According to John Colley, the association's managing director of EMEA, the scholarship programme started in 2004 with an annual budget of $50 000, split broadly into four grants of $12 500.
"What we've done today is to expand the categories of grants, as well as increasing the budgets available", he told Infosecurity, adding that the grants are available worldwide.
In the US, he explained, there are a lot of grants available to IT security professionals, but here in the UK and Europe, funding is a lot thinner on the ground, which is what makes the scholarship programme so essential to the IT security industry.
Today, the (ISC)² scholarship funding is available to anyone who is actively pursuing full-time, post-graduate studies and research in information security, as well as faculty members.
The programme, says Colley, now offers more than 35 opportunities worth a total of up to $100 000 for scholars attending, and faculty members teaching regionally, at accredited academic institutions around the world.
"Applications for funding are always carefully considered and reviewed by the association's management", he said, adding that there are now four categories of grants: travel, faculty certification exam vouchers, graduate research projects and graduate equipment grants.
Applications for grants – excluding the travel grants – must be received by the association by the end of October, whilst travel grant applications must be submitted at least 60 days prior to the event for which funding is required.