JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, supported by the Google News Initiative

1. Government-owned entities or entities affiliated/owned by a political party are not eligible to apply.

2. 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

3. Eligible applicants must be small and medium-sized news publishers (10-200 personnel) that are already exploring the possibilities of AI technologies.

4. 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.

5. This is not a reporting or storytelling grant and funding must not be used to report and produce stories primarily. Eligible grants should not focus on the creation of tools for newsgathering, verifying information, fact-checking, detecting misinformation or original journalism. Eligible ideas will utilise AI for audience intelligence and revenue growth.

6. You are willing to share business insights and openly collaborate with other grantees, as well as track results throughout and submit a report of your performance at the end of the programme.

7. Please note that only publishers whose primary focus is news publication will be considered.

8. Publishers who were awarded grants as part of the first JournalismAI Innovation Challenge are not eligible to apply to this challenge.

Geographically, news organisations must be owned and operating in the following countries, where they primarily serve the citizens of the country where they are based:

1. Asia Pacific: Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,  New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

2. Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

3. Middle East and Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, UAE.

4. United States

5. Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay.

There will be two rounds of selection that take place:

❖ In the first round, applications will undergo an initial screening to review basic application requirements (such as, but not limited to the: submission of completed application in English; application aligns with the thematic area; applicant is an independent organisation). Applicants may be asked to supply additional information during this phase. Applications that do not meet basic requirements will not be forwarded to the selection committee. Applicants that have passed the screening will be evaluated by the JournalismAI team based on a proposal’s thematic relevance, candidates’ relevance and experience, and organisations’ evidence of experimentation and innovation, and further shortlisted. You will not be contacted at this stage.

❖ In the second round, the selection committee, composed of an independent advisor, international subject matter experts, and the JournalismAI management team, will evaluate shortlisted applications. The committee will check applicants’ proposed budget and project ideas based on various criteria including thematic relevance and feasibility. Upon final selection, the committee will make suggestions, where applicable, to streamline projects further and create a path to success.

❖ A due diligence process on the final shortlisted applications will be conducted.

❖ Selection Committee members will be required to declare any possible conflicts of interest, and will be asked to recuse themselves from any judgement where such conflicts may interfere with independence or the public perception of independence. These recusals will be recorded.