‘Most interest for Quad fellowship is from India’
The Hindu
Bengaluru
In September, 2021, Quad partner countries Australia, India, Japan, and the United States announced the QUAD Fellowship — a first-of-its-kind scholarship programme designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. Set to sponsor 100 American, Japanese, Australian and Indian (25 from each country) masters and doctoral students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to study in the United States from August 2023 to May 2024, each Quad Fellow will receive a one-time award of $50,000 which can be used for tuition, research, fees, books, room and board, and related academic expenses.
Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative, will operate and administer the fellowship programme in consultation with a non-governmental taskforce comprising academic, foreign policy, and private sector leaders from each Quad country.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Barbara Bush, Executive-In-Residence at Schmidt Futures, and Danielle Holman, Manager of Talent Selection at Schmidt Futures, who were in Bengaluru, talk about how the response from India has been to the fellowship and what it will be like to be a Quad Fellow.
Amidst the sustained clamour for ‘professional courses’, why did the fellowship focus on STEM?
Bush: The fellowship was started by leaders of the Quad countries, who acknowledged that there are so many current challenges that we are dealing with — COVID 19, climate crisis, etc. So they wanted to create a fellowship programme focused on STEM acknowledging that different STEM skill sets can address current problems that we experience right now, but will be critical in addressing future issues that we can’t even predict.
The application process opened in March. What has the response been like? Are there specific upper limits on the number of applicants from each country?
Holman: We have had enthusiastic interest across the countries, but certainly the most was from India, which was no surprise because it has the biggest population.
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