October 2003
Funding for Advanced Applications Program announced
Ontario research and education institutions connected to the ORION network are now eligible to access a new $4 million Advanced Applications Program (AAP) from CANARIE, Canada’s Research and Innovation Network.
Announced at last week’s national Advanced Networking Workshop in Montreal, the new program is designed to support collaborative research projects.
Researchers from across Canada are being invited to submit project proposals for the development of advanced applications in a number of areas including network research, advanced network and applications security, video conferencing and collaborative technologies, university portals, and grids and distributed computing.
One of the program’s criteria is that the project utilize at least one Optical Regional Advanced Network (ORAN), in Ontario’s case, the ORION network.
“We’re ready to work with organizations hoping to access this funding, says ORION President and CEO Phil Baker.
The new funding program reflects the reality that leading edge R&E relies increasingly on collaborative efforts that exploit high-speed networks such as ORION.
Collaborative video conferencing technologies, for example, are a key area of development that is slated to receive funding under the AAP.
At a recent national workshop co-hosted by ORION, York University, and CANARIE, there was a general acknowledgement that collaborative video-conferencing technologies had only achieved a small fraction of their potential, especially given the growing capacity of high-speed networks. Whereas today’s level of video-conferencing reduces participants to talking heads, experts agree that future generations of video-conferencing must include more intuitive and interactive features.
Real-time collaboration is a major global trend in research and education. With ORION, Ontario researchers have the ideal infrastructure for developing the next generation of collaborative technologies, including advanced video-conferencing.
The challenge is to develop more reliable, well-integrated systems to support complex collaboration at a distance. This may involve enhanced use of touch, 3-D, sound and sight, layered sources of information and security at all points of collaboration - all in the context of real-world limits in technology: time lag, limited accessibility, inconsistent capability, costs, firewalls, competition with older established affordable technology.
CANARIE will support up to 50% of eligible costs up to $250,000, but under certain circumstances, contributions above that ceiling will be allowed.
Among the mandatory criteria for applicants in this competitive process is the expectation that successful projects must bring together complementary participants to achieve results that individual organizations could not achieve independently.
Projects must also be innovative in concept, design, and application, and have an impact on the state of the art and evolution of advanced networking capabilities, particularly (but not exclusively) through the use of end-to-end lightpaths.
Projects must use at least one Optical Regional Advanced Network (ORAN), and the use of CA*net 4 is highly desirable. The deadline for proposals is February 2, 2004. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed Statement of Work (SOW) no later than March 31, 2004.
Visit the CA*net 4 web site for more information. http://www.canarie.ca/funding/applications/guidelines.html.
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