximum of 6 months, and an allocation of CDN$ 300 upon submission to the appropriate Canadian Mission of a final report on the award. Smaller awards may also be made.

Terms and Conditions

The International Council for Canadian Studies through a contribution of the Government of Canada and with the assistance of the appropriate Canadian Mission, will award non-renewable grants to successful candidates on condition that the candidate must give a written undertaking on his/her own behalf that:

1. the applicant will personally apply for an award and will carry out his/her own doctoral dissertation research, as part of his/her formal program of studies leading to a degree;
2. awards are intended to assist in defraying only direct costs resulting from a period of time spent in Canada while doing research, including return travel to Canada;
3. the applicant will make all arrangements relating to the research project, including: international travel; visa and passport (if needed); accommodation and travel within Canada; medical insurance while in Canada; study plans, including inter alia appointments with Canadian academics and other resource persons, access to libraries and other study centres, etc.;
4. the applicant will reside in Canada throughout the period to which the award relates;
5. within 60 days of returning home, a candidate will send to the appropriate Canadian Mission a detailed report, in English or French, on the work done during the stay in Canada. Failure to do so may result in the forfeiture of the final payment of the award;
6. the rights to the research will remain the exclusive property of the researcher. However, the Canadian Mission requires two copies of the subsequent dissertation when completed. (One copy will be forwarded to the, the International Council for Canadian Studies, Ottawa, for possible onward transmission to the Library and Archives Canada; the other will be retained by the Canadian Mission for consultation purposes);
7. candidates who drop out of their doctoral program will immediately inform the Canadian Mission.

Deadlines

Deadlines vary from country to country. Please click here for country-specific deadline information.

Application Procedure

Applications must be submitted through the local Canadian Mission in one's home country or territory for which a given Canadian Mission has responsibility. Applications submitted directly to the ICCS cannot be accepted nor redirected. An application dossier, in either English or French, will consist of a filled out application form accompanied by a concise curriculum vitae.

Application forms can be obtained from your local Canadian Mission or you can print or download the forms from the following links:

DSR Application form: Adobe PDF Form format
DSR Application form: Microsoft Word format

Selection and Notification

All applications will be reviewed by a pre-selection jury established in the participating country/region by the Canadian Mission or regional network. The jury will include representatives of the academic community in the country or region of citizenship of the applicant (including if possible a representative of the national or multinational association for Canadian Studies) and, when possible, Canadian academics.At the discretion of the pre-selection jury, an applicant may be invited to submit additional information or an amended application.

Pertinent criteria will be:

1. academic excellence of the proposal;
2. Canadian content;
3. relevance of the proposal to identified priorities and to Canadian Studies;
4. feasibility of the project.

After reviewing applications and the recommendations of the pre-selection jury, the International Council for Canadian Studies in Ottawa will forward its recommendations to DFAIT, which will make the final selection.

All applicants will be notified in writing of the results of their application, normally within 90 days of the deadline for submission of applications.

Payment Procedure

Successful candidates will be sent a Grant Agreement detailing the value and conditions of the award, to be signed and returned to the local Canadian Mission within 30 days.

Awards will be paid in several instalments. The first payment, upon reception of the signed Grant Agreement, will include the allocation for international transportation (economy class) and the first monthly allowance; the following monthly allowances will be paid at the end of each month in Canada up to the maximum number of months of the award; final payment of Cdn$300 will be disbursed only upon submission of an acceptable report on the research activities and progress while in Canada.

Canada:IDRC’s Graduate Research Awards 2010/2011 On Climate Change and Water

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development. The result is innovative, lasting local solutions that aim to bring choice and change to those who need it most. IDRC’s Climate Change and Water Program (CCW) helps developing country researchers to understand the consequences of climate change on water resources and to find ways to improve the ability of citizens and governments to adapt to the changing environment.

The purpose of CCW’s Adaptation H2O Graduate Research Awards is to build the research capacity in developing countries by providing awards to graduate students working on subjects related to climate change and water.


