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Funding Criteria - Program Areas

GeoConnections provides funding through three broad program areas:
  1. User capacity has the objective of helping users take advantage of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) to improve decision making. This program area uses primarily the contribution funding mechanism.
  2. Content has the objective of increasing the information and data accessed through the CGDI. This area uses a mix of contribution and contract mechanisms.
  3. Architecture and standards has the objective of evolving the technical standards and components of the CGDI. This program area uses primarily the contract funding mechanism; however, contributions are sometimes used.
Funding envelopes

Each program area with funding has several different funding envelopes that are tied to achieving GeoConnections' outcomes. Announcements of Opportunity (AOs), Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and Requests for Information (RFIs) are linked to each of these envelopes, which are summarized as follows:

User Capacity (4 envelopes)
Content (4 envelopes)
Architecture and Standards (3 envelopes)

User capacity (4 envelopes)
  1. Geomatics capacity: Many users need basic geomatics capacity before they can take advantage of the CGDI, and so this envelope provides geomatics hardware, software, and training to potential CGDI users. Geographic information systems (GIS) and GPS units are both eligible costs for funding; however, their use must eventually lead to applying the CGDI. This envelope capitalizes on lessons learned from the Sustainable Communities Initiative, which ran from 2000 to 2005 with similar objectives.
  2. Business planning: To ensure the sustainability of projects that GeoConnections funds, proponents should clearly understand end-user needs and have a sound business plan that guides geomatics implementation. GeoConnections shares the cost of these activities to ensure the sustainability of project results and strong future proposals.
  3. Decision-support applications: GeoConnections shares the cost of decision-support applications that serve end-users. Applications must make use of the CGDI to access or share location-based information. Applications may reside on the Internet for public use or behind firewalls for private, secure use.
  4. National and trans-boundary information systems: GeoConnections contributes to the development of large national or inter-provincial/territorial systems that meet distinct end-user requirements. The systems must make use of the CGDI to address problems that are inter-jurisdictional or national in scope.
Content (4 envelopes)
  1. Renewing framework data (GeoBase): GeoConnections contributes to a federal, provincial, and territorial endeavour to provide national reference data sets online at no cost. Under this envelope, GeoConnections contributes to ensuring long-term access to current national data sets on administrative boundaries, geodetic survey points, place names, administrative boundaries, satellite imagery, and roads. This data can be accessed at www.geobase.ca.
  2. Expanding framework data: GeoConnections contributes to federal, provincial, and territorial endeavours to provide new national reference data sets online at no cost. Under this envelope, GeoConnections contributes to the integration of national data sets that our end-users indicated were necessary in a national needs assessment conducted in 2005-006. Priorities for these data sets will be identified in 2006.
  3. Distributed thematic content: GeoConnections contributes to efforts that develop data-exchange standards and that subsequently link data to the CGDI in a way that allows users to search for and obtain location-based data closest to its most authoritative source.
  4. Regional atlases: GeoConnections realizes that certain areas of the country are data rich and that integration of this data in a regional compilation could serve a variety of uses (e.g., watershed management and emergency response). Therefore, the program contributes to the compilation of these online regional atlases, and to efforts to link them to the Atlas of Canada, decision-support systems, and national and trans-boundary information systems.
Architecture and standards (3 envelopes)
  1. Directed innovation: The CGDI has evolved through collaborations with the private sector since 1999. Indeed the innovation of Canada's geomatics industry is largely responsible for GeoConnections' success. GeoConnections will continue to expand the capacity of the CGDI by procuring from the private sector innovative solutions that have been informed by end-user consultations.
  2. Core infrastructure technologies: The core of the CGDI comprises several components, including the Discovery Portal (GeoConnections' national search engine), the GeoBase portal (for downloading reference data sets), GeoGratis (for sharing data sets in the public domain), and the GeoConnections website. All of these core components will be maintained, operated, and evolved through 2010 by procuring private-sector standards-based solutions.
  3. Standards: The CGDI is based on open standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO Technical Committee 211-Geographic Information and Geomatics) and the Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. GeoConnections will employ contributions and contracts to maintain and develop CGDI standards, technologies, and related profiles that follow operational and user requirements.