Funding

Let me start with a brief thought... sometimes I simply have nothing interesting to post here, others I have plenty of material. Like now, for instance. Besides this, I have two other interesting short stories to post. So stay tunned!

This one, is about funding.
Up until past August, I had a scholarship from the Portuguese government. "Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia" (FCT). It provided me with a monthly stipend and an annual fee for tuition. It didn't cover the full amount of tuition, but it was a good help.
When I first got to UC San Diego, back in September 2008, I talked to my advisor and told him my scholarship was good "only" for 4 years. He would have to pitch in after that! To be honest, with the economic scenario in Europe as it has been (Portugal in particular), I was fearing for my funding on a monthly basis. We all know that Education and Culture always suffer the first cuts when a country is running on a tight budget. And yes, the cuts are here. But truth be told, I've escaped FCT cuts'. The tuition at UC San Diego are currently set at $30,000 a year, and FCT now provides only € 5,000 yearly! This clearly is not enough... but that's OK, because usually we can work our way in the University to get the extra cash. But usually we have to teach for that, and FCT just messed it up by putting in place a new restriction that prevents anyone with a scholarship to work for more than 4 hours a week. It just so happens that to get your tuition covered by almost any University, you're usually required to work 25% of the week (i.e. 10 hours). So there you are, another regulation that defies logic...

Something similar to FCT exists in the US, though. It's called NSF, National Science Foundation. It rarely gives scholarships to students. Rather it awards grants to PI (Principal Investigator), who then use it to pay students. My PI just got a new one... and this is good news for me, since his budget was running low!

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/piSearch.do?SearchType=piSearch&page=1&QueryText=&PIFirstName=Nuno&PILastName=Vasconcelos&PIInstitution=&PIState=&PIZip=&PICountry=&Restriction=2&Search=Search

If you browse to the end of the page on the link above, the new grant is the one shown on the top. Handsome amount, no?


PS- a quarter of a million dollars can pay for a full-time phd student for five years (tuition, stipend, health insurance, all included).