The GSDI Association has been making Small Grants Program awards since 2003 – our longest running project. These grants are for $2,500. Although this is not a large amount of money, in emerging nations and developing SDI’s, it can go a long way toward SDI preparedness, for building some component of an SDI and/or to add to SDI sustainability. It may also help to engage other organizations in collaboration and additional co-funding.
The GSDI Association’s call for proposals for its Small Grants Program 2017 stimulated a terrific level of response. GSDI is thrilled to have received over 30 proposals, with submissions from 27 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and South America. We are looking forward to having a truly global representation of the leadership, organizational practices, and technical innovation that is collectively transforming local and national geospatial data infrastructure initiatives into a worldwide information ecosystem.
It is clear that individuals, organizations, and governments are coming to grips with the critical role of geospatial data in addressing our many shared challenges more collaboratively. For this grant round, we hope you will join GSDI to further extend and enhance Spatial Data Infrastructure globally, for institutions, themes, countries and regions.
We are inspired by the varied initiatives of so many colleagues to address the spatial data and SDI needs they see in their country and community. The range of needs represented by the grant proposals is evidence that the GSDI Small Grant Program fills a particular niche. Thanks to the generosity of GSDI’s members and partners who support the association, GSDI is privileged to be able to give a boost to varied efforts striving to make data available and accessible make a difference,, having funded more than 110 projects over the past 14 years.
We have completed the process of reviewing the proposals and selecting the four that GSDI can fund this year from its own reserves However, that means many valuable proposals will not receive funding, unless we receive more assistance from the global geo community. Thus, we are actively seeking further funds for this round of Small Grants proposals. Stay tuned to the GSDI website and social media channels for an announcement of the successfully funded grants. Also, we will provide updates on the grants as activities progress. For any questions about the Small Grants Program, please reach out to one of our team members at smallgrants@gsdi.org.
A big thank you to all who submitted proposals. The interest is most welcome and encouraging.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at smallgrants@gsdi.org.