UK net causes to get cash boost

The fund will give cash to educational and research projects

A £5m fund is being set up to finance worthy causes dedicated to educating people about the net or researching how it is used.

The cash will be given out by the Nominet Foundation - a charity set up by net registry Nominet.

The fund will be taken from the excess cash that Nominet makes while administering the .uk domain.

As a non-profit, Nominet cannot bank this excess cash or pay it as bonuses to its board.

Lesley Cowley, chief executive of Nominet, said the idea for the Foundation came out of consultation with the company's members and the wider UK net industry.

Ms Cowley said the ongoing success of the .uk registry - which has more than six million .uk domains registered - had left it with a pot of spare cash that could be used to benefit the UK's net community.

The Foundation will look for educational or research initiatives in the UK that are centred around the internet.

Nominet is aiming to have the Foundation set up and seeking its first projects to fund by summer 2008.

Ms Cowley said Nominet had already received some suggestions about ways to use the cash. She said the Foundation would solicit more proposals once it was fully operational.

"We are extremely excited about the types of work the Foundation will be able to fund," said Ms Cowley in a statement.