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Internet Society Supports Major Regional Grants Programmes
Geneva, Switzerland - The Internet Society (ISOC) is pleased to announce support for two major regional grants programmes. ISOC is sponsoring both the Pan Asia Networking ICT Grants Programme and the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in the Latin American and Caribbean (known as FRIDA).
These programmes are aimed at promoting the development of regional research capacities in the area of Information and Communication Technologies for development. They will also support building up Internet-related regional technical capabilities.
"ISOC is pleased to be able to contribute to strengthening the Information Society within the countries of the Asia Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions," said Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society. "Our support of these activities is yet another example of how ISOC supports public interest programmes with the proceeds of .ORG domain name revenues generated by Public Interest Registry (PIR), a subsidiary of ISOC."
Through a competition format, grants will be made available to proposals that successfully address innovative networking solutions to specific development issues. Project Selection Committees in each region will be responsible for evaluating and selecting the proposals that will be funded each year. Each committee is made up of a group of specialists with experience in research and an in-depth knowledge of the regional challenges and opportunities relating to local ICT development.
Other sponsors of the Pan Asia Networking ICT Grants Programme include Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), UNDP's Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDO-APDIP) and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC). The FRIDA programme is also supported by IDRC along with the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC) and the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).
For more information about the Pan Asia Networking ICT Grants Programme:
For more information about the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in the Latin American and Caribbean (FRIDA):
http://programafrida.net/en/index.html
About ISOC
The Internet Society (http://www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit membership organisation founded in 1991 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other Internet-related bodies who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 12 years ISOC has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.
About PIR
Public Interest Registry (http://www.pir.org) is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society (ISOC) to manage the .ORG top-level domain. PIR's mission is to manage the .ORG domain in a manner that supports the continuing evolution of the Internet as a research, education and communications infrastructure, while educating and empowering the non-commercial community to most effectively utilize the Internet. PIR is based in Reston, Virginia.
For further details
Internet Society: http://www.isoc.org
Peter Godwin
Senior Program Manager
E-mail: godwin at isoc.org
Internet Society
4, rue des Falaises
1205 Geneva
Switzerland
