The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank announced Phillip John of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as the recipient of the 2026 ECCB–Thomas De La Rue Scholarship after what it described as a rigorous assessment process. John is pursuing a Master of Science in Environmental Data Science and Machine Learning at Imperial College London. The scholarship, relaunched in 2025 under a revised aide memoire, supports outstanding citizens of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union pursuing graduate studies in economics or data science. The award provides up to USD 25,000 per scholar for a maximum of two academic years and can be used for tuition, university fees, support materials, on-campus accommodation and one return airfare. Nine candidates from six ECCB member countries applied. As part of the programme, John will complete an internship in the ECCB's Research, Statistics and Data Analytics Department, and recipients must, after completing their studies, work in an ECCB member country for at least the length of their studies plus one additional year.