NUMBER, VALUE, AND DURATION OF AWARDS


* A maximum of seven awards, each with a maximum value of CA$15,000, are available this year. The award covers field work expenses for graduate students who are citizens of a developing country and who are enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program at a Canadian or developing country university.
* A maximum of two awards, each with a maximum value of CA$15,000, are also available this year to cover field work expenses of Canadian citizens (or permanent residents of Canada) who are graduate students enrolled in a doctoral program at a Canadian university.
* The award covers the field work period, which must be at least three continuous months and no more than 12 months in duration.
* The awards are only meant to cover research expenses and not university tuition or affiliation fees.


ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To be eligible for an award, applicants must meet the following criteria, in addition to any other conditions set out in this call for proposals:

* Applications will ONLY be accepted in English or French.
* All applicants must be either citizens of a developing country, have permanent resident status in Canada or be Canadian citizens.
* The proposed field work must take place in a developing country and start no later than July 1, 2011.
* All applicants must be registered in a graduate program at a Canadian or developing country university. The applicant’s research supervisor must provide training and supervision in the field of the proposed research for the entire duration of the award period.
* Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada must be enrolled in a doctoral program; developing country nationals can be enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program.
* In principle, applicants must have completed all the required course work for their program of study before receiving the award. An exception will be granted where a university requires one or two more courses to be done after the field research.
* All doctoral applicants must have successfully passed comprehensive written and oral examinations for the academic program in which they are enrolled before receiving the award.
* All applicants must be affiliated with one reputable non-academic institution (national/international organization, institute or NGO) in the developing country in which the proposed research will take place. This will provide the participant with better access to scientific knowledge, networking possibilities and increase the likelihood that the supported research will contribute to useful local interventions.
* All applicants must submit a budget. For details on the preparation of the budget, please use the Application form below.
* The application must include all the required documents listed in the Application checklist below.

Deadline: Friday October 15, 2010 (before 4pm Ottawa time)

Further Details:http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-156930-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Canada:The Bentley Cropping Systems Fellowship

This Fellowship (a bequest from Helen S. Bentley and C. Fred Bentley) provides assistance to Canadian and developing-country graduate students with a university degree in agriculture, forestry or biology, who wish to undertake postgraduate, applied, on-farm research with cooperating farmers in a developing country.

In principle, IDRC supports research on all parts of the developing regions of the world. At this time, Fellowships and Awards is not supporting awards which involve research in Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Eastern Europe or Central Asia.

Projects should evaluate and/or promote the use of fertility enhancing plants, such as leguminous forages, shrubs, cover crops, and grain legumes in small farms. The intent is to seek ways to increase the yield of food crops, improve farmers’ livelihoods, and improve soil fertility.

The research should seek cropping system changes that will lead to: sustainable and increased crop yields; production of more and improved animal feed; improved soil and water conservation; improved weed control, and/or biological fixation of nitrogen. Projects should be planned and executed in cooperation with an international agricultural research centre, or with a developing-country institution involved in agricultural research that has an applied on-farm orientation.

The proposal must present plans for on-farm experiments on small-holder farms that have potential to improve the lives of farming households, and to preserve or improve crops yields.

Eligibility

1. Applicants

Applicants must be Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, or citizens of a developing country who are currently enrolled full-time in a graduate program (Master’s, doctoral, post-doctoral) at a recognized university in Canada or in a developing country for the duration of the award period.

2. Key Selection Criteria

a) Focus of the Research:

Proposals must focus on very simple cropping systems research that can benefit smallholder farmers in developing countries, especially rural women farmers.

b) Participatory Research:

Applicants must use simple experiments executed by cooperating farmers under guidance by the researchers (see details about the location of individual on-farm experiments), and conduct their research with the active participation of the farmers, including women farmers. This requires that farmers be involved in all stages of the experiment on their land, including all the stages of land preparation, seeding, and harvesting.

Research proposals must include details of the comparisons envisioned between the traditional cropping practice of cooperating farmers and the side-by-side alternative cropping practice, which must include some type of leguminous crop or plant. Please consult the attached diagram that shows how a simple on-farm experiment might be compared to either one or two alternative cropping systems. Thus, experiments must compare crop yields from traditional unicrop practice with yields of the same crop combined with some kind of leguminous plant grown either simultaneously with the traditional crop, or perhaps in some cases, grown before the traditional crop is planted.

