Heritage networks fund announces first-round winners from across Canada

Canadian Heritage has announced the winners of well over half of its New Media Research Networks Fund, accounting for $5.64 million of the available $8 million in the envelope intended to encourage partnerships in new media R&D (CNM, Aug. 21/02). The winning projects will be funded for two years through the 2003-2004 fiscal year to study everything from teleconferencing to accessibility to 3D rendering. It's too soon, however, to say when another call for letters of intent might be made to disburse the remaining funds, says Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP) director Ruth Bacon. She says the department will let the current crop of winning projects play out for a while before it issues another call for projects and doesn't hazard a guess as to when that might be. One thing that seems certain, however, is that the department's approach to accepting projects will likely continue. For this project, which Bacon calls "one of the most exciting in the CCOP," Heritage chose to solicit letters of intent - short descriptions of proposed projects - rather than more elaborate expressions of interest or alternative applications. The process, which Bacon says is more akin to the grant process in the scientific research and development community, was intended to reduce the paperwork burden on prospective applicants and manage expectations. She notes that the fund received 32 letters of intent in this round, and that after a peer-review process to identify strengths and weaknesses in each, seven were asked to submit more formal applications. Of those, five were chosen for funding. Bacon says the winning projects reflect the desired mix of small and large organizations as well as the cross-country participation the fund was seeking. The winners include the Atlantic Research Network in Culture, Multimedia, Technology and Cognition at the University of Prince Edward Island, which was awarded $1.3 million to fund training in and access to cutting-edge audio-visual technology. The group hopes to organize teleconferences and a conference on new media to facilitate exchanges and promotion of art works created by the group. The Canadian Network for Inclusive Cultural Exchange at the University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre received $4 million for research into new technologies that will foster equal access to digital cultural content. The Netera Alliance and University of Calgary will receive $1.15 million for their 3D Web Research Network. The initiative will develop and distribute an Internet-based catalogue of different objects rendered in digital 3D. Netera, in conjunction with a broad spectrum of partners, has long done research into object repositories and this latest announcement will likely bolster those efforts (CNM, Feb. 7/01). The Réseau de recherche pour la gestion du contenu culturel numérique at the Université de Sherbrooke will study the needs and behaviour of those interested in Canadian digital cultural content to develop technologies that can improve accessibility to it. The project will receive $998,394. Finally, the Nouveaux territoires de la crétion-diffusion en réseau at La Société des arts technologiques will receive $792,082 to create a "new creative and broadcasting space where digital culture can take shape and reach new audiences." Of the five projects chosen, two are based in Quebec. The need to fund research in both French and English was likely keenly felt by the department. In late March last year, both CANARIE Inc. and Canadian Heritage were stung by criticism by the Commissioner of Official Languages that they were ignoring linguistic duality (CNM, April 8/02).

Heritage networks fund announces first-round winners from across Canada

Broadcast | May 30, 2003

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