FAQ

Project proposals from Asia Pacific-based organizations will be considered. Applications from public, private sector, academia (such as universities or research and development institutions), non-profit and social enterprises are welcome to all grant categories. The names, academic background and relevant experience of the people having relevant technical and administrative participation in the implementation of the project must be stated. Individuals are not eligible to apply. Applications must be aligned with ISIF Asia program objectives, eligibility criteria, and administrative guidelines. No self-nominations for the Awards are accepted. When submitting an application, the applicants acknowledge that any grant funding and, indeed, the application and evaluation process, is entirely at the discretion of the funding partners and they may choose to determine the process at any time up to the time of actual payment.

Applications must be submitted through the relevant online application form on our portal. Please read carefully the information provided to help you prepare. There is no limit about the number of applications that you can submit. There are no restrictions to apply for different programs and types of grants at the same time.

Applicants are required to respond to a specific set of questions. This is a copy of the application questions, for reference purposes only, as a general guide. IPv6 Deployment Grant applications also require details of the planned deployment.

Yes. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with like-minded organizations. When preparing the application, please include information about the partnership, such as the list of the organizations or groups involved in the partnership, and a detailed description on how the partnership is going to work, how the roles and responsibilities for the project implementation will be distributed, how the decisions will be taken, and which organization will be the leading the partnership. It is important to clarify that:

1. The leading organization must be based in the Asia Pacific region;
2. The due diligence review might be required to be completed by all the organizations listed in the partnership;
3. Only the leading organization will sign the grant agreement with the APNIC Foundation and be entitled to receive and administer the allocated funds.

Any conflicts or disputes between project partners should be manage by the leading organization and changes in the status of the partnerships must be communicated to the APNIC Foundation.

Maximum amounts are included in the relevant application form, as that depends on the specific program that you are applying for and type of funding available for that particular year. To understand what is available, visit the Apply section of the website.

Calls for grant proposals and award nominations under the Inclusion, Infrastructure and Knowledge Programs are open for a fixed period time. Clear deadlines are included on our application portal, our website and through email announcements and social media posts.

The IPv6 Deployment Grants will be open throughout the year and applicants will be able to submit an application at any time.

All applications must be submitted in their entirety using the relevant online application form. No additional information can be filed after that date (unless required by APNIC Foundation staff).

The APNIC Foundation ONLY supports initiatives managed by organizations based in the Asia Pacific region, with funds allocated to be invested within at least one economy as per the list of economies. The ISIF Asia Selection Committee will consider geographical diversity when making decisions for final funding allocation.

• Afghanistan
• American Samoa
• Australia
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• China
• Christmas Is
• Cocos Keeling Is
• Cook Is
• Fiji
• French Polynesia
• French Southern Territories
• Guam
• Hong Kong
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Kiribati
• Lao PDR
• Macao
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Marshall Is
• Micronesia (FSM)
• Mongolia
• Myanmar
• Nauru
• Nepal
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Niue
• Norfolk Is
• North Korea
• Northern Mariana Is
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Pitcairn
• Samoa
• Singapore
• Solomon Is
• South Korea
• Sri Lanka
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Timor Leste
• Tokelau
• Tonga
• Tuvalu
• Vanuatu
• Viet Nam
• Wallis and Futuna Is

Foundation staff conduct a detailed review of the applications received, making sure each proposal is in scope, within our service region and complete.

Thematic selection committees are structured with support from technical experts from the community, assigned to a specific programmatic area. Normally selection committees are composed of four or six representatives.

Depending on the number of proposals received, Selection Committee(s) members work in pairs defined around technical expertise and diversity. In that initial step they decide if the proposal is worthy to be moved forward for full review, where all committee members for that thematic program will assess the proposals.

Applications moving forward for full review are scored by all Selection Committee members based on selection criteria detailed below. The scoring is conducted through an online platform that calculates an average score based on the points given by each selection committee member, multiplied by the weight designated for each criterion.