Similar experiments executed in rural school gardens, conducted with the help and advice of the Fellowship holder, and with the participation of both students and teachers, are also encouraged.

The research procedures must include extensive dissemination of the research results. Smallholder farmers, including rural women farmers, should be the major focus of such publicity:

a) The results should be presented in formats that can reach the various stakeholders, such as field days, farmer visits, briefs for policy-makers;

b) Dissemination will actively involve farmers, extension workers, local development initiatives, and agricultural organizations by addressing other smallholder farmers, especially rural women farmers;

c) The publicity should include farmers’ visits and farmer-to-farmer teaching and learning.

The applicant must:

• Provide evidence that a large part, or all of the research, will be carried out on the farms of resource poor or smallholder farmers. The award will not support research carried out on the farms of large land holders or on research stations;
• Provide evidence that farmers will actively participate in the experiments. Thus, the development of simple on-farm experimental designs with appropriate controls to determine the practicality and profitability of introducing a leguminous crop in their cropping system is essential;
• Scholarship applicants must provide explanations of how they will make the frequent trips from the "home base" to the villages of the cooperating farmers. This is essential for successful execution of on-farm tests;
• Explain how the research data was collected and how the introduction of leguminous plants in their cropping systems is expected to improve the economic benefits to farmers;
• Applicants should suggest anticipated benefits/improvements and sustainability of their proposal.

c) Sustainability:

The applicant must:

• Provide evidence that he/she is or will be supported by local institutions that have a good working relationship with target communities, farmers and/or extension agencies;
• Indicate that he/she will seek cooperation, help and support from the local "extension officers" and/or NGOs in the identification of individual farmers who are likely to be suitable and cooperative.

Duration

Award tenure corresponds with the period of field research. In general, this will be between eighteen months and twenty-four months.

Value

The value of the award is up to CA $30,000. If there is strong evidence of significant potential benefits, the award may be extended upon re-application.

Progress Reports

Fellowship holders will commit to provide IDRC with three brief progress reports per year.

Deadlines

October 1, 2010 (awards will be announced by mid-December 2010).

Tenure must be undertaken by December of the following year.

Applications

A letter of support must be included in the application package from a legally recognized institution in the country of research with whom the applicant will be affiliated. This letter must endorse the proposal, confirm the locale of work, and outline the types of institutional support they will provide to the student. The letter must specifically include details of transportation arrangements to experimental plots. The applicant’s host research institution will be expected to certify that the research protocol has been reviewed by a qualified statistician and that it meets an internationally high standard, in terms of experimental and survey designs.

Applicants are encouraged to contact member institutions of The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) to explore the possibility of conducting their research in conjunction with one of the member institutions.

Applications will be evaluated according to IDRC priorities and criteria, such as relevance to sustainable and equitable development, as well as quality of the research proposal and suitability of the candidate.

Re-applicants, whose research proposal was reviewed and was unsuccessful, must explain, in a covering letter, what changes have been made since the last application and specify where to find the changes in the proposal. Please note that Centre policy stipulates that an individual cannot apply more than twice, if unsuccessful, for the same IDRC award. However, this policy does not apply for Internship Awards.

If there are ethical questions connected with the research, the applicant may, at IDRC's discretion, be required to submit the appropriate approval from the Ethic's Committee of the university.

Please submit all documents listed in the List of Supporting Documents to be Submitted. Complete applications must be received at the Centre by the deadline. Incomplete applications will NOT be considered for the competition. Applications must be sent to the following address:

By regular mail, Canada Post Priority Post or XPRESSPOST:

The Bentley Fellowship

Fellowships and Awards

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

PO Box 8500

Ottawa, Ontario

K1G 3H9 - Canada

By courier services:

The Bentley Fellowship

Fellowships and Awards

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

150 Kent Street, Mailroom Suite 990

Ottawa, Ontario

K1P 0B2 - Canada

Fax: (1 613) 236-4026
Telephone: (1 613) 236-6163 ext.: 2098 E-mail: cta@idrc.ca

Source: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-23379-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Canada:IDRC-Nature Science Journalism Award

The International Development Research Centre is offering a full-time, fully-funded science journalism fellowship to a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

Who is eligible?

