Introduction and Call

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The Strengthening Information Society Research Capacity Alliance – or SIRCA II – aims to improve the inter-disciplinary research skills of emerging scholars in the Global South. Learning from the experience of building capacity in the Information Society/Information & Communication Technologies for Development field in Asia, SIRCA II will include researchers from Africa, Latin America as well as Asia, in order to address the very lack of scholars from developing regions.

The objectives of the program are to:

1. Build scientific and critical research skills and capacity among emerging researchers (PIs) in Africa, Latin America and Asia;
   1. Create opportunities for mentorship between established international researchers (Collaborators) and grant recipients (Principal Investogators or PIs);
   2. Provide spaces at a regional and international level for PIs to share experiences and knowledge in face-to-face settings; and
   3. Provide training to PIs on key information society’s issues.
2. Establish network connections between African, Latin American and Asian researchers; and
3. Disseminate findings locally and internationally in order to strengthen the body of methodologically sound, inter-disciplinary and theoretically-based research.

The program will be managed by the Singapore Internet Research Centre, based at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, and the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (Institute of Peruvian Studies – IEP), Peru. The SIRCA II Programme will be supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

Call for Proposals

Proposals for research projects on Information Societies and Information & Communication Technology for Development carried out in the Global South will be accepted.

Key Dates

Deadline for registration: October 14, 2011

Deadline for proposal submission: November 1, 2011