The Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management (PISLM) has awarded Postgraduate Scholarships to five CARICOM nationals.
This initiative through the PISLM/CSIDS-SOILCARE Postgraduate Scholarship program, will see the scholars commencing their studies in soil and land management in September 2024 and January 2025, respectively.
The scholarships are tenable only at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago. However, supervision of research can be provided by the University of Guyana and the University of Belize.
The awards are valued between US $50,000 to US$75,000 and will cover tuition, compulsory fees, books, and living expenses.
Twenty applications were received for the scholarship programme when it was launched in May 2023.
The application process was conducted through an online platform where applicants were required to submit a completed application form and supporting documents. The applications were reviewed by a technical committee through a comprehensive screening tool and short-listed candidates were subjected to an interview, after which the final decision on the recipients was made.
Under the CSIDS-SOILCARE phase 1 Project, PISLM seeks to provide innovative solutions through capacity building, to increase training at the academic level, as a means of addressing long-term capacity needs. It was against this backdrop that the scholarship initiative was conceptualized.
The five scholarship recipients exhibited the aptitude and competence to complete their course of study. Moreover, they have exhibited exemplary dedication to their academic pursuits, community service, and future career goals.
The 2024 PISLM Scholars are:
- Michelle Wilson–Howard (Barbados).
- Abidas Ash- (Belize).
- Darron Williams- (Grenada).
- Omali Dare (Guyana).
- Damian Adjodha (St Lucia).
These scholarships were officially conferred at the 6th PISLM High-level Forum on April 11 in Grenada.
The PISLM is confident that the selected recipients will make significant contributions to their respective fields and countries, in the areas of sustainable soil management (SSM) and sustainable land management (SLM), soil health, soil and land assessment/capability, land degradation, spatial modeling, GIS, carbon capture/sequestration; or any area being addressed by the CSIDS-SOILCARE Phase 1 Project.
