MSI launches R&D internship fund
Undergrad student funding up for grabs
Thursday, September 01 2011 || News || BY Unlimited
The Ministry of Science and Innovation is offering funding for companies that want to hire an undergraduate student for an R&D project.
The funding is available to larger companies that run internship programmes, as well as smaller firms developing innovative products, MSI says. The students will be at a senior level in science, technology or engineering.
The funding provides $16 an hour for up to 400 hours' work - once the company proves payment to the intern - to a maximum of $6400. MSI will also pay businesses' GST up to $7360 in total. The ministry says it will select only the best applications for the 200 available places.
For more details and the funding criteria, visit http://www.msi.govt.nz/business/capability/undergrad
Ironically when the government of the day moved science into the contestibility model the trend in many of the newly formed CRIs was to bid for funding on the basis of their long serving scientists, and then do the research on the backs of new graduates on much lower salaries. This usually lasted 2-3 years until the graduates realised they were being exploited and moved on, but by that time the institutional knowledge and experience of the senior scientists had also been lost. It's ironic now that to get research done the government not only has to fund the research, they have to subsidise the staff to do it. Sounds like work for the dole to me.
Posted by Bruce Spedding at 09:24 on September 2, 2011
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