APNIC Foundation’s Information Society Innovation Fund (Inclusion)

The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF Asia) empowers organizations across the Asia Pacific region to research, design, and implement Internet-based solutions to solve Internet development challenges that support community development and growth.

The APNIC Foundation manages a variety of funding mechanisms available to organizations and initiatives that support Internet development in the Asia Pacific.

These are:

• Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF Asia)
• Foundation Community Assistance
• Trust Discretionary Funding

ISIF Asia is the APNIC Foundation’s grant and awards fund. Applications for funding can be made by organizations legally registered in the Asia Pacific region, based on funding available from their funding partners.

ISIF Asia focus is on online Inclusion refers to efforts to ensure that everyone has meaningful and efficient access to the Internet, online applications and services, from a technical and operational perspective, and in support of the Internet industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Areas

• There are many reasons why communities might not have equal opportunity to make the most out of what the Internet has to offer and many of those require structural and cultural changes outside of the APNIC Foundation scope. The funding will support efforts for a more inclusive Internet on one or more of the following areas:

• Support organizations committed to increase Internet availability in unserved and underserved communities in the Asia Pacific region by expanding coverage of existing infrastructure and/or deploying new Internet networks (if your project supports increased Internet availability for Indigenous and grassroots organizations working on environmental issues, you could apply for the Ian Peter Grants for Internet and the Environment)
• Improve Internet affordability through innovative network deployments and creative organizational/partnership arrangement(s) and incentives for established ISPs and mobile operators to support local access networks and expand connectivity to underserved areas, including support for registration and licensing of Internet access providers serving specific unserved or underserved communities (such as community networks)
• Improve accessibility to the Internet through adoption of standards for people with disabilities across Internet networks and online services and applications as well as exploring and scaling innovative solutions to improve interactivity and participation for people with disabilities online.
• Reduce online inequality and promote online safety through targeted capacity building efforts to address diversity on the Internet industry (network management and operations, security and IPv6) as well as increase online participation and representation (along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, language, literacy, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, etc) on network infrastructure deployment to expand Internet access and adoption.

Funding Information

• Applications under this program can be submitted across three grant types supporting projects in different stages of development: Small grants (USD 30,000), scale-up grants (USD 85,000) and impact grants (USD 150,000).

Eligibility Criteria

• Project proposals from Asia Pacific-based organizations will be considered.
• Applications from public, private sector, academia (such as universities or research and development institutions), non-profit and social enterprises are welcome to all grant categories.
• The names, academic background and relevant experience of the people having relevant technical and administrative participation in the implementation of the project must be stated.
• Individuals are not eligible to apply.
• No self-nominations for the Awards are accepted.
• When submitting an application, the applicants acknowledge that any grant funding and, indeed, the application and evaluation process, is entirely at the discretion of the funding partners and they may choose to determine the process at any time up to the time of actual payment.

For more information, visit APNIC Foundation.