Committee members are required to provide comments to support their scores.

Feedback to applicants will be provided -if need be- based on the comments from the Selection Committee members as well as the assessment by the APNIC Foundation staff.

Selection committee scores inform final determinations for selection. Staff may also take diversity considerations into account including the geographic distribution of ISIF Asia’s overall funding. Internet Development grants (3 x small grants across any program area) will be awarded to the strongest scoring applications from economies that have not been supported by ISIF Asia previously.

The criteria and weights are as follows.

Yes, it is possible, but it will be a slow process. The APNIC Foundation staff is willing to review the comments gathered during the selection process and provide a summary after final decisions are published. This should allow the applicant to improve future applications. The decisions are final and cannot be challenged.

The application forms provide a template to organize expenses according to the following budget lines. The same lines are used for reporting if the application is successful. No overheads are funded on a percentage basis, but they can be included as part of the project budget.

• Equipment (all devices, hardware and software needed for specific project implementation. It is assumed that organization have the equipment to conduct their day-to-day work)
• Personnel (salaries of project team if they work 50% of the time or more on the project activities. If considered personnel, applicant will be required to explain how those costs will be covered once project funding is exhausted as part of the sustainability strategy)
• Professional services (organization’s staff, contractors and consultants providing technical support, programming, documentation, monitoring and evaluation costs, etc. that works less than 50% of the time in the project)
• Project activities (local and national engagement activities (including travel, training for community beneficiaries, logistics, and so forth)
• International engagement by project team (expenses associated with international facet-to-face and/or online engagement such as accommodation, airfares, visa applications, per diem, registration fees for participation in conferences, presentation, field trips);
• Staff Mentoring and Training (costs associated with mentoring, training and professional development)
• Support services (web hosting, transcripts, translations, logistics, workshops facilitation, etc).

Applicants must include expenses associate with engagement and participation to at least one APNIC conference (either online or face-to-face depending on the situation) during the proposed project timeframe to engage with the regional/global research community as part of their project. Travel will only be supported on economy class and daily expenses can be claimed only against presentation of receipts for meals not included in the events attended, under very strict guidelines to be provided when travel is approved. Part of the grant can be used to process travel insurance requests as needed. No project team member can travel internationally under grant related activities without travel insurance.

A grant agreement will be signed between the leading organization of a grant proposal and the APNIC Foundation. It will include the schedule of disbursements and the terms and conditions for the release of grant funds.

An Award Letter will be signed between the awarded organization and the APNIC Foundation. It will include the terms and conditions for the release of award funds.

The legal representative of the selected organization will be required to sign the document. The document is not valid without an authorized APNIC Foundation signature.

These legal documents cannot be tailored to accommodate individual requests so that all grant recipients operate under the same terms and conditions.

The template for the standard grant agreement is available for review here.

Availability of co-funding by other agencies or organizations is not a requisite to accept applications. However, it might be required depending on the grant type an organization is applying for and where is registered.

The APNIC Foundation is committed to provide funding in a timely manner. The first disbursement will be done no more than 30 days later than acceptance of the terms and conditions and complied with all the required administrative procedures for the due diligence process.

If a contract requires more than one disbursement, subsequent disbursements are released pending the submission and approval of technical and financial reports or any other requirements included as part of the document signed by both parties.

Grant recipients are required to provide two technical and two financial reports using our portal. The APNIC Foundation will provide assistance about how to use the portal. Additional reports might be requested by the APNIC Foundation at any time during the project cycle.

The technical reports must be descriptive and detailed, providing information that can be used for promotion and follow-up.

Reports must document the activities conducted and include documentation efforts conducted as part of the project.

It is advisable to inform APNIC Foundation about any pictures, diagrams, audio and/or video that document project activities. These additional materials will be used to development ISIF Asia promotional materials, and as such ISIF Asia reserves the right to reuse them either totally or partially. Therefore, to credit the authors full details must be provided. Funding recipients will be showcased on our website and online platforms.

