The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) invites applications for its graduate scholarship (MS and PhD) in agriculture and related fields (including biological sciences, social sciences, economics and statistics, forestry and fisheries, environmental sciences, agro-industrial technology and engineering, biochemistry, and development management) for school year 2012-2013. The scholarship is open to nationals of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam who are regular employees of academic or research institutions or government agencies and not older than 35 years old.

Applications may be submitted directly to the Ministry of Education/Higher Education, or to the Ministry where the applicant is employed for preliminary screening. The Ministry where the applicant is employed may conduct preliminary screening of applicants and submit their nominations and the application documents to the Ministry of Education/Higher Education, which will then include the nominees of other Ministries in the final list of candidates accompanied by the complete set of requirements to SEARCA not later than 30 July 2011. Applicants should inquire with their respective Ministries regarding the Ministries’ deadline for receiving SEARCA applications.

SEARCA scholars may study at any of the following members of the University Consortium coordinated by SEARCA: Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia; Kasetsart University, Thailand; Institut Pertanian Bogor and Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia; and University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines. Other reputable universities outside the University Consortium but within the Southeast Asian region may also serve as study posts of scholars under special arrangements and project agreements. Applicants may apply online via the SEARCA website, but original application documents must still be sent to their Ministry for official endorsement and submission to SEARCA. Applicants are required to submit to SEARCA applications for admission to the Graduate Schools of at least three universities in the list.

The application requirements and forms may study may be downloaded from the SEARCA website at http://www.searca.org.

The topic of the research that the applicants plan to conduct for their thesis must be in line with either of the priority thrusts of SEARCA, namely: natural resource management and agricultural competitiveness.

Interested parties may contact the Graduate Scholarship Department of SEARCA via email at gsd@agri.searca.org or ecc@agri.searca.org.