The Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge was open to organizations of every size - digital natives, startups, NGOs, industry organizations, broadcasters, traditional news organizations, freelancers, and sole traders - that aim to produce innovative, original journalism and to enlighten citizens with trustworthy journalistic content, and whose projects focus on encouraging a more sustainable news ecosystem. Unincorporated organizations must be registered in Asia-Pacific (or, if unregistered, have their principal place of business there).

The second Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge focused on projects which increase audience engagement for news providers.

We recognise that your audiences are your lifeblood. Engaging with them opens up new business opportunities and reinforces your brand values which is why we’re looking to back your biggest and boldest ideas around audience engagement.

All ideas were welcome, but we required all projects to have clear indicators showing the potential of the project to create new business opportunities, generate economic value for the business or otherwise breathe new life into your enterprise.

Engaged users are more likely to return more often to a news website, visit more pages during a session and are more inclined to sign up for an email newsletter. They are also more likely to convert to paid subscribers. We are interested in hearing ideas and projects to make users become more interested or more actively engaged with your offer.

Whatever the size of your news organisation - from freelancers to large legacy businesses and everything in between - we’re excited to hear your proposals. We also welcome collaborations between news providers.

The range of projects could be varied - everything from analytics to understand the audience better, to using AI to generate story leads or the use of technology to improve the workflow. It could result in a new type of interface or look at different methods of distribution or mean audiences can be more social.

A few examples of reader engagement projects from previous funding programs:

• QuoteBot from MediaFin
• News Juice from Adnkronos Spa
• Thriving News from Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso
• Irish Diaspora Project from the Irish Times
• Vol. At from Russ Media
• Noteworthy from Journal Media
• Single ID for French Media from SSO Geste
• Live coverage and community engagement from Grupa Interia.PL

Projects are evaluated against four main criteria:

1. Impact on the news ecosystem: Projects should demonstrate potential for significant positive impact in respect of audience engagement. Engaged users are more likely to return more often to a news website, visit more pages during a session and are more inclined to sign up for an email newsletter. They are also more likely to convert to paid subscribers. We are interested in hearing big ideas and projects that will impact the way people consume your brand, making it ultimately more successful with the creation of new opportunities.
2. Innovation: Projects should advance new innovative approaches to creating, distributing, and monetizing digital journalism.
3. Feasibility: Projects should demonstrate clear indicators and metrics or even a business plan, when relevant, and set out key risks and mitigation steps.
4. Inspiration: How can the project help news organizations learn from each other? Willingness to share knowledge, open source code and/or contribute to the improvement of the ecosystem overall.

Initial selection of projects is done by a Project Team, composed of a select team of Google staff who have knowledge and/or experience in digital publishing and journalism. They will review all applications for eligibility, innovation and impact. They’ll compose a shortlist, conduct interviews with applicants and make recommendations to the Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge Jury.

The application window was open October 31st, 2019 9:00 PT and closed January 7th, 2020 23:59 PT. The application window is now closed. Further details will be announced on the GNI website.

We will consider applications written in English only. You will be asked to provide descriptions, detailed project plans and budget information in our online application form as well as accept the Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge Application Terms and Conditions.

The application window lasted for 9 weeks. Take advantage of this time to document your application as thoroughly as possible, and please download the list of questions in advance. All eligible applications submitted by the deadline will be reviewed, so there’s no need to rush into filling in the online form.

Please take the time to consult and do research on opportunities and investment requirements, brainstorm with your team and prepare the draft responses. Your team will also need to provide clear indicators showing the potential of the project to create specific value for the reader and/or economic value added for the business.

If you need additional information, please contact us at apacgnichallenge@google.com

In order to assess the projects, the Project Team needs information including:

1. Company/individual information
2. Location, URL, number of employees, number of journalists
3. Project description
4. Project budget and amount of funding requested
5. Key indicators to measure the impact of the project
6. Monetization details showing the potential of the project to create economic value added for the business.
7. A slideshow of, ideally, 10 slides or fewer which should address at least the following:
   1. Introduction
   2. Team
   3. Problem
   4. Solution
   5. Product
   6. Target Market
   7. Competition
   8. Business Model & opportunities
   9. Appendix
   10. Contact

As set out in the Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge Terms & Conditions, we require that applicants do not submit any Business Sensitive Information (as defined in the Application Terms and Conditions). Google intends to publicize its activities relating to the GNI Innovation Challenges. As outlined in the Application Terms and Conditions, it is a condition of application that Google may publicize aggregated data showing how funds have been offered in the GNI Innovation Challenges and certain project-specific information.

