Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy has announced the launch of new scholarships for post graduate civil engineering students.
The £3,000 a year William Bald scholarships will open for students attending Queen’s University of Belfast and the University of Ulster, and will be awarded for a dissertation in the field of highways and transportation, as part of a post graduate course in civil engineering. Preference will be given to projects that contribute to improved transport links, or that reduce the impact of severance between communities.
William Bald was the civil engineer who, amongst other things, built the Antrim Coast Road. The scholarships will be funded jointly by the Department for Regional Development's (DRD) Roads Service and Highway Management Construction (HMC), who will each contribute £1,500 per year per scholarship to support both William Bald Scholarships for a period of five years.
The Minister said: "These two scholarships will help young local budding civil engineers of the future who will hopefully excel in the field of engineering and transportation. It is important that we help and encourage our young people in society to mature and develop, so they can play a full and meaningful role in improving our society.
"The scholarships are being used to mark the successful completion of the first Design Build Finance Operate contract on the M1/Westlink and also to mark David Orr’s year as National President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2007."
David Orr is the Corporate Services Director for the Department of Finance and Personnel. He was formerly the Director of Central Procurement and before that was the Director responsible for developing, maintaining and operating public roads in the north. He also had significant input into the M1/Westlink scheme.
The Minister said: “As a leading Government Department, in the field of engineering and transportation, we have a strong responsibility to the community we serve, and I try to ensure that we take every opportunity to engage with and help the wider community whenever we can."
The Minister thanked both the DRD Roads Service and HMC for agreeing to fund the scholarships and added: “I am pleased they have chosen to support post graduates at these two local universities, as these complement my own Ministerial Bursaries that were presented to ten undergraduates at an awards ceremony in Clarence Court on 20 September 2009.”
The first scholarship will be awarded for the 2009/10 academic year and the winners will be required to share their knowledge with the sponsoring organisation.
