Scholarship details
The GNI Innovation Challenge is a global initiative that encourages news organizations from all around the world to demonstrate innovative approaches to digital journalism. The GNI Innovation Challenge focuses on innovation in any form in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region. It comes after the first two rounds, which saw 43 projects from 18 nations selected. Learnings and thought leadership from the initiatives will be shared with the rest of the industry.
Projects that are eligible
All ideas are accepted, but we do request that all initiatives include clear indicators that illustrate the project’s potential benefit from both a user and a business standpoint. Selected projects will also have to be completed in a year’s time.
They support innovative projects in the following areas, but not exclusively:
- Methods for increasing reader engagement and/or revenue
- Business models are being developed and diversified.
- New distribution mechanisms are being developed.
- Defending against misinformation
- Increasing public confidence in journalism
- Reaching out to new people
- Increasing the productivity of workflows
- Trying out new technologies
About the Scholarship:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google while still students at Stanford University. In September 1998, the company was officially founded in a friend’s garage. In August of 2004, Google raised $1.67 billion in one of the most anticipated Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Google now employs over 12,000 people in offices throughout the world. Google’s mission statement and corporate culture reflect a belief that “you can make money without doing evil” and that “work should be difficult and joyful.” These convictions are pervasive at Google. “Organize the world’s knowledge and make it widely accessible and valuable,” according to the company’s official mission statement. MBA students chose Google as the perfect place to work in 2006, and they were right. Google was designated the No. 1 employer in Fortune Magazine’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2007 and 2008. Google’s founders have often maintained that the firm is just interested in search. They founded a corporation on the principle that work should be difficult and enjoyable. To that end, Google’s culture is unlike any other in business, and it has nothing to do with the ubiquitous lava lamps and huge rubber balls, nor with the fact that the company’s chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same manner that Google prioritizes users when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. prioritizes employees in our Googleplex headquarters.
Google is a fast-paced, high-energy workplace. Despite the “casual” dress requirement, the company attracts and keeps some of the most brilliant brains in the technology world. There is a culture of working hard and playing hard. The Googleplex (or “the Googleplex”) in Mountain View, California, is a campus-like atmosphere. Workout facilities, a café, well-stocked snack rooms, and a dorm-like atmosphere are all available. California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Arizona, Michigan, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington (Seattle), and Washington, DC are among the states where Google has offices. Hundreds of positions in engineering, IT, operations, and support are now available. Individual accomplishments that contribute to the company’s overall performance are emphasized, as well as collective achievements. Ideas are traded, tested, and implemented with a frenzy that can be exhausting. Meetings that would normally take hours are often reduced to a talk in line for lunch, and there are minimal barriers between those who develop the code and those who write the checks. The fact that millions of people rely on Google results fuels productivity and camaraderie in this highly communicative atmosphere. Give a group of people who want to make a difference the right tools, and they will. Despite its fast growth, the company retained its small-business character. With its exercise balls, lava lights, fitness area, grand pianos, and visiting canines, the Googleplex helped foster a culture of innovation and collaboration. Initially, sophisticated computer equipment was installed up on sawhorse-supported wooden doors. Charlie Ayers, a veteran Grateful Dead cook, has been hired as the company’s chef. Weekly staff meetings were held in the open space between employees’ desks, while twice-weekly street hockey games were staged in cordoned off parts of the parking lot.
Scholarship Sponsor(s): Google
Scholarship Country: United States
Scholarship Worth: $150,000
Study Level: Vocational
Nationality: International Students
Scholarship Offer:
Each project will get up to $150,000 from Google, up to a maximum of 70% of the entire project costs. Google reserves the right to change these funding levels at any time.
Eligibility for Scholarship
- Open to organizations of all sizes, including freelancers and sole traders, that strive to generate unique, innovative journalism and whose projects focus on innovation in order to create a more sustainable and diversified news environment.
- Applicants must be based in the region of the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.
- In the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region, news organizations must be incorporated. Unincorporated organizations must either be registered in the region or have their major place of business there if they are not.
Interview Date, Process, and Location
The following five criteria will be used to evaluate the projects:
- For the applicant and the users, preferred projects will be new and revolutionary.
- Influence on the news ecosystem: Preferred projects must show that they have the potential to have a major beneficial impact on the industry as a whole. Collaborative techniques, open source projects, or simply ideas that inspire others and foster innovative thinking in the pursuit of great journalism are all welcome.
- Feasibility: Preferred projects should be able to demonstrate their viability using unambiguous indications and metrics. They should include a list of important hazards as well as measures for mitigating them.
- Diversity: Preferred projects will be able to demonstrate their self-declared commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in their audience, organization, or content. Google is dedicated to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and tries to assist businesses and programs that share these values.
- Inspiration: Preferred initiatives will demonstrate a willingness to share information and contribute to the ecosystem’s overall progress. Attending events, writing blog entries, and contributing to case studies are all examples of this. Selected winners will be asked to write a public report summarizing the project’s findings.
Nationality
The Google News Initiative (GNI) 2022 Innovation Challenge(up to $150,000) is open to all international students
Application Procedure
Are you both interested and qualified? Visit apply, go to newsinitiative.withgoogle.com.
Application Deadline
The application deadline for Google News Initiative (GNI) 2022 Innovation Challenge(up to $150,000) is April 5, 2022
