[OSGeo-Discuss] FW: GSDI Small Grants Deadline Two Weeks Away!

Tue Sep 15 04:30:13 PDT 2009

This might be of interest to some of you.

Dr Suchith Anand
Centre for Geospatial Science
Sir Clive Granger Building
University of Nottingham
Tel: (0)115 846 8408
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cgs/cgs_suchith_anand.html 
http://tinyurl.com/suchith  
http://www.opensourcegis.org.uk/ 
http://ica-opensource.scg.ulaval.ca/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: GSDI News [mailto:news at gsdi.org] 
Sent: 14 September 2009 18:38
To: suchith.anand at nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: GSDI Small Grants Deadline Two Weeks Away!

Call for Proposals: GSDI Small Grants Program

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association is pleased to
announce its Small Grants Program for the year 2009-10.

Summary:

* Awards for spatial data infrastructure or EOS-related activities in
economically disadvantaged nations,
* Application deadline of 1 October 2009,
* 4000 words maximum,
* Awards of $2500 USD in cash and/or contributed volunteer professional
services for the project

Background

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association is dedicated
to international cooperation and collaboration in support of local,
national, and international spatial data infrastructure developments
that would allow nations to better address social, economic, and
environmental issues of pressing importance. We are committed to
bringing about an infrastructure that will allow users globally to
access spatial data at a variety of scales from multiple sources that
ultimately will appear seamless to all users.  The GSDI Association
supports the work of organizations to develop their own SDI initiatives,
nationally and regionally, and collaborates with local, national, and
international organizations to ensure that spatial data, services, and
metadata are accessible through interoperable standards-based services,
systems, software, and products that operate in a web-enabled
environment.  The success of the GSDI Association depends on the quality
of its partnerships with
public, private, academic, and non-governmental organizations. Through
adoption of common, international standards, key architecture
principles, and approaches for capacity building in developing
countries, the GSDI initiatives also link national SDI efforts with the
vision and goals of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and its Global
Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS).

Description

The GSDI is being advanced through the leadership of many nations and
organizations represented by a GSDI Association Council and Board of
Directors. The multi-national Board includes representatives from all
continents and all sectors: government, academia, and the private sector
as well as regional SDI initiatives referred to as permanent committees:

* Africa: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Committee on
Development Information: Geo Subcommittee (CODI-GEO)
* Americas: Pan-American Institute for Geography and History (PAIGH)
* Asia and Pacific: Permanent Committee for Geographic Information for
Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP) (ex-officio)
* Europe: European Umbrella Organization for Geographic Information
(EUROGI)

Please visit the GSDI Association website (http://gsdi.org) to
familiarize yourself with the mission, goals, programs, accomplishments
and priorities of the organization.

The GSDI Association, along with partners and participants, has
allocated resources from the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee and
the GISCorps of URISA, to fund a small grants program to support
national or sub-national activities that foster partnerships, develop
in-country technical capacity, improve data compatibility and access,
and increase political support for spatial data infrastructure and earth
observations application development. These resources will be used to
offer two types of grants this year:

    * Cash up to 2,500 USD to be used on your project, and/or
    * Professional Services applied to your project

Professional Services will be coordinated by the GISCorps, an
international initiative that offers GIS services by qualified
economies.  Support may focus on technical or institutional projects, as
long as tangible outputs and several institutions collaborate on the
effort.   A list of typical projects follows but this list is not
exhaustive:

* Convening of national or sub-national seminars or workshops related to
SDI
* Producing SDI- and EO-related training manuals and modules (these
materials must not duplicate existing materials)
* Establishing metadata and clearinghouse nodes
* Establishing web mapping services and applications
* Accomplishing Geodata and/or SDI surveys or inventories
* Producing and disseminating newsletters and awareness-raising
materials about SDI
* Drafting policy and legislation related to SDI

Priority will be given to projects in developing nations and countries
with economies in transition.  Grants can be awarded to SDI coordinating
bodies (councils, committees) and GIS user groups, but the GSDI
Association asks that one institution take responsibility for
receiving/depositing the funds.  Grants will not cover organization
overhead expenses.

Proposals should include information under the following headings:

1. Title of Project/Activity

2. Focal Point Institution

3. Contact Person (business street address, phone/fax, email, and
website)

4. Introduction and Background (include a description of the national or
local institutional framework and what has been achieved thus far)

5. Project Description

6. Summary of Deliverables

7. Period of Performance (time-line for overall project, deadline dates
for deliverables, date of final project report to be submitted to
grants at gsdi.org)

8. Indicate your preference for an award of cash or professional
services.

9. Budget (itemize how the money is to be spent or the predicated extent
of services needed for specific tasks)
- If one or more GISCorps volunteers are requested please indicate that
in your GSDI application and also provide a description of tasks
requested of volunteer professional(s) and other information at
http://www.giscorps.org/. Use the "New Project" link on this page to
complete the request for GISCorps volunteer assistance.

10. Details of additional or in-kind funds to co-finance the activity

11. List of Collaborators (with contact information)

12. Envisioned Follow-up Activities

13.  Appendix: May include the Final Reports from any previous GSDI
Small Grant Awards

Proposals must be submitted digitally to grants at gsdi.org in English and
should be preferably two pages in length but no more than three pages or
4000 words (excluding any appendices). Please submit your proposal as a
.pdf file (or alternatively .doc or .rtf file) using 12-point Times
Roman or Arial font.

We anticipate funding up to 12 Grants in Cash and up to 4 Grants in
Professional Services.  Grant funds will be issued as paper checks in US
dollars drawn on US Banks or as wire transfers.  If the recipient
chooses to receive funds by wire transfer, $50 US will be deducted from
the award amount to cover the processing costs for the wire transfer.
The recipient institution will be required to provide a project report
and an expense report upon completion of the project.  The GSDI
Association may include excerpts of the project reports in GSDI
newsletters or on its website. Awardees are encouraged to publish a
local press release highlighting the award from the GSDI Association as
well as the proposed activities, and to send copies of these to the GSDI
Association.

Proposals are due on 1 October 2009.  Please e-mail them to:

Societal Impacts Committee
GSDI Association
grants at gsdi.org

For more information about the GSDI or to subscribe to the GSDI News
List, please see http://gsdi.org.	For questions about this request
for proposals, please contact grants at gsdi.org

Note: The Small Grants Program is intended as a benefit of "full
membership" in the GSDI Association.  Because the GSDI Association is
fairly young, we are making this opportunity available currently to
non-members as well.  However, full members may obtain favored treatment
in the instance in which two grant applications have been ranked
similarly in the peer review process. Note that the annual GSDI
Association membership fee for national organizations in low and very
low per capita income nations may be as little as US$100 or documented
in-kind contributions in lieu of dues.  Please see
http://www.gsdi.org/documents/OrgnMemberApp.pdf

****************************
If a friend or colleague would like to sign up for the GSDI News List, 
direct them to http://www.gsdi.org/

To unsubscribe/change profile:
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=95445026w-2f7d497e

To subscribe:
http://www.gsdi.org/newslist/gsdisubscribe.asp 

Our address:
c/o Onsrud | 5711 Boardman Hall, Univ. of Maine  | Orono, Maine 04473

Email list management powered by http://MailerMailer.com

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system:
you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.