A regional grants program designed to provide funding for a range of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects has received a response that exceeded their expectations. ISIF, the Information Society Innovation Fund, received a total of 148 submissions from applicants in 22 different economies in the Asia Pacific Region.
The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) is a joint initiative between the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Internet Society (ISOC), and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) that is aimed at stimulating creative solutions to ICT development needs in the Asia Pacific region. The program is also being supported by domain registry, dotAsia.
ISIF provides grants of up to USD 30,000 per project to help advance local and regional projects aimed at introducing, improving, and applying Internet and other digital communications technologies for the benefit of Asia-Pacific users and communities.
The submissions were received from a wide range of economies. The majority of the submissions came from South Asia, with developing economies such as Bhutan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga also participating.
Now that the submissions have been received, the Grants Evaluation Committee will review the applications and create a shortlist of applicants after they evaluate the proposals.
The members of the Grants Evaluation Committee comprise Paul Wilson and Ma Yan (for APNIC), Rajnesh Singh and Gerard Ross (for ISOC), and Richard Fuchs and Phet Sayo (from IDRC). The committee will utilize an online evaluation system to pre-screen, score, and comment on the proposals based on the following criteria:
- Innovation
- Feasibility
- Whether the proposal objectives align with ISIF objectives
- Demonstrated need/benefit
- Community participation/ownership
- Monitoring/Evaluation/Documentation strength
- Whether a sustainability strategy is in place
- Leverage of existing techniques and technologies to produce innovative practical solutions, rather than original 'ground-up' development or basic research work
- Demonstrated opportunity to build innovative capacities within other organizations in developing Asia Pacific countries
- Availability of co-funding by other agencies or organizations
- Institutional capacity
- Replicability
The committee will meet in Brisbane on 6-8 October 2008 to select the final group from the shortlisted applicants. They will then publish a formal announcement soon after the selection meeting.
The final group of shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend a workshop in Hyderabad, India on 1-2 December. This is immediately prior to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is also being held in Hyderabad on 3-6 December 2008.
The successful applicants will receive feedback on their proposals from the ISIF partners at the workshop, and they will develop their networking strategies that will allow the applicants to collaborate on their projects. After incorporating the feedback they receive, the applicants will finalize their proposals and present them at the workshop.
Information Society Innovation Fund
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