FRIDA Announces This Year's 17 Winning Projects

20 September 2021

In order to continue working towards the consolidation of a global, open, stable, and secure Internet in the region, FRIDA, LACNIC's Regional Fund for the Strengthening of the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean, is pleased to announce the winners of its annual call for proposals.

This year, FRIDA will provide funding to support 17 projects, in the form of one award and 14 grants per thematic category, distributed as follows: 6 grants to initiatives submitted under Internet Security and Stability, 4 under Open and Free Internet, and 4 under Internet Access.

The 2021 call for proposals continues to focus on supporting technical projects relating to the regional community and Internet operators and which are in line with LACNIC's mission. 

Internet Stability and Security

The winner of the award was “Rural Community Internet,” a project submitted by Soluciones TW from México under the Interconnection subcategory. Likewise, the following 6 projects were each selected and will receive a grant: 

“Caribbean IXP Directory and Traffic Monitoring,” by the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG);  “Implementation of a CoAP Proxy in the Contiki-NG Operating System for 6LoWPAN Networks,” by Universidad de Colima, Mexico;  “Internet Measurement in One Country for Regional Connectivity, Latency and Stability Studies,” submitted by ISOC Panama; “DDoS Attack Identification and Mitigation in Software-Defined Networks for IoT,” by Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico; “Understanding the impacts of Remote Peering on Internet routing,” by Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG); and “Technical Implementation of DNSSEC for .py,” by the Paraguayan National Computing Center.

Internet Access

The “Pilot Project for Television White Space Technology in Montes de María, Colombia” by ADITUM S.A.S. took the award in this category for its proposal on alternative access models.

The projects selected as grant recipients are:

“4G Community Network,” by Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias, A.C., Mexico; “LibreRouter V2.0: Evolving Technological Sovereignty," by Asociación Civil AlterMundi, Argentina; “Community Communications Networks for Strengthening the Circular Economy and Social Exchange in La Macarena, Meta,” bu Asociación Colnodo, Colombia; and “Reducing the Digital Divide in Vulnerable Populations in the City of Córdoba through the Use of WIFI and Unlicensed LTE Technology,” by the City of Córdoba.

Open and Free Internet

In this category, the selection committee decided to present the award to “Venezuela without Filters,” a project on data privacy and protection presented by Venezuela Inteligente.

In turn, grants will be presented to: “Segur@s en línea,” by IPANDETEC, Panama  “Health Online Indicators LAC: Access to Safe and Affordable Health Solutions Using the Internet – Study on Telemedicine and Purchase of Medicines Online,” by Governance Primer, Brazil; “Promotion and Appropriation of Digital Rights to Guarantee Access to Information in Indigenous Languages,” by Surco Servicios Universitarios y Redes de Conocimientos en Oaxaca A.C, Mexico; “Data Protection System Based on Anonymization Techniques and in Accordance with Privacy Laws,” by Universidad Estadual do Ceará (UECE), Brazil.

More information here.