Eight newsrooms awarded grants for data projects

IRE is pleased to announce that eight newsrooms will be awarded grants thanks to the $50,000 donation from Google Ideas. The grants will support data-driven investigations by providing journalists with access to data, new tools and necessary training. 

The fund's two broad priorities were to support specific investigative projects and to better equip news organizations to do data analysis work in the future.

"IRE has long been a force for new ideas and tools for doing investigative journalism, and the generosity of this grant from Google recognizes that tradition," said Steve Doig, Knight Chair in Journalism at ASU and a judge for the contest. "The judges were impressed with the wide range of proposals we received from the applicants, and we have high hopes for the outcomes of the projects we awarded."

These are the winning projects:

• Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting will build a public web application to provide background checks for political candidates.
• Centre for Investigative Reporting (UK) will investigate industrial facilities and emissions in Europe.
• The Chicago Reporter will assess how effectively the Chicago Housing Authority has distributed the Section 8 program’s funds.
• El Pais (Spain) will implement a data journalism training program that will focus on the best processes and tools necessary for collecting, scraping, cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data in anticipation of increased transparency in Spain.
• Investigative Newsource will investigate federal, state, and local issues that could severely affect the disabled's potential for employment.
• InvestigateWest will be mapping transportation corridors and air quality.
• Tulsa World will investigate improper mortgage servicing practices in Oklahoma.
• WAVE-Louisville will investigate the role of race in the justice system.

In addition to Doig, the judges were Matt Waite, professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an IRE Board member; Rich Gordon, professor at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism; Elizabeth Lucas, IRE/NICAR Data Library Director, and Jaimi Dowdell, IRE Training Director.

The grants are funded by Google Ideas, which explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability or repression. We connect users, experts and engineers to research and seed new technology-driven initiatives.

For more information, contact IRE Executive Director Mark Horvit at 817-726-1621 or mhorvit@ire.org.