More than USD 200,000 in the form of Awards and Small Grants

23/12/2015

FRIDA, the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean, is planning to provide more than USD 200,000 in the form of awards, small grants and project upscaling funds after the three calls for candidates and proposals scheduled for 2016, announced Carolina Caeiro, the new head of this LACNIC initiative.

These funds will be used to finance and recognize innovative initiatives and outstanding projects in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year, technical innovation projects focusing on access, devices, the Internet of Things, IPv6, security and privacy will receive special attention.

According to Caeiro, the amount presented to 2016 FRIDA Award recipients will increase from USD 3,000 to USD 5,000; FRIDA grants and escalation funds will range from USD 20,000 to USD 40,000. Caeiro noted that plans for next year “will place special emphasis on FRIDA’s soft services, accompanying our beneficiaries with capacity building and networking activities, particularly promoting the articulation of projects that received FRIDA funding in the past.”

Caeiro has a Masters Degree in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland) and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from Middlebury College (USA). “Joining the FRIDA Program is a huge honor for me,” said Caeiro. Before joining LACNIC, she worked at Chequeado, a digital medium which received the FRIDA Award in 2013 and funds for project escalation in 2014.

“This experience allowed me to have firsthand knowledge of the impact FRIDA can have on a growing organization; now that I am with LACNIC, I am taking on the task of coordinating the program with great enthusiasm and aware of the responsibility involved and the transformative impact we can have on Latin American and Caribbean initiatives,” added the new head of FRIDA.

New Direction. This year, FRIDA is closing a three-year work cycle funded with the support of the IDRC and SIDA and the regional contribution of the Internet Society. Caeiro noted that a new cycle will begin in 2016, incorporating the lessons learned from what has already been done as well as new components. “We are confident that this development will allow FRIDA to have a greater impact in the region, as we strengthen and grow the program accompanying the projects we’ve funded,” concluded Caeiro.

You can follow FRIDA on social networks (@programaFrida  /FondoRegionalFRIDA), visit the program’s website (www.programafrida.net), and stay tuned for the first 2016 call for proposals which is set to be launched during the first