The GSDI Small Grants Program 2017 has opened call for proposals. The documentation, including the ‘Guidelines for GSDI Small Grants Applicants’ and ‘Application Submission Guidelines – 2017’ can be downloaded from the GSDI website. It also gives information about previous awards given to the applicants on various projects.
GSDI Association has been making Small Grants Program awards since 2003. The cash grants are for US$ 2,500. Although this is not a large amount of money, in emerging nations and developing economies, it can go a long way toward spatial data infrastructure (SDI) preparedness, raising awareness, for building some component of an SDI or to add to SDI sustainability. It may also help to engage other organizations in collaboration and additional co-funding for large projects. Since 2003, more than 100 grants have been made by the association. Applications for the 2017 program are due not later than 1 June 2017.
“We plan to award up to four grants in cash from our own financial Greserves. The GSDI Association greatly appreciates past support for the Small Grants program from GeoConnections in Canada, the FGDC in the US, and URISA’s GISCorps. More grants may be made at a later date if we find additional sponsors in 2017,” says company representative of GDSI Association.
All applications should be submitted in the format set out in the ‘Application Submission Guidelines’ to be assessed and considered for an award. Applications should be returned to GSDI as email attachments to [email protected]
Following are criteria for proposals assessment:
- The principal focus of this program is to help those organizations that are contributing to and (or) building SDIs. Proposals centered on GIS, GPS, remote sensing, information distribution, and semi-related topics that do not focus on SDI developments will not be considered.
- National efforts are preferred. However, sub-national, regional, and some industry requests may be considered and recommended for funding, as long as they relate to development of SDI.
- The primary focus is to contribute to projects or programs that have already started building an SDI. Therefore, a program that has seen this grant opportunity and has decided to start collecting data, because it may receive money, will not be considered. Organizations should have started their SDI efforts well before this Call for Proposals. There should be a plan for sustaining the SDI project or program in the months and years to come.
- Information about who is the Principal Investigator is required.
- Collaboration with other organizations inside a country is good and may add points to the ranking of a proposal. Collaboration with neighbors and regional or global organizations is also good.
- More than one grant per country is possible provided that the proposals come from two different organizations within the country that focus on different aspects of SDI development and implementation in that country. However, only one grant will be awarded per organization.
- It is preferred that the awards go to new or developing organizations that have not received a GSDI award in the past in developing nations or emerging economies.
