Around march Google organizes Summer of Code targeted at students by funding Open Source Projects to enable them to pay interns who deliver on specific features/projects. GNU amongst many other OSS projects participates in the program.

From GNU GSoC project ideas page

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This page has the project suggestions for GNU's participation in Google Summer of Code 2008. Project proposals for 2006 and 2007 are archived separately.

STUDENTS - BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT PROPOSAL:

Please read the GNU Project's guidelines for Summer of Code projects.

Most importantly, please make sure you include all the information requested. If you have questions, please ask
summer-of-code@gnu.org.

</Quote>

PS: I am not connected to GNU, Google or GSoC