The uncertainty and developing nature of the health crisis provoked by the novel coronavirus has made providing accurate, evidence-based journalism more essential than ever.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund is aimed at supporting journalistic efforts to fact-check misinformation about the COVID-19 immunization process that specifically seek to support audiences that are underserved by fact-checking or targeted by misinformation.

The Fund will make up to USD $3,000,000 available for projects which demonstrate a clear potential to provide effective corrective tools and content to counterbalance COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Google will fund selected projects up to USD $1,000,000 each, covering up to 80% of the total overall budget of the project. Applicants cannot ask for an amount higher than 50% of their annual total income (Please note, this should reflect the combined annual income of partners for collaborative projects and include revenue generated as well as donations, philanthropy support etc).

Priority will be given to collaborative projects (e.g. multiple news organizations / entities working together) and that are interdisciplinary in nature (e.g. involve journalists working alongside epidemiologists or immunologists).

A member of the project team will be in touch via email if any further information is required. Applicants can expect that we will be in touch via email in the first half of March. ALL applicants - whether successful or not - will receive notification by email at that time. In the meantime, please contact vcmfund@google.com with any queries and don't forget to include your application number in the subject line of all emails.

Important Notice: The COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund provides funding to journalistic efforts, and is not intended to support creation of medical or health related information. If an applicant creates medical or health related information (including information about misinformation) through projects funded by the COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund, that information is the sole responsibility of the applicant and its team, and Google will not be responsible for that information.

申請プロセス

The application window opened on January 12th, 2021 at 6:00 PT and closed on January 31, 2021 at 23:59 PT.

応募条件

The COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund is open to news organizations of every size, both for profit and nonprofit, publishing on any medium (digital, print, video, etc) that aim to produce original journalistic content. Applicants can be individual organizations or coalitions of publishers, both formal and informal.

All applicants should have a proven track record in fact-checking and debunking activities or partner with an organisation with such recognition. Evidence that third parties recognize the organization as a fact-checker will be required in the application, with membership of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) being the most prominent.

Projects must be ready to launch as soon as possible and no later than April 15, 2021. They should be fully realized within 12 months of obtaining the funding.

対象地域

Applicants must be incorporated in one of the eligible countries listed below.

Eligible Geographies are (in alphabetical order):

• Asia Pacific
  Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Cook Islands, East Timor, Easter Island, Fiji, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam

• Europe
  Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

• Middle East and Africa
  Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, KSA, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UAE, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe

• North America
  Canada, United States, United States Overseas Territories

• Latin America and the Caribbean
  Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay

Eligible Projects

Projects must set out to detect, debunk and effectively countenance misinformation about the COVID-19 immunization process. Successful projects will show that they can serve a broad audience with effective corrective content about COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. The core output of any project will be accurate, timely and accessible fact checks of harmful false claims about COVID-19 immunization. Projects must aim to reach a far broader (or different) audience than would otherwise be reached. This might mean exponentially growing the audience of an existing fact-checking project, or developing new formats for corrective content, or tracking fact checks against their related misinformation to understand how those reached by both respond to the conflicting pieces of information.

Experimental projects are welcome but must be measurable with well-defined goals.

Find below examples of eligible projects. Note that these are for inspiration only and ideas that perfectly match the bullets below may well be rejected:

• A partnership between an established fact-checking project and a media outlet with deep roots in a specific community that has been underserved by fact checks or targeted by misinformation about COVID-19

• A data visualization of common misperceptions and their related fact checks and associated primary evidence

• A searchable database of fact checks about vaccine misinformation

• A tool to help journalists spot harmful misinformation about the COVID-19 immunization process more efficiently

• A new format aimed at making fact checks about COVID-19 immunization clearer and more effective at allaying concerns about the vaccine -- especially with audiences that are explicitly targeted by misinformation

• An analytics tool that assesses not just whether people have read a fact check but also their prior and posterior beliefs about the debunked misinformation

• A campaign with public health officials to disseminate debunks in doctors’ offices and hospitals

• A tip line for doctors administering the vaccine to flag to fact-checkers myths they are hearing from their patients -- and an easy mechanism to distribute material that addresses those concerns

• A collaborative platform for journalists and doctors to jointly publish fact checks

Projects will be evaluated against seven main criteria.

1. Impact assessment framework:The project has presented a clear methodology of how it will assess the effect of the fact checks it publishes. Specifically, are fact checks clarifying misconceptions that readers had rather than re-affirming something they already knew? How is the fact check affecting the reach of the related misinformation? How is the impact different to what would have been possible without funding? The framework must have both qualitative and quantitative elements.

2. Expected reach:The project is specific about the reach it expects to have and how it plans to get to those audience figures.

3. Underserved audiences strategy:The project is clear about how it intends to reach audiences that are typically underserved by fact checks or disproportionately affected by misinformation.

