Marshall Plan Scholarships Announced

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the historic speech held by U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall at Harvard University on 5 June 2007, Martin Bartenstein, Federal Minister of Economics and Labour, and HE Susan McCaw, Ambassador of the United States of America to Austria, officially declared the intention of the two governments to improve Austrian-American relations in the spirit of the Marshallplan and strengthen scholarly and scientific co-operation.

[Federal Minister of Economics and Labor, Martin Bartenstein and U.S. Ambassador Susan McCaw (c) U.S. Embassy, Vienna]

Federal Minister of Economics and Labor, Martin Bartenstein and U.S. Ambassador Susan McCaw (c) U.S. Embassy, Vienna

Funded by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, an academic exchange program was established to finance scholarships and fellowships for academic exchange between Austria and the U.S. with a special focus on universities of applied sciences and technical universities ('Fachhochschulen und Technische Universitäten’). Since funding is always an obstacle, the Marshall Plan Foundation offers up to 1,000 scholarships for American and Austrian students for the academic years 2008 to 2017. The funding will be up to € 10.000,- (at a minimum of € 3.000,-) for as long as five months.

The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation invites U.S. and Austrian universities of applied sciences and technical universities to take part in this program and nominate their students or students from partner institutions who are interested in doing academic research abroad.

The program is focused primarily on research in the field of technical sciences. Participants will be asked to hand in a research paper or documentary report of their research work.

It is the Foundation’s goal to see more Austrians and Americans participate in exchange programs, thereby increasing mutual understanding and image.

Ambassador Susan McCaw with Wolfgang Stoiber and Eugen Stark (right) (c) U.S. Embassy, Vienna