Created in 2011 to finance the study of Brazilians abroad, the Science without Borders programme will gain a new format in 2017 to serve postgraduate students of all areas, including humanities, provided they are selected by renowned international universities.
It is also currently being evaluated whether to offer the best high school students in the public network the opportunity to take short language courses, during holiday time, abroad.
The new version should be released next year. However, as it depends on the budget to be approved for the Ministry of Education, it has no defined number of beneficiaries yet.
Once restricted to exact sciences and biomedical areas, the "new" Science without Borders promises to include students from all areas of knowledge, including humanities and the arts. Unlike the first edition, the new version will offer masters scholarships: According to CAPES (Coordination for Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), the Ministry of Education organisation responsible for designing the new format of the programme, "There will be no limitation by country, universities and / or courses, but the excellence of the institution of destination will be required. The programme will cover all areas of knowledge. "
CAPES did not specify the criteria for defining an educational institution of excellence.
Graduate students, until then the largest beneficiaries, have already been excluded from the new format. Instead, the decision has already been taken to emphasize the granting of masters, doctorate and postdoctoral fellowships.