Open Source Funding Options

There has been some discussion lately about obtaining money for Open Source Projects and such. Tom Holyrod sent in a list of US governmental sources to turn to for help. Click below to read more.

Recent discussions on obtaining support (and in particular, funding) for open source projects have prompted me to mention that the government, through various agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the CISE, can serve as a source for such funding.

There are many program areas available (see below) including Advanced Computational Research, Next Generation Software, Human Computer Interaction, Advanced Networking Infrastructure, Digital Government, Information and Data Management, Knowledge and Cognitive Systems, Operating Systems and Compilers, Numeric, Symbolic and Geometric Computation, Robotics and Human Augmentation, and Signal Processing Systems.

All you have to do is write a grant proposal, and get it through a peer review process.

The CISE provides support for individual developers and/or small teams, has special programs for women, and programs that are designed for student researchers (including undergraduates) to obtain funding while continuing to get an education.

The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering has three goals:

* To enable the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in computing, communications, and information science and engineering;

* To promote understanding of the principles and uses of advanced computing, communications and information systems in service to society; and

* To contribute to universal, transparent and affordable participation in an information-based society.

To achieve these, CISE supports investigator initiated research in all areas of computer and information science and engineering, helps develop and maintain cutting-edge national computing and information infrastructure for research and education generally, and contributes to the education and training of the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. CISE is organized in five divisions, three of which focus principally on research, and two which combine both infrastructure and research functions.

Dr. Tom Holroyd