ISIF, June 11, 2009

1. 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

2. 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…

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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