I recently was chosen as one of a few young scholars to participate in an Early Career Symposium, funded by an NSF grant (thanks to the vision of Dr. Chandra Orrill, University of Georgia), 
that gave me some great insights into designing a meaningful research agenda as well as strategies for securing grants to fund it. I imagine a lot of it will apply to the ICT4D Consortium, as well as my interest in intercultural collaboration and innovation.
There was too much good content to capture it all here – but I was impressed simply by the mentors, their candid insights and suggestions, their ideas for ensuring your research and work makes a meaningful difference, and also by how doable it is to secure large grants for quality research. I am in the process of interviewing key people from several large grant awarding organizations and feel like I am getting a much better idea for how to increase the likelihood of a proposal being funded.
Following this symposium I also attended a membership meeting for the International Division of AECT and again was impressed by the quality of people there, and by how doable it is to receive awards like the Fullbright fellowship. After the symposium I was also able to meet with the CIO of the NSF and enjoyed discussing some of what the future of education and technology in education might hold. He invited me to visit with him more next time I am in Washington D.C., and I guess that provides me another reason for a visit there.
Quite often there is money or awards that are left on the table and unused simply because no one has submitted a quality application (or in some cases no one has submitted an application at all).
Even when there are a lot of applications submitted, there is always room to fund the best ones – so why not make one of them yours?
You know, (this is only slightly related, but I feel like saying it anyway), in the glimpses of your life that I see, you really radiate an energy (despite being sleepy) for living a full life. Life is more full of possibilities than we often “allow” our minds to conceive of. We look and feel undeserving of the dreams or accomplishments we really hold closest to our hearts. I know I do it. The limitations we often feel seem to be our own rather than reality. I believe God has many exciting things for us if we let ourselves dream big and invite Him in, and allow ourselves to to see and take the opportunities He gives us, and allow ourselves to receive His blessings. The other night going to a concert my friend passed a parking spot on the way to the back of the lot. “Whoa!” I said. “Was that spot too close for you?” My dad was in the car and later reflected on it. “Are these opportunities coming to fast for you?” Take them. Don’t limit yourself to what you feel like you’re worth. Because you’re likely “worth” a lot more. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Anyway. You’re an example to me of that. I like the question you ask at the end. “Why not make one of them yours?” Even though I don’t know what most of your acronyms mean, I wish you the best in all of them. =o)