Research and Development fund open for ICT projects

int@j and MoICT have met with the R&D fund under the Ministry of Higher Education earlier in November 2009 in effort to encourage more R&D in the ICT sector and the fund responsiveness to ICT projects and requests, the meeting focused on understanding the R&D fund process and interest, the R&D fund asked for ICT sector's feedback on the assessment guidelines and R&D areas of interest in ICT in order to take these into consideration in their funding cycle and evaluation of projects.
 
The R&D funding cycle is open twice every year, January and June, int@j and MoICT drafted the following high-level areas, but we need your feedback/additions so we can compile a list by end of December 2009 and send to the R&D fund.
 
Proposed guidelines
Decision Factors
Projects should have potential practical and commercialization aspect/application
Projects should be aligned with National ICT Strategy and overall sector interest/direction
 
Sample Focus Areas
·          Next Generation software
·          Next Generation networks
·          Cloud computing
·          Convergence
·          Web 2.0 technology
·          HTML 5 applications
·          Content (Web/mobile)
o   Development (conventional content, e.g. applications, gaming, lifestyle, etc...)
o   Digitization
o   Localization/Arabization/arabic
o   Encoding/decoding
o   Search engines/algorithms
o   Platforms for user generated content
·          IT applications in wider economy, eg. healthcare, education, energy, water, environment
·          E-Learning
·          E-Services