The Latin America GNI Innovation Challenge is open to any news organization -- digital natives, startups, NGOs, industry organizations, broadcasters, traditional news organizations, freelancers, and sole traders -- are eligible to participate. Organizations must be incorporated in one of the eligible countries (see below) in the Latin America region.

Eligible geographies are (in alphabetical order):

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

The second Latam GNI Innovation Challenge will advance a more sustainable and diverse ecosystem in Latin America through the development of new business models and new news products.

All ideas are welcome but we require all projects to provide clear key metrics for success and projected economic impact to the business and / or news industry. Special consideration will be given to collaborative projects presented together by multiple news organizations.

Projects will be evaluated against five main criteria:

1. Impact on the sustainability of the news ecosystem: Projects should demonstrate potential for significant positive impact on the creation of new revenue streams and/or change the way people consume digital news.
2. Innovative: Projects should advance new innovative approaches to creating, distributing, and monetizing digital journalism.
3. Feasible: Preferred projects will have a detailed business plan when relevant, clearly outline key performance indicators or metrics, and identify key risks and how to mitigate them.
4. Inspirational: Can other news organizations learn from or replicate the project? Is the news organization willing to share knowledge across the news ecosystem?
5. Diversity: Projects should be able to demonstrate their self-defined commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and promotion of underrepresented voices, whether that is within their audience, organization, or content. Google is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works to support companies/projects in line with these values.

Initial selection of projects will be 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 Latin America GNI Innovation Challenge Jury.

The application window was open from March 16th, 2021 6:00 a.m. Mexico City (GMT-5) until May 3rd, 2021 23:59 Mexico City (GMT-5) Time. The application window is now closed.

Applicants were asked to provide descriptions, detailed project plans and budget information via our online application form as well as accept the LATAM GNI Innovation Challenge Application Terms and Conditions. Only online applications in English will be considered. However, do not let this be an obstacle, applications translated by Google Translate are acceptable and we will accommodate translators during potential interviews.

The application window lasted for 6 weeks. Applicants took advantage of this time to document their application as thoroughly as possible. All eligible applications submitted by the deadline will be reviewed, so there was no need to rush 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. When you are ready, please go to the online form (you find the right form after you have selected the right project track here) and submit the application. If you need additional information, please contact us at latamgnichallenge@google.com.

In order to assess the projects, the Project Team will need 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 (KPI's) to measure the impact of the project
6. Demonstration of the potential sustainability of the project, including, if relevant, monetization details.
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. DEI / Underrepresented voicesCompetition
   9. Business Model & opportunities
   10. Appendix
   11. Contact

As set out in the Latin America 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 publicise 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 publicise 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 the Latin America GNI Innovation Challenge Terms and Conditions here.

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

If you would like to contact the team please email latamgnichallenge@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 in respect of the same project. For organisations that are part of a larger group or holding structure, we are unlikely to fund more than 3 projects per group. Organization groups are therefore encouraged to focus their applications on top priority projects.

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

Application information received by 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.

Organizations are expected to detail costs for their projects, and this can include in-kind expenditure (for example, people assigned to the project) as part of their budget. 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 expenses are not part of the eligible costs for the Google funded portion of a project and will not be covered. Certain editorial expenses, such as personnel costs may be eligible for the self-funded portion of the overall project budget.

Please note that the effective date for the project will be the date that we signed 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 an application is shortlisted, the applicant 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. They will be contacted by email and a video meeting arranged 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 personalised 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 latamgnichallenge@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 comprised of Google staff and experienced industry figures. This group will include Google's regional and global executives and external experts from the news industry. They will receive and review a list of shortlisted projects and will vote for the final selection based on project's team recommendations.

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

• Andy Korytnicki (Americas Partnerships Solutions, Chile)
• Barbara Sarti (Global Product Partnerships, Mexico)
• Ben Shaw (Google News Initiative, Global)
• Erica Noda (Large Partner Solutions, Brazil)
• Esteban Lechman (Partner Business Solutions, Argentina)
• Felipe Martínez (Online Partnerships Group, Colombia)
• Fiore Dominguez (Online Partnerships Group, Chile)
• Juan Manuel Lucero (News Lab, Argentina)
• Ludovic Blecher (Google News Initiative, Global)
• Marco Tulio Pires (News Lab, Brazil)
• Susana Pabón (Communications and Public Relations Manager, Colombia)

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