The APNIC Foundation is pleased to announce the 2024 round of ISIF Asia grants. This year, 21 projects are being supported to enhance the Internet in the Asia Pacific, with a strong focus on inclusion and environmental initiatives. A total of USD 1,675,000 is being distributed across 17 economies.
The 11 Inclusion grants include five Ian Peter Grants for Internet and the Environment. These include a project in India that helps young Internet users understand the environmental impact of the Internet and what they can do about it, as well as projects that monitor landslides and wildfires using IoT as well as a project in Indonesia to recycle batteries to create Wi-Fi hubs.
- Unboxing Internet Infrastructures: The environmental costs of the Internet and what you can do about it
- FIREfly 2.0: Enhancing Forest Fire Monitoring and Biodiversity Conservation with an UAV-Based IoT System
- Empowering Communities, Mitigating Risks in Nakhon Si Thammarat: An AIoT System for Real-Time Landslide Monitoring
- Scale-up of DASH: AI/ML and IoT-powered unified system for wildfire prediction, detection and mitigation
- Light to Sumba – Small Scale Solar and Wi-Fi Hubs from Repurposed Lithium-Ion Batteries
The other six inclusion projects support wider audiences accessing the Internet in various different ways. These range from a cybersecurity education initiative for older Internet users in the Pacific, and connectivity and education initiatives for areas affected by conflict, through to e-books for children with disabilities in Bangladesh and a variety of connectivity projects across the region.
- Manipur CAN: Internet Resilience for Rebuilding Lives in Conflict-Affected Zones in North East Himalayan Region
- Safe Silver Surfers in the Pacific
- Online Accessible E-Book for school-going children including children with disabilities
- Improved quality of education through meaningful and efficient access to the Internet
- Digital Literacy For the Masses
- Bridging the Digital Divide: Empowering Rural Schools with ICT
- Digital Taleem Apki Dehliz Per (Digital Education on Your Doorstep)
The six infrastructure projects include four IPv6 Deployment Grants. These grants foster IPv6 uptake by supporting rural ISPs in technology adoption in Indonesia, supporting a key ISP in the Solomon Islands to make the switch to IPv6, creating detailed network maps as part of an IPv6 transition, and supporting IPv6 uptake in the Cook Islands.
- Empowering Rural ISPs in Indonesia with IPv6 through 464XLAT Technology
- Solomon Islands IPv6 Readiness Project
- Unlocking the Potential of IPv6: Empowering Schools, Hospitals, and Citizens in City Wide South Tangerang’s Digital Transformation
- Vakanet IPv6 Deployment
The other two Infrastructure projects focus on supporting Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in Mongolia and Myanmar, improving the efficiency of Internet traffic in these economies.
The three Knowledge projects supported this year include work to improve digital literacy in Bhutan, work to improve Research and Education Networks (RENs) in the Asia Pacific, and the development of tools to allow network operators to conduct more effective simulations to improve their network security skills.
- Enhancing Digital Literacy and Security Awareness in Eastern Bhutan
- AP-GAINED: Asia Pacific – Generative AI Integration for NREN Enhancement and Development
- Design, Development and Transfer of Technology of a P4-based SDN Security Playground across multiple economies
We congratulate our 2024 ISIF Asia grantees and look forward to seeing their work come to fruition and the positive impact they will create.