The successful applicant will be at an early stage of his/her career, with at least three years experience as a journalist. Subject to obtaining the right to work in the UK, he/she will receive training in the London office of the leading international scientific journal Nature and spend between two to four months in a developing country as a science reporter.

Candidates must have a keen interest in science and technology, particularly relating to development and excellent English language skills.

Number, Value, and Duration of Awards

- A maximum of one award with a value of up to CA$54,000, is available this year. The award covers travel, living expenses, and research expenses, visa costs, in London and in the country of research. The award will also cover the travel and living expenses for participation at a conference in aid of professional development as a journalist.

- The duration of the award will be between four (4) and eight (8) months.

To apply

To apply, please send one email to cta@idrc.ca (IDRC’s Fellowships and Awards’ email address).

The email must contain the following attachments in PDF or word DOC format only (or links to material online):

- a covering letter explaining your suitability for the fellowship and your eligibility to work in the UK

- a resume

- three recent examples of written journalism

The subject heading in your email must be:

“IDRC-Nature Science Journalism Award – YOUR LAST NAME, YOUR FIRST NAME.”

The deadline

Your email must be received at cta@idrc.ca by August 31, 2010.

Commencement of award

Fall 2010

About IDRC

IDRC is a Canadian Crown corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable and more prosperous societies. Further details about IDRC can be found at: www.idrc.ca.

About Nature

Nature is a weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology, and is the world's most highly cited interdisciplinary science journal. It has an international news team covering the latest science, policy and funding news in both online and print formats.

New Zealand:Edward and Isabel Kidson Scholarships For International Students

Description

These scholarships are provided from a bequest made to the University of New Zealand in 1959 by Isabel Maria Kidson.

The object of each scholarship is to enable a graduate of a university of New Zealand, who is of good character and who has shown an ability in physics or a combination of physics and mathematics, to undertake further advanced study or research whether in New Zealand or elsewhere, in Meteorology; or, should there be at any time or times no suitable candidate for an award of the scholarship for that purpose, then to undertake further advanced study or research in some other branch of science whether in New Zealand or elsewhere.

Eligibility

To assist with doctoral research in Physics and/or Mathematics (preferably Meteorology) in NZ or overseas.
Amount $5,000 per annum
Tenure 3 years
Closing Dates 01 Oct 2010

Please note that applications forms are only available from approximately 8 weeks ahead of the closing date. For external scholarships, please refer to details on the External Web Site below.

Source: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/scholarshipsearch/ScholarshipDetails.aspx?ScholarshipID=6935.185

Aston University-School of Life & Health Sciences: PhD Studentships for international overseas students with bursaries available

Projects are available in research groups allied to Biomedical Sciences, Biology, Pharmacy, Optometry and Psychology.

Applications are invited for three year Research Studentships to be undertaken in the School of Life and Health Sciences at Aston University to start in July or October 2010.

The projects are available to students meeting the University and School academic entry requirements and bursaries for international students will be awarded competitively on merit. The bursaries for international students will cover payment of £6,000 against the international fee of £12,650 per annum.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 10^th May 2010 for July entry or 9^th August 2010 for October entry.

For more information and for terms and conditions please visit the Life & Health Sciences Website.

For informal enquiries or to return completed applications forms, please contact the Research Office, Room MB560, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET; email: j.a.taylor@aston.ac.uk :+44 (0)121 204 4019

SPDC Commences Niger Delta Postgraduate Scholarship Award 2010/2011

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria operated Joint Venture is extending its support for educational development in the Niger Delta through a targeted postgraduate scholarship programme. The Niger Delta postgraduate scholarship programme begins from the 2010/2011 academic year, giving 10 places to candidates from SPDC’s operational areas in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states to study for postgraduate qualifications at three top British institutions - Imperial College, London, University College, London and University of Leeds.

Source:http://www.shell.com/home/content/nga/aboutshell/media_centre/news_and_media_releases/2010/ndelta_scholarship.html