THE Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is offering travel grants to residents of Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar citizens.

The grants are intended to help qualified agriculture and agriculture-related professionals, social scientists and graduate students by providing funding for them to travel to conferences to present papers, said the centre’s graduate scholarship specialist, Ms Leah Lyn.

“The travel grant enables grantees to find a venue for discussing with other scientists and scholars developments in their respective disciplines,” she said.

She said the centre values not only graduate education but also other forms of scientific knowledge and information dissemination, which are vital to agricultural and rural development in the region.

Eligible candidates can apply for grants of up to US$1200 each, Ms Leah Lyn said, adding that a total of $12,000 has been budgeted for the grants for a one-year period starting this past July.

Applicants may send a letter of intent to the director of SEARCA (Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines), along with a recommendation letter from an immediate supervisor, an abstract of not more than 150 words describing the paper to be presented to the conference, a copy of the conference organiser’s letter of acceptance of the paper for presentation, a copy of the conference program and the applicant’s curriculum vitae.

The letter and supporting documents must be submitted to SEARCA at least two months before the date of travel.

Another source at SEARCA said there is no limitation on the number of applicants from each country who can be evaluated for the grants.