[Geowanking] Fwd: Call for Proposals: GSDI Small Grants Program

Tue Aug 4 15:43:34 PDT 2009

Please forgive duplicate postings:
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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)

a.    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

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