Training and sponsorship opportunities
Grace Baynes
Thursday, 01 May 2008 15:44 UTC
I just came across the The Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences and thought it might be of interest to this group. The Program “is designed to support young scientists from Latin America for post-doctoral training in the United States.” Part of the funding is provided to establish a laboratory in the fellows home country, post-training.
Do you know of other sponsorship and development programmes like this? Please share them in this forum.
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Replies
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While being very competitive, the Pew Program is well known here in Chile and it truly offers a substantial amount of money (for Latin American standards) upon return to the country of origin.
For doctoral training in the U.S., another institution to be considered is the Fulbright program. Here in Chile , PhD fellowships are offered in several modalities and there is an upcoming call for Postdocs as well.
I don’t know of European opportunities specifically for Latin Americans, but many students apply to the Marie Curie Fellowships , where there are pre and postdoctoral ones.
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I am aware of the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Programme, which has a very extensive Latin American Programme. To follow it up, just click over the Latin American continent illustrated in the World Map that appears at DAAD’s website.
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There are various other ways to further your career in the USA without having to apply to specific scholarships.
I came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship, which Miguel Allende has already mentioned, only to find out that the PhD program I joined was fully funded. That is, during the first year the NIH pays for living expenses and the University provides you with a tuition waiver and health insurance. For the following years (and this is true for most doctoral programs in biology and chemistry in the USA) your living expenses are covered as a salary provided by the lab you do your dissertation at (money comes from grants given to the lab and there are no limitations concerning citizenship) and the University continues to provide tuition waivers and health insurance.
So, while being funded by an international agency will make things easier, be aware that this is not the only way to get a PhD without paying yourself for it.
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