On behalf of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association, the OGC invites organizations to participate in the GSDI Association Small Grants Program. The application deadline for the Small Grants Program for the year 2009-10 is 1 October 2009.

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. Grants are of two types: Cash up to 2,500 USD to be used on your project, and/or GISCorps Professional Services applied to your project.

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure 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 OGC is an international consortium of more than 380 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

For more information please visit www.opengeospatial.org