Final technical reports are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, including basic information about team members according to the APNIC Foundation privacy policy.

The first set of reports (technical and financial) must be submitted halfway through the project cycle and the final reports must be submitted no longer than 30 days after the project activities have finished.

Reports are subject to approval by the APNIC Foundation.

Approval might take two to four weeks and therefore it is recommended that project activities are budgeted accordingly so there are no delays in implementation.

Award recipients are expected to write a blog article sharing with the community about the impact receiving the award had for the organization and their future plans.

The APNIC Foundation reserves the right to organize site visits for its staff or for its funding partners at any time during the project cycle or after project implementation has concluded. Recipients will be notified accordingly to organize the logistics.

Yes. The APNIC Foundation will notify funding recipients about any meeting planned and will provide detailed logistic information with enough anticipation to guarantee participation. Mandatory participation to specific events will be part of the terms and conditions for the release of funds.

Yes. The ISIF Asia Secretariat supports a networking strategy among all the recipients based on common interests. A selection of online tools to promote information sharing and networking among the recipients is available.

Award recipients are expected to write a blog article sharing with the community about the impact receiving the award had for the organization and their future plans.

All ISIF Asia funded projects are required to publish their Final Technical Report on our website to document their project activities and share their lessons learned. All reports are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Ownership of the project idea and materials will remain with the recipients of the ISIF Asia funds.

When submitting an application and/or a report, the applicants and/or the grantees are granting permission to the APNIC Foundation and its funding partners to use materials, submitted or developed during the application and/or reporting process, in publications or materials to promote the project outcomes, ISIF Asia or the APNIC Foundation such as our annual reports. These materials can be project descriptions, photographs to illustrate a project idea during the application process, or taken during the course of a project implementation, at funded events, etc.

Calls for applications open annually, but there is no specific calendar to follow. If you want to apply for the next one, please register to receive the official announcements, so your organization will have enough time to prepare accordingly.

To register, just add your contact details to the form that is visible when you scroll down on the homepage of our website.

1. Proposals must have clear and concrete objectives and a well-structured methodology.
2. Projects should clearly address diversity as part of their staffing, governance and implementation, and include on their application information about the expected impact of their activities around the many dimensions of diversity such as race, ethnicity, language, literacy, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, etc. Projects led by women and/or where women have an active technical role are specially encouraged to apply in all categories.
3. Grant applicants should demonstrate capacity to manage funds, conduct project activities and document outcomes effectively, within the specified budget and time limits. Administrative overheads will not be funded as a separate percentage but can be included as part of the project activities.
4. Grant applications must include a realistic timeframe for project implementation that is achievable within the maximum time specified for each grant type. Successful grant recipients will have flexibility around the implementation of their project. ISIF Asia will consider no-cost extensions for successful projects based on project progress and reported challenges.
5. Grant applications must include only the budget breakdown of the funds solicited to ISIF Asia. If the application is part of a larger project, details about source of funding and budget distribution can be provided as part of the grant application but without being included on the budget breakdown requested as part of the application form. The program may decide to partially fund a proposal.
6. ISIF Asia has a strong emphasis about documentation of impact and knowledge sharing. Grantees are required to prepare progress and final reports using a designated reporting platform. Project reports are published using a Creative Commons 4.0 license. Besides the project technical report, grantees are encouraged to share -when appropriate- research papers, videos, and other communication materials. Applicants are required to include a clear communication strategy for the dissemination of project outcomes. Successful funding recipients will be encouraged to submit papers to academic peer-review journals as well as research papers to regional and global conferences such as the APNIC, APRICOT, IETF and others to share project outcomes as well as to share “behind the scenes” lessons learned during the project cycle in our blog. Successful funding recipients will be required to be available for interviews and other promotional activities around the dissemination of project results.