The WSIS Gender Caucus (GC) announced that it is going to launch a programme of small grants to support innovative research on gender and information communications technologies (ICT).

The programme seeks to enlarge the knowledge base for gender-sensitive policy on ICTs, to be presented at the Gender Caucus panels during Phase Two of the WSIS in Tunis, Tunisia on November 2005.

The GC is looking for projects falling into one of the following three general areas:

1. Documentation, analysis and evaluation of efforts to mainstream gender into ICT policy: This could include a critique of existing initiatives or the documentation of best practices, including the implementation of gender-sensitive ICT policy
2. Applications and content: This could include case studies of cultural, social and technical perspectives on ICT policy or political economy-based studies of applications in education, health, e-governance, e-commerce, etc.
3. Theories and methodologies: This could include the development of conceptual frameworks and methodologies for better understanding and analysing the relationship between ICTs and gender.

Proposals must be submitted by e-mail and must meet the following requirements:

• clear statement of the problem
• objectives of the research
• methodology
• method of data analysis
• time line
• preliminary bibliography

Proposals should be a maximum of five pages. Those longer than five pages will automatically be rejected.

An international panel of experts will select the winning proposals and their decisions will be final. In addition to the criteria listed above, the panel will give consideration to regional balance.

There will be two rounds for this research programme. In each of the rounds, 20 research grants will be made, each to a maximum of US$1,000. This total is expected to cover all associated research costs and recipients would be expected to plan their projects accordingly. One half of the grants will be used to support young scholars (female or male) who are currently registered in a higher degree program (master's or doctoral level). The remaining grants are intended to support university and research centre-based scholars. Projects that involve collaboration beyond national borders will be considered for slightly higher grants (up to a maximum of US$2,500).

The deadline of submissions is on 15 August 2004. It is anticipated that the first grants will be made by the end of September 2004.

To submit proposals or to inquire for more information, please e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..