4. Expertise:The project has a proven track record in fact-checking / debunking and includes public health / immunization experts.

5. Collaboration:The project is more likely to be considered for funding if it is interdisciplinary in nature (e.g. involve journalists working alongside epidemiologists or immunologists) and if a collaborative approach is taken (e.g. multiple news organizations / entities working together).

6. Innovation:The project introduces a new format, methodology, structure or distribution mechanism that has never or rarely ever been attempted before at this scale.

7. Feasibility and urgency:The project can start almost immediately so as to reach audiences around the world while they are directly affected by the COVID-19 immunization process and related misinformation.

Examples of projects that would not qualify:

• A project that aims to publish explainers about the COVID-19 vaccine and the immunization process without tackling misinformation directly.

• An existing debunking project that will use the funding to either exclusively cover existing or incremental staffing costs, or exclusively to grow its social media reach through paid ads.

• A project that plans to publish fact checks but has no team member with a track record of doing so. We encourage projects without prior experience that are eager to apply to seek a partner publisher with background in fact-checking, starting from verified signatories of the IFCN.

• A project that aims to collect data about COVID-19 misinformation and the effect of fact-checking for the primary purpose of publishing an academic paper. Research can be a component of eligible projects but not its primary goal.

• A project that is not predominantly about COVID-19 immunization misinformation.

• Projects that do not include in their team an individual or organization that has ever published a fact check or article debunking misinformation are not eligible.

• Projects that are run by a government institution are not eligible to apply. Public health experts with ties to government institutions can be part of the project team but not the lead applicants.

• Academic projects whose sole goal is to conduct and publish research about anti-vaccine misinformation are not eligible.

• Projects with ties to producers of COVID-19 vaccines are also ineligible.

Project Funding

Google will fund up to $1,000,000 per selected project. Special discretion on the total project cap may be considered by the jury depending on the scale and impact of a very large collaborative application. Google will finance up to 80% of the overall costs of the selected projects. Organizations are expected to detail costs for their projects, which can include in-kind expenditure (for example, people assigned to the project). Eligible expenses include engineering and operations costs (e.g. product development, project management, user experience design, database build and maintenance, and hosting), the purchase or licensing of any equipment, tools, hardware, software and other assets or materials needed for the project and marketing expenses (capped to 20% of the total amount requested). Funding may not be spent on general and overhead costs. Please note that the effective date for the project will be the date that the funding agreement is signed. No expenses incurred before this date can be covered by the funding.

Governance

Applications to the COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund are reviewed by a combination of the Google Project Team and the Jury. The Project Team will review all applications and interview applicants and then make a recommendation on funding projects. The Project Team is composed of Google employees working on News product, partnerships, UXR as well as public policy, research and trust & safety. These include:

Miguel Arevalo, Simon Baumgartner, Harris Cohen, Ashley Edwards, Sarah Hartley, Lisa Lehman, Irene Jay Liu, Andre Magnani, Alexios Mantzarlis, Sven Naumann, Montserrat Ripoll, Vincent Ryan, Maggie Segura, David Sklar, Isabelle Sonnenfeld, Clement Wolf

The Jury will select the Open Fund winners and is composed by the following individuals:

Amy Pisani, Executive Director, Vaccinate Your Family
Amy Pisani is a leading authority in vaccine advocacy. As the long-time executive director of the nonprofit organization Vaccinate Your Family, Pisani is a leader in building alliances with like-minded interests, working with the media to ensure science-based reporting on vaccines, and educating the public in person and online. With a total of 200,000+ followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, VYF has a substantial social media presence, reaching over 3.2 million people annually with science-based information about the importance of timely vaccinations and the safety of vaccines for people of all ages.

Angela Pimenta, Director of operations, Projor
Angela Pimenta is a co-coordinator of the Brazilian chapter of the Trust Project. She holds a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University and is a candidate at the Media and Technology PhD program of São Paulo State University (Unesp). Her doctoral research investigates media literacy strategies for the out-of-school Brazilian population.

Andy Pattison, Team Lead, Digital Channels, World Health Organization
Over the last 25 years, Andy has held a range of leadership roles in the digital space, supporting innovation across both private and public sectors. At WHO, Andy strives to amplify vital public health messages to more people through more channels. During the COVID-19 emergency, Andy has engaged the digital sector to support this mission and leads the Tech Task Force, a conglomerate of over 50 companies working to tackle misinformation, raise quality content and develop new digital channels. Through his work, WHO has been able to reach billions of people. Andy has also been the web lead for over 35 emergencies while at WHO, with deployments to the African Region to support both Ebola and Cholera outbreaks.

Baybars Örsek, Director, International Fact-Checking Network
Baybars Örsek is the director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at The Poynter Institute, the premier global coalition of fact-checking organizations. Prior to joining IFCN, Örsek had served as the founding executive director of the Turkish fact-checking organization Doğruluk Payı between 2014 and 2019. He is a frequent expert source for major media outlets around the world. Örsek is a member of the board of trustees at TESEV, Turkey’s oldest think tank. Before launching Doğruluk Payı in 2014, he worked at his alma mater Istanbul Bilgi University. Örsek holds a B.A. degree in international relations and an M.A. degree in conflict resolution.

Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology, Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore
Professor Kang is Professor at Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, and the Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. Professor Kang conducts inter-disciplinary research on enteric infections and child health. Her team has evaluated vaccines in pre-clinical and clinical phase 1-3 studies for rotavirus and cholera. She is a member of many WHO advisory committees, is the vice-Chair of the Board of Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and chairs the Immunization Technical Advisory Group for the WHO’s South East Asian Region.

Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder and Principal, Earthseed
Ifeoma Ozoma is the Founder and Principal of Earthseed. She is a tech policy expert with experience leading global public policy partnerships, public policy related content safety development, and US Federal, State, and International policymaker engagement at Pinterest, Facebook, and Google. Ifeoma’s health misinformation initiatives have been lauded by the World Health Organization, the Washington Post’s Editorial Board, and the New York Times. Ifeoma is also on the First Draft Inc, Board of Directors, a member of the Brookings Institution’s Transatlantic Working Group on Disinformation, and a member of The Washington Post's Technology 202 Network.

Ludovic Blecher, Head, Google News Initiative Innovation
Before joining Google, Ludovic Blecher was the director of the FINP: a digital press fund for French publishers backed by Google. During his first 3 years at Google he led our effort to stimulate the european news-ecosystem as the Head of the Digital News Innovation Fund. Ludovic is a journalist who has spent the past 15 years working in news. His career began as a reporter at Liberation, rising to Editor in Chief then Chief digital officer. He's a 2012 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, and was a member of the French Digital Council independent advisory commission for the French Government.

Renee DiResta, Technical Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observer
Renée DiResta is the Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies. Renee investigates the spread of malign narratives and propaganda across social and media networks. Her work examines the ways in which different actors leverage the information ecosystem to exert influence, from domestic activists promoting health misinformation and conspiracy theories, to well-resourced full-spectrum information operations executed by state-sponsored actors.

Richard Gingras, Vice President for News, Google
Richard Gingras is Vice President, News at Google. In that role Gingras guides Google’s strategy in how it surfaces news on Google search, Google News, and its smart devices. He also oversees Google’s effort to enable a healthy, open ecosystem for quality journalism, which includes Accelerated Mobile Pages, Subscribe with Google, the Trust Project and various other efforts to provide tools for journalists and news providers. In March 2018, Gingras announced the Google News Initiative, a global effort including $300 million dollars to elevate quality journalism, explore new models for sustainability, and provide technology to stimulate cost-efficiency in newsrooms.

Susannah Eliott, CEO, Australian Science Media Centre
Susannah Eliott has a PhD in cell biology, a postgraduate diploma in journalism and an honorary doctorate in science communication. She has worked at the coal face between science and the media in Australia and internationally for more than 25 years. She currently leads the Australian Science Media Centre, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting evidence in media reporting.

Syed Nazakat, Founder & CEO, Data Leads
Syed Nazakat is an award-winning Indian journalist, media entrepreneur, founder of DataLEADS. He leads DataLEADS in New Delhi, as well as oversees its outreach across Asia with different partners. He has worked in senior positions at different media organisations, reported from over 30 countries and his work has earned him global recognition and awards. Also as a Program Director, he leads the GNI India Training Network which is a fact-checking training effort for journalists and newsrooms that resulted in the launch of many fact-checking initiatives in India, in multiple languages. He is also founder of Health Analytics Asia and First Check –- two dedicated health reporting and fact-checking journalism platforms.

Theresa Amobi, Senior Lecturer, University of Lagos
Dr. Theresa Ifeoma Amobi is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Nigeria. She teaches Multimedia and Online Journalism, Health Communication, Broadcasting and Film, International Communication, Social Science Research and Theories of Communication. Her research interests include Health Mis/Disinformation and Conspiracy theories, Media and Gender, Nollywood Film Industry, among others. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Africa Check, Fullfact and Chequeado; an Independent Researcher for Africa Check and other international agencies; and has been a member of the African Movies Academy Awards AMAA College of Screeners since 2014.

Yamil Velez, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Yamil Velez is a political scientist at Columbia University. His work focuses on how demographic change is shaping American politics. He is currently working on several projects related to Latino media, identity, and political attitudes. His research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science, and Political Behavior.

Brian Yau, Promotion & Engagement Lead, Vaccine Safety Net at WHO
Brian is an infodemic manager and creative design thinker with a background in product design engineering. He joined the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) to develop partnerships, seek external collaborators, and explore digital innovations to further vaccine safety communication online. Established by the World Health Organization, the VSN is a network of 94 organizations, promoting reliable sources of information on vaccine safety.

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