Today we released the 2016 annual report for the Comcast Innovation Fund, which we created to support important research into the future of the internet, with a focus on broadband, security and open-source development. Our 2016 grantees have already conducted important research, and in some cases built impressive new technologies. As we continue to watch their progress, we’re also on the hunt for exciting projects to support this year and beyond.

We’ve been operating the Comcast Innovation Fund for four years, and to date have supported 87 projects proposed by researchers from 12 countries around the world. We specifically designed the fund to be a resource for researchers working on smaller projects that may not qualify for larger grant programs.

We continue to be inspired on a daily basis by the work of the fund’s grantees. Some of the exciting work from this year’s group of 25 Innovation Fund grant recipients includes:

  • Newly released open source software from the Domain Name System Operations, Analysis and Research Consortium (DNS-OARC) that can help technologists better respond to distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.

  • Research at the University of Southern California (USC) that focuses on identifying and breaking down the barriers women-owned businesses experience in accessing global supply chains.

  • An open-source plugin developed by Grier Forensics that makes it easier for internet users to send and receive secure, encrypted e-mail.

We’ve seen compelling research, promising new open-source code, and creative solutions to challenges large and small that affect internet users around the world.

Since its first year of operation, the fund has been backed by a million-dollar annual funding commitment. Grants range from $3,000 to $100,000 or more, depending on the size and scope of the project.

We’ve already made a number of grants for 2017, 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 2018.

To learn more about the Innovation Fund, or to apply for a grant, check out the Innovation Fund Web site.