Unprecedented FRIDA Call for Proposals ? Funding for Innovation Projects in the LAC Region

Montevideo, 17 February.

The Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FRIDA) announced today the launch of its first 2014 call for projects and initiatives aimed at contributing to the development of Knowledge and the Information Society in the region.

This first call for proposals –the "FRIDA Start-Up" Program– seeks to continue promoting and supporting innovative projects and initiatives so that they can achieve greater impact beyond their original scope.

Lara Robledo, Institutional Cooperation Officer at LACNIC, announced that, in order to have access to this new form of funding, a project must be the result of a partnership between different organizations, one of which must have already received FRIDA funding during prior editions of the program.

The nominations period will be open to organizations in the Latin American and Caribbean region until 31 March 2014. Each project may request up to USD 14 000 (fourteen thousand US dollars).

The program's terms and conditions as well as the application form are available at

www.programafrida.net/startup

If you have any questions or doubts, please contact

frida@lacnic.net

In addition to this FRIDA Start-Up Program, the FRIDA +Awards and Small Grants programs will soon issue their usual call for proposals. We will be informing on both these calls during the month of March.

About FRIDA

FRIDA is a LACNIC initiative that seeks to contribute to the development of the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean by funding research projects, presenting awards and up-scaling innovative initiatives in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

FRIDA is part of the Seed Alliance, a joint initiative with its sister programs Fire (AfriNIC) and Isif (APNIC), and receives financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC of Canada), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Swiss International Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the contribution of the three Regional Internet Registries to which the programs belong.