First 192 NB Graduate Students Receive $1.3M

November 14, 2014

NBIF announced the recipients of the first New Brunswick Graduate Scholarships. In total, 192 students received a total of $1.3 million via NBIF plus an additional $712,000 from their host universities and $2.3 million from national granting agencies.

Some of the projects include Travis Prosser’s construction of an actuated arm for capturing unmanned underwater vehicles launched by submarines and more efficient nozzle designs for aircraft de-icing by Bonnie Sim.

“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,” says NBIF Chair Dr. 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 PhD 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% are New Brunswick residents, 14% are from other provinces, and 10% are from other countries including the U.S., Belgium and China.

NBIF administers the scholarship fund on behalf of the New Brunswick Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.

“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.”

Students who receive funding from the national tri-council agencies (28%), namely the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Institute of Canada (SSHRC) automatically receive the maximum scholarship from NBIF. A committee decides scholarships for the remainder applicants.

ABOUT NBIF:

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that makes investments in new startup companies and R&D within established businesses and New Brunswick universities and research institutes. With $50 million invested plus $315 million leveraged from other sources, NBIF has 34 companies in its active portfolio and has invested in over 350 applied research projects. All of NBIF’s returns on investment go back into the Foundation to startup new companies and research projects.