A new online competition has been announced to promote the understanding of global development among third-level students.

The new online category has been added to the Simon Cumbers Media Fund student scheme, and will provide funding for a student to travel to a developing country next year and document online stories of progress and challenges there.

The fund was set up in memory of Irish journalist Simon Cumbers, who was killed in Saudi Arabia while working with the BBC in 2004.

Announcing the new category, Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello said journalists could drive action by increasing awareness of the problems which confronted communities in the developing world, and the solutions.