ISIF Asia first call for applications was launched in 2008 and received an overwhelming response, with 148 applications coming in from 22 different Asia Pacific economies, including Bhutan, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea. Following strict criteria, 11 successful projects representatives were invited to attend a Proposal Development Workshop in Hyderabad, India prior to the 2008 Internet Governance Forum. At the workshop the participants had the opportunity to modify their proposals based on feedback received from the Selection Committee as well as the other candidates, while exploring strategies to support effective collaboration.

The ISIF Asia program granted support to 11 projects in 8 countries. The projects selected showcase innovation across a wide spectrum, whilst building research capacity within leading and partnering organizations. These projects focused on diverse uses of ICT technology, such as mobile-based tele-healthcare, forensic investigation infrastructure, and localized high-performance email for telecentres, and even the establishment of a national high-speed backbone.


ISIF Asia 2009 recipients and members of ISIF Asia Selection Committee and secretariat (Hyderabad, India 2008)

The grant recipients for 2009 are listed below, along with their final technical reports documenting their project activities.

    1. The Internet Education and Research Laboratory (intERLab), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Development of emergency networks training and tools kit.
    2. The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the National University of Science and Technology (Pakistan) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Capacity Building of Lady Health Workers in Rural Mardan, NWFP through the use of ICT based Tele-healthcare.
    3. The University of Colombo School of Computing (Sri Lanka) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: A low-cost digital forensic investigation infrastructure for a third world country.
    4. The Bac Ha International University (Vietnam) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Broadband Internet access for rural areas of Vietnam using WiMAX technology via television broadcasting infrastructure.
    5. One Destination Center (Indonesia) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: VoIP as a model applicable to developing countries
    6. Punjabi University (India) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Web-based transliteration and translation system between Urdu and Hindi languages
    7. Nepal Research and Education Network (Nepal)
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: High-speed backbone for Nepal Research and Education Network
    8. SynapseHealth (The Philippines) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Health, emergency and disaster information using mobile and virtual earth technology
    9. Horizon Lanka Foundation (Sri Lanka)
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Meshing Up Mahavilachchiya
    10. AirJaldi Networks (India)
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: Bandwidth maximizer – proving concepts, demonstrating potential and viability
    11. The University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka) 
      COMPLETED. Summary | Technical report: E-mail system for telecentres and schools