About 2.2 billion people remain offline in 2025, and 96 percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries. Even among those who are connected, mobile broadband remains unaffordable in roughly 60 percent of low- and middle-income countries.
The headline numbers on connectivity keep improving. The quality gap underneath them is getting harder to ignore.
The Opportunity
The Research Grant Program has awards up to US$500,000 per project from the Internet Society. The program funds researchers and institutions worldwide who can generate practical, open knowledge to inform public policy, industry decisions, and technology development.
Proposals must address one or more of the following:
- Inclusive Internet: Structural barriers (income, gender, geography, digital literacy) that keep a third of humanity out of digital ecosystems, including affordable infrastructure and community-led networks.
- Greening the Internet: Environmental impact of Internet infrastructure, energy efficiency, climate resilience, and the effects of extreme weather on connectivity in already-disadvantaged communities.
- Measuring Meaningful Connectivity: Frameworks that capture whether people can actually engage in economic, social, and civic life online, including how AI, cloud, and platform-dependent ecosystems change what “connected” means.
- A Trustworthy Internet: Reliability, security, and accountability across network layers, and emerging risks to the Internet as an open platform for free expression.
The program is open to individual researchers and organizations worldwide. Applicants from underrepresented groups and the Global Majority are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications can be submitted in English, French, or Spanish.
Apply Now: Deadline is 22 May 2026
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