Submit Applications for North America GNI Innovation Challenge

Deadline: 26-Aug-21

Applications are now open for the North America Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge to support projects that drive digital innovation, help publishers understand their communities and develop new business models.

As local news organizations strive to address the needs of their communities and attain financial sustainability, this North America Innovation Challenge will support projects that tackle the challenges of better understanding and serving communities to enhance the relationship with their varied audiences. To achieve this they’re encouraging news organizations to further develop learnings about their audiences through rigorous research.

Themes

The theme of the North American GNI Innovation Challenge is: “Understanding and serving the needs of your communities”
Local news organizations strive to address the needs of their communities and attain financial sustainability. Given the changes in their digital world this requires both a fresh understanding of the community needs and an understanding of how to communicate the benefits and values of the local news organization back to the community.
The goal of the North American GNI Innovation Challenge is to enable new thinking in how local news publishers assess the needs of their diverse communities online and understand how best to communicate the beneficial services they provide.

Funding Information

Google will award up to $200,000.00 for each project, up to a maximum of 70% of the total project budget.
Subject to clauses 5 (Eligible Expenses and Payment) and 2.4, projects that are awarded funding will receive a maximum of the lower of
- 70% of the overall costs of the relevant project and
- $200,000.

Eligibility Criteria

The North American GNI Innovation Challenge is open to local news organizations of every size. Applicants should be operating in a local news market and aim to tackle the challenges of better understanding and serving communities in ways that demonstrate the value of journalism to enhance the relationship with their various audiences.
Established publishers, online-only players, news startups, publisher consortia, academics and local industry associations are all eligible to apply. Collaborative applications with other industry players are very welcome. Incorporated organizations must be incorporated in one of the eligible countries in the North American region. Unincorporated organizations must be registered in North America (or, if unregistered, have their principal place of business there).
To be eligible for funding, applicants be active and operational and must meet the following requirements:
- organisations of every size, companies, associations, academic or non-profit bodies, partnerships or freelancers and sole traders (“Organisations”) and that are incorporated must be incorporated and registered in an Eligible Geography
- applicants that are unincorporated Organisations must be registered in an Eligible Geography; and
- applicants that are Organisations must not be solely or substantially managed or operated by any person that is a member of the GNI Challenge Jury, or by any person that is the immediate family or lives in the same household(s) as any such persons.
- Each applicant may only submit one application in each application round. For organisations that are part of a larger group or holding structure, they are unlikely to fund more than 3 projects per group or holding per application round.
Regions Covered by the Call
- Incorporated organizations must be incorporated in one of the eligible countries (see below). Unincorporated organizations must be registered in the North America region (or, if unregistered, have their principal place of business there).
Eligible Countries
- Canada
- United States
- United States Overseas Territories