ISIF is…

• ISIF is the Information Society Innovation Fund

• A small grants program supporting innovative

approaches to development problems through

ICT solutions

– Funded by APNIC, ISOC and IDRC and sponsored

by Dot Asia (375.000 USD for 2009, funds

committed for 2010)

– APNIC is the Secretariat

– Admin costs covered through a separate project

funded by IDRC

ISIF funds projects that focus

on…

• Innovative approaches to the extension

of Internet infrastructure and services

• Internet sustainability and business

models in challenging market

circumstances

• Supporting new and creative uses of ICT

applications

and include a strong component of

knowledge generation and sharing…

How the projects were

selected?

• Call for applications open for 3 months

• 148 applications from 22 economies

• Online system to submit and pre-screen

applications

• Online work GEC (2 reps per partner)

• 1 face-to-face meeting

• 1 proposals development workshop

Online Evaluation System

• Grants Evaluation Committee (GEC): 6

members distributed in 6 countries

(India, Singapore, China, Fiji, Sweden &

Australia)

• Database and archive of all applications

received + additional information + OS

• Follow-up comments from GEC

members for their own reference, to

provide feedback to applicants, to

recover full applications

Proposals Development

Workshop

• Hyderabad, India. Dec 1-2 2008

• 11 shortlisted candidates + GEC

members

• Proposals were revised,

simplified/grounded, feedback

incorporated, argumentation provided

Open/positive attitude to give/receive

feedback, adapt/change & spotting

innovation

Projects for 2009

• Where? Thailand (1), India (2), Sri Lanka

(3), Pakistan (1), Vietnam (1), Indonesia (1),

Nepal (1), The Philippines (1)

• Who?Universities (5), research institutes

(2), NGOs (1), networks (1), foundations (1)

and private company (1)

• What?Emergency response, telehealth,

digital forensic research, wireless

applications and deployments, high-speed

infrastructure, tools for telecentres

Working spaces

• Wikis and mailing lists

– Public: projects follow-up and calls for

applications

– Recipients: share personal experiences,

project results and provide admin/tech

support

– Partners: forms, formats, agreements

• Proposals development workshop,

Hyderabad. India. Dec 1-2, 2008.

What’s next…

• Follow-up and promotion of current

projects

• Identify sponsors to contribute to the

fund

• Third round of funding for 2010

• Identify people / organizations relevant

to APNIC’s work that are interested to

test / apply their ideas and require funds

to encourage them to apply