Collaborative applications with other industry players are very welcome. You can find more information on how to make a collaborative application in the Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge Terms & Conditions.

You can find the Asia-Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge Terms & Conditions here.

Yes, we will review all eligible applications received by the application deadline.

If you would like to contact the team please email apacgnichallenge@google.com. During the assessment process, applicants may be asked to provide additional details about their project, including through interviews and/or the submission of further supporting documents.

Each applicant may only submit one application, and we will not consider multiple applications for the same project. For organizations that are part of a larger group or holding structure, we are unlikely to fund more than 3 projects per group. Organizations and groups are therefore encouraged to focus their applications on top priority projects.

A limited number of people from the Project Team and Jury will have access to the responses that applicants provide. They will use the responses to assess the projects.

Application information received by the Project Team and Jury will be exclusively used for GNI Challenge operations and processes. Google will only share detailed application information outside the Project Team and Jury with the applicant's permission. Additionally, as described in the Application Terms and Conditions, certain information may be used by Google for publicity purposes.

Please see the Application Terms and Conditions for further details on how we will treat the information that you provide to us. As set out in the Application Terms and Conditions, we require that applicants do not submit to us any Business Sensitive Information. If the applicant has indicated that they wish to be connected to other applicants or industry groups, the Project Team may contact the applicant to offer knowledge sharing opportunities (featuring projects at events, case studies, etc).

Funding may not be spent on: General and overhead costs such as office rental, furniture and travel expenses, costs and expenses connected with registering, protecting, defending or monetizing any intellectual property rights you may have (or that you may obtain through registration). This includes payments to any personnel engaged in such activities, or expenses or liabilities incurred before the date on which the parties enter into a Funding Agreement.

Eligible expenses include engineering and operations costs (e.g. product development, project management, user experience design, database building and maintenance, and hosting) and marketing expenses. Please note marketing expenses will only be covered up to 20% of the total funding offered. Editorial costs are eligible only in the self-funded portion of a project budget. Funding may not be spent on general and overhead costs (e.g. office rental, travel costs, etc.).

Please note that the effective date for the project will be the date that we sign the funding agreement. No expenses incurred before this date can be covered by the funding.

Business Sensitive Information is confidential information which, if disclosed, would provide your competitors with a competitive advantage over you or would otherwise cause substantial harm to you.

Please see the Application Terms and Conditions for further information on this.

As the owner of your project, you are the best judge on what information is Business Sensitive. However, if you are in any doubt about this then we recommend that you seek independent legal advice.

If your application is shortlisted, you will hear from us about two months after the closure of the application window with any follow-up questions we have before communicating our final decision to selected applicants. At that time we will contact you by email and arrange a video meeting to discuss the funding process in greater detail. Unsuccessful applications will be notified, but we can’t provide specific feedback to applicants who have not been selected.

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications expected, the Project Team is unable to provide personalized feedback on each proposal. That said, we will make ourselves available for general advice in the future and to answer questions about the application process. The email for contact is apacgnichallenge@google.com

Initial selection of projects will be done by a Project Team, composed of experienced Google staff, who will review all applications for eligibility, innovation and impact. They’ll pre-select projects and make recommendations for final selection to the Challenge’s Jury.

Challenge oversight and final approval will be decided by a Jury composed of regional and global Google executives and might be open to external experts. They will receive and review a list of shortlisted projects and will vote for the final selection based on the Project Team’s recommendations.

The Project Team consists of internal stakeholders responsible for ensuring and communicating the success of the GNI Innovation Challenge. The team should include, but not be limited to:

• Fazal Ashfaq
• Iren Jay Liu
• Nic Hopkins
• Aimee Moon
• Sheena Bhalla
• Ludovic Blecher
• Ben Shaw
• Jon Sugihara

Jury is composed of regional and global Google executives and might be open to external experts for the industry.