The East-West Center would like to congratulate both finalists and wish them well as they begin their studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and the East-West Center in August 2009.

The Norway-Pacific Islands Scholarship Program (NPISP), funded by the Research Council of Norway, is a competitive, merit-based scholarship that will provide funding to two finalists from Solomon Islands and Vanuatu for graduate study at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The scholarship is part of the Pacific Alternatives: Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation in Oceania project, which is administered by the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen in Norway, and includes institutions and scholars from the U.S., Australia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands. Information on the project is available at http://pacific.uib.no/pacific_alternatives.htm.

The NPISP is a partnership between the University of Bergen in Norway, the East-West Center, and the University of Hawai'i at Manoa to offer two competitive, merit based scholarships with funding for master's degree study in fields that are directly relevant to cultural heritage and political innovation.