JournalismAI Innovation Challenge 2024-2025 (Funding available) Deadline: 10 October, 2024

Applications are open for the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge 2024-2025. While many, mainly larger and some well resourced newsrooms have benefited and seen the transformative power of AI, smaller newsrooms often face unique challenges in adopting this technology. A number of small and medium-sized publishers are already exploring the possibilities of AI technologies.

The JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, supported by the Google News Initiative, aims to fund projects from these news publishers to help fight misinformation and disinformation, experiment with new formats across mobile, video and audio and identify ways to grow subscription and support diverse forms of revenue. This nine-month long programme is designed by the JournalismAI team at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and supported by the Google News Initiative.

Program Details

This new grantmaking programme will enable 35 news organisations around the world to experiment and implement solutions to enhance and improve journalistic systems and processes using AI technologies. By the end of the programme, selected organisations will also share outcomes of their respective projects, and best practices about using AI technologies in the news industry.

The grants will be awarded to organisations who seek to work on the following thematic areas:

• Help fight misinformation and disinformation
• Experiment with new formats to engage new and existing audiences
• Identify ways to grow subscription and support diverse forms of revenue

Grant

Grants will be awarded as follows:

• 10 ideas will receive $250,000 each
• 25 ideas will receive $50,000 each

Eligibility

• Open to small and medium-sized publishers (10-200 personnel) that are already exploring the possibilities of AI technologies.
• Government-owned entities or entities affiliated/owned by a political party are not eligible to apply.
• Eligible applicants must have a verifiable digital presence (such as a website primarily providing journalistic content) and have been in full operation – and active with recent content – for at least 12 months preceding the call for applications.
• Eligible applicants must be able to launch, implement, and measure the impact of the grant on their organisation within a maximum nine (9) month period.
• This is not a reporting or storytelling grant and funding must not be used to report and produce stories primarily. Eligible ideas will use AI to focus and develop solutions for these thematic areas:
• Help fight misinformation and disinformation.
• Experiment with new formats to engage new and existing audiences across mobile, video, audio.
• Identify ways to grow subscriptions and support diverse forms of revenue.
• You are willing to share business insights and openly collaborate with other grantees, as well as track results throughout and submit a short report of your performance at the end of the programme.

Eligible Geographies

Geographically, news organisations must be owned and operating in the following countries.

• Asia Pacific: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Cook Islands, East Timor, Easter Island, Fiji, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam.
• Europe: Austria, Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ukraine (excluding the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR))
• Middle East and Africa: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, KSA, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UAE, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• North America: Canada, United States, United States Overseas Territories
• Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands
• Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay

Deadline: 10 October, 2024

Application

Application deadline is Thursday 10 October 2024 at 11:59 PM GMT.

Click here to apply

For more information, visit JournalismAI Innovation Challenge.