Students interested to take up sports-science related programmes in university can soon take advantage of academic scholarships offered by the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI).

Grants will also be given to institutes of higher learning and research institutions for the purpose of sports science and medicine development.

Details on the academic scholarship and research grants are still being finalised, but the SSI, which comes under the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), is expected to announce them later this year.

It is believed that the scholarship will be opened only to Singaporeans for a start, and covers undergraduate, post-graduate and also doctoral studies.

The SSC's chairman Richard Seow said in his opening remarks at the start of the SSI's annual symposium on Thursday morning: "It is obvious from these new initiatives that the SSI is positioned to play a pivotal role in shaping the high performance sports lanscape in Singapore."