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