Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge 2019 for Middle East, Africa & Turkey Region (USD $150,000 in Funding)

Application Deadline: Monday, September 2 2019 at 23:59 GMT.

As part of this program, the GNI will fund a set of projects from around the world that meet specified criteria, with the intent of producing learning and thought leadership to share with the wider industry.

Google is proud to launch the GNI’s first Innovation Challenge in the Middle East, Africa & Turkey Region. The Challenge will focus on reader engagement and new business models in any form. Google will fund selected projects up to USD $150,000 and will finance up to 70% of the total project cost. Special discretion on the total project cap may be considered by the Jury depending on the scale and impact of a very large collaborative effort.

Requirements:

The Middle East, Africa and Turkey GNI Innovation Challenge is open to organizations of every size, including freelancers and sole traders, that aim to produce innovative, original journalism and to enlighten citizens with trustworthy journalistic content, whose projects focus on encouraging a more sustainable news ecosystem.

Eligible Projects

All ideas are welcome but we are requiring all projects to have clear indicators showing the impact of the project from a user perspective and/or from a business perspective (eg: audience indicators, business plan when relevant). Successful projects will also need to be delivered within one year.

GNI encourage innovative projects – focused on but not limited to- the areas below:

• Business Models
• Distribution
• Interface
• Social
• Workflow

Projects can be experimental but must be measurable with well-defined goals.

Project Funding

Google will fund up to $150k for selected projects. Special discretion on the total project cap may be considered by The Jury depending on the scale and impact of a very large collaborative effort.

Google will finance up to 70% of the overall costs of the selected projects. The remaining self-funded costs can be operational costs.

Eligible expenses include personnel costs, engineering costs and the purchase or licensing of any equipment, tools, hardware, software and other assets or materials needed for the project as well as marketing expenses (capped to 20% of the total amount requested). Editorial expenses are not part of the eligible costs and will not be covered. Funding may not be spent on general and overhead costs.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the GNI Innovation Challenge 2019