Mr Rudd is in Singapore with 20 other Pacific rim leaders for this weekend’s APEC summit.

After touching down in Singapore from India he announced the scholarship program, which will begin next year, to his university audience.

It will include a category called the Australia Asia Awards for high achieving individuals across Asia to study in Australia.

There is also to be a new Development Awards category for students from developing countries in Asia, which includes 170 additional scholarships.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/14/2742745.htm

Forest and Nature for Society (FONASO) is a three-year world-class global Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate programme. The main objective of the Programme is to educate the leaders of the future generation of researchers, teachers and top management staff working with sustainable forest and nature management, in both tropical and temperate regions, to ensure wider societal benefits. Within forest and nature management, the Programme is focused on the scientific fields of (i) economics and policy, and (ii) ecology and silviculture. Emphasis is on applied research.

FONASO is offered by a global Consortium that includes globally top ranked universities and leading international research organisations. The Consortium consists of the twelve partner institutions: (i) University of Copenhagen, Denmark, (ii) The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden, (iii) Bangor University, UK, (iv) Dresden University, Germany, (v) University of Göttingen, Germany, (vi) AgroParisTech, France, (vii) University of Padova, Italy, (viii) Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia, (ix) Dalhoff Larsen & Hornemann, Denmark, (x) James Cook University, Australia, (xi) University of British Columbia, Canada, and (xii) World Agroforestry Centre,Kenya.

The FONASO Programme is a fully integrated three-year doctorate programme. It builds on existing research schools and environments, taking the best from each to build up joint supervision, activities and doctoral candidate courses. Each doctoral candidate will stay two years with a principal supervisor and one year with a co-supervisor. Doctoral candidates obtain either a joint degree or double degree depending on mobility track. The language of the Programme is English. There is one annual call for applications; short-listed applicants are invited to Europe to present and discuss their proposals.

Detailed information on the FONASO Joint Doctorate Programme is available on www.fonaso.eu, including application form and guidelines. Applications must be received no later than 16 November 2009. Short-listed candidates are notified by 1 December 2009. Interviews in Europe will take place in mid January 2010. Study start from summer/autumn 2010.