KO, NRC and other First Nation partners receiving funding for videoconferencing research
KO and its partners on the VideoCom research project have been successful in two grant proposals to continue the work for at least another three years. The project is focused on video communications (videoconferencing and online video) in remote and rural First Nation communities.
K-Net and KORI have played a key role in the project since it began in 2006 and will continue in the next phase, now funded to 2012.
The research partners are Atlantic Canada's First Nation Help Desk in Nova Scotia, and FNEC - the First Nation Education Council - in Quebec. The VideoCom research initiative is led by the National Research Council and the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. All the project partners make significant in-kind contributions with the cash contribution coming from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
This week SSHRC confirmed funding for VideoCom of $135,095 for the period 2009-2012. SSHRC also confirmed a second grant for $125,350 to disseminate the research related to northern communities to non-academic audiences. This dissemination grant will allow the project to hire community researchers and to create videos in collaboration with communities, K-Net, KORI and the research partners.