Comcast is currently on the hunt for researchers and projects that it will back in 2016 and beyond through its Comcast Innovation Fund.
Jason Livingood, Comcast’s VP of Internet services in technology, says the operator has deliberately left the criteria broad enough to encompass a wide variety of research. Among the projects the company is looking to support via the fund are those that advance open source projects, and ones that address cybersecurity, IPv6, DNSSEC and DANE. Additionally, it wants to see information from researchers that can identify performance bottlenecks and other challenges in home networks, including security-related issues. Livingood also lists the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a key area of interest in his blog about the fund.
“We’ve begun funding projects for 2016, but still have a lot of opportunity to support good projects. And if we see a worthy project that we can’t fit in this year, we will put it up for consideration in 2017,” Livingood reports.
Since its first year of operation, Comcast has backed the fund with a million-dollar annual commitment. Grants range from $3,000 to $100,000 or more, depending on the size and scope of the project, according to the company.
Yesterday, the operator released its annual report for the fund (formerly the Comcast Technology Research & Development Fund), which details its third year and the research it backed. It has supported 62 projects from 10 countries around the world, Comcast says.
“We specifically designed the fund to be a resource for researchers working on smaller projects that may not qualify for larger grant programs,” Livingood notes.
“The results have been tremendous. Backed by the Innovation Fund, researchers have worked on projects that have ranged from exploring how STEM education is being incorporated into after-school programs, to building open-source tools to detect and combat malicious DNS (Domain Name System) activity, to name just two interesting projects,” he says.
