Six projects to receive funding from FRIDA

28/11/2014

The Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America (FRIDA), an initiative that promotes digital inclusion throughout the region, has announced its decision to award grants to six of the research projects submitted during the 2014 call for proposals.

A committee of experts representing FRIDA’s partner organizations selected the six winners from among 180 research project proposals received this year. The winning proposals were submitted from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Jamaica and will receive a total of USD 120,000.

Early Warnings – In the ICT Development Projects category, the committee selected the proposal “Community Action Networks – Kit Reacción” submitted by Asociación Conexión al Desarrollo (El Salvador). This project aims at creating an open source electronic device that will allow communities to communicate with each other and with humanitarian aid organizations in case of natural disasters.

Cancer Prevention – In the Devices, Infrastructure, and Technologies category, one of the winning projects was “Accelerating and Expanding the use of SIVIPCAN version 4.0, a monitoring system for preventing cancer in women, in Nicaragua,” submitted by the Movicancer Foundation (Nicaragua). Relatively new in Nicaragua, this experience has already improved how cancer monitoring is managed. The goal of next stage of the project is to allow SIVIPCAN’s current local application to connect remotely to a web platform that will link the country’s healthcare regions to the Ministry of Health’s head offices.

Diagnosing Autism – The other winning project in this category was “Early Autism Diagnosis through Gaze Tracking” by the Emily Fenichel Foundation (Argentina). This foundation develops software that will allow using conventional laptop computers for gaze tracking and establishing a child’s ocular reactions to different images and videos within a recreational environment.

Traces of War – “Home TeleMAP,” a project submitted by Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) was selected in the category Mobile Internet for Social Inclusion, Growth, Political Participation, and Active Citizenship. The project’s goal is to design a model of patient care and characterization for a home Telecare system for victims of anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Reading Comprehension – In the category Creating and Developing Skills and Content for Sustainable Human Development, a grant will be provided to the project titled “Using the Graphogame computer game for leveling pre-reading competences in vulnerable first-year students of Chile’s Araucanía Region” submitted by the Araucani Aprende Foundation for Education (Chile).

Domestic Violence – In the category Internet for Promoting, Guaranteeing, and Exercising Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the committee decided to fund the project titled “Violence against Women and the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Jamaica” by the Centre of Leadership and Governance (Jamaica). This research project includes empirical data collection and analysis to gain a better understanding of how ICTs are used to perpetuate violence against women in Jamaica, where a large number of women and girls are victims of gender violence.