The Clean Energy Scholarships were announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday evening at the launch of the Global Entrepolis 2007. They will go to post-graduate and PhD students for study and research in local and top foreign universities.

The scholarships are managed by the Clean Energy Programme Office (Cepo) and funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Singapore will pursue clean energy, with an emphasis on solar energy as a key growth area.

Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Cepo's executive director and managing director of the Economic Development, said: 'The worldwide clean energy industry is expanding rapidly in the face of rising costs of conventional sources of energy and climate change.'

'With the clean energy scholarships, we hope to groom future technology and industry leaders to power our clean energy industry forward.The scholars can look forward to exciting job opportunities in clean energy companies or research organisations upon graduation, and at the same time contribute to making the world a greener place.'

Those who are interested can apply through the Cepo for either a full government scholarships, or for a company scholarship. The latter allows a company to pay 30 per cent of the cost of the scholarship, while government forks out the balance.

Mr Ko said companies that have expressed support for the programme include Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC) which is setting up the world's largest solar manufacturing plant here, and Germany's largest solar-power company, Conergy, which has its regional headquarters here.

Mr Erik Thorsen, President and CEO, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) said: 'REC is very keen to participate in the NRF (Clean Energy) Company Scholarships scheme. Following our decision to locate what could be the world's largest solar manufacturing complex in Singapore, we would need to build up a strong base of talented engineers quickly to kickstart our Singapore operations.'