Deadline: 18-Aug-22
The Minister of Canadian Heritage is announcing the annual call for proposals for the Digital Citizen Contribution Program to support democracy and social inclusion in Canada by enhancing and/or supporting efforts to counter online disinformation and other online harms and threats.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, Dominic LeBlanc have announced the annual call for proposals for the Digital Citizen Contribution Program to support democracy and social inclusion in Canada by enhancing and/or supporting efforts to counter online disinformation and other online harms and threats.
The Digital Citizen Contribution Program supports the priorities of the Digital Citizen Initiative by providing time-limited financial assistance for research and citizen-focused activities.
Projects will create educational workshops, podcast documentaries, and learning materials for new educational resources, focused on countering Russian disinformation.
Investing in these projects will help Canadians critically assess what they see online; understand misinformation and disinformation; understand how algorithms impact a user’s online experience; recognize how and when bad actors exploit online platforms; acquire skills to avoid being manipulated online; and effectively engage in public debate and online discussions.
Quick facts
- The Digital Citizen Initiative supports a community of Canadian researchers and civil society organizations that promote a healthy information ecosystem, to help Canadians and the government understand online disinformation and its impact on Canadian society, and in turn build an evidence base to identify potential action and develop future policy making.
- The Digital Citizen Contribution Program supports the priorities of the DCI by providing financial assistance for research and citizen-focused activities. The Program aims to support democracy and social cohesion in Canada by enhancing and/or supporting efforts to counter online disinformation and other online harms and threats.
- In Budget 2019, the Government of Canada invested $19.4 million to expand Canadian Heritage’s Digital Citizen Initiative to create a new research program that supporting stronger evidence-based policy making in the countering of disinformation and other online harms in a Canadian context.
- Through investing in digital citizen initiatives, the Government of Canada can help understand and mitigate the impact of online disinformation on Canadian society.
- The Government of Canada is also working to develop a legislative and regulatory framework to confront the spread of harmful content online and has tasked an Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety to provide recommendations for the development of future policy.
Activities
Research is implemented through three main activities:
- a new Digital Citizen Contribution Program
- a joint initiative with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- support to the Public Policy Forum’s Digital Democracy Project
Eligibility Criteria
The following organizations are eligible for funding:
- a national, provincial, territorial, municipal, Indigenous, community or professional organization, society or association which has voluntarily associated itself for a not-for-profit purpose, and which has the mandate to represent its membership or community
- a not-for-profit organization, including non-governmental or umbrella organizations, non-profit corporations, community groups, regulatory bodies or apprenticeship authorities, or associations serving the private sector
- a university or educational institution
- an individual researcher, acting in his or her personal capacity
- a research institution with an established record in relevant field(s), intending to undertake work in a Canadian context
- a for-profit Canadian and Canadian-owned institution with a record of developing and delivering programming, and performing research or related activities relevant to the goals of Canadian Heritage’s Digital Citizen Initiative, provided that the nature and the intent of the activity is non-commercial
Federal institutions, including any department, branch, office, board, agency, commission, corporation or other entity that receives an annual appropriation from Parliament, are not eligible for funding under the Program.
For more information, visit https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2022/07/projects-launched-to-help-strengthen-canadians-resilience-against-harmful-online-disinformation.html