Asia-Pacific ICT projects get funding boost

The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) has handed out grants to eight ICT projects across the Asia-Pacific region, including for one Australian endeavour in Timor Leste.

The ISIF – a partnership between the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Internet Society (ISOC), and the dotAsia domain registry – will give up to $40,000 to each project.

Established in 2008, the small grants program received over 207 submissions from 25 economies for 2010.

The eight winning projects are: Australia and Timor Leste:

• Rowetel - Dili Telco Village

Sri Lanka:

• University of Colombo School of Computing. Virtual IPv6 application test bed
• National Institute of Fisheries and Nautical Engineering (NIFNE). Mobile portal for fisheries community services

India:

• IIT Madras's Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). Interactive, structured, multi-modal clinical guidelines to improve quality of care by Rural Healthcare providers Servelots Infotech Pvt Ltd. Accessible rich Internet applications and illiteracy.

Vietnam:

• Bac Ha International University. Efficient and reliable GPS wireless Ad Hoc sensor networks for marine monitoring, searching, and rescuing applications.

Bhutan:

• Druknet. Towards world’s first ready-IPv6 country

Nepal:

• E-Network Research and Development (ENRD). Empowering mountain communities: Localized support kit and training for community wireless networks

Computerworld has requested more information about the project winners and will update the story once provided with these details.

For more background information on the ISIF head to the organisation's website.

In December, the domestic ICT industry got a funding shot in the arm as the Federal Government's ICT Incubators program received a funding boost as part of $64 million pledged by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.

In a statement, Carr said 11 fund managers would distribute the funds under the Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund (IIFF) program to 35 companies that are already receiving assistance to commercialise their projects.