Open Society Foundations’ Grant for ‘Transparency and New Technologies Initiative’

The Open Society Foundations’ (OSF) Grant for ‘Transparency and New Technologies Initiative’ provides grant to NGOs for breaking new ground in enhancing and extending transparency and accountability work through the strategic application of new technologies and data-informed approaches.

Launched in 2009, the Transparency and New Technologies Initiative initially set out to give support both to “born digital” organizations testing experimental approaches and tools, and to existing transparency organizations looking to integrate technology strategically into their work, as well as seeking to build bridges between these two communities. This work employed four key strategies:

    Supporting global software projects
    Supporting standards projects
    Providing seed funding to digital leaders
    Supporting established transparency campaigners

In the early years of this Initiative, the bias has been towards supporting projects and approaches that drive the acquisition, contextualization, and presentation of information to increase transparency. While these activities remain important, they need to be pursued in the service of an accountability outcome, rather than for their own sake. Future grantmaking will therefore include more emphasis on two new areas:

    Encouraging the use of data in advocacy for greater accountability.
    Developing the evidence base on the impact of data and technology in the transparency and accountability sector.

For more information, visit this link.

Open Society Foundations’ Grant for ‘Open Access to Law Initiative’

The Open Society Foundations’ grant for ‘Open Access to Law Initiative’ is part of the Information Program that seeks to address the problem of public access to statutory and case law which remains restricted in many countries around the world, especially in the Sub-Saharan region.  The Information Program cooperates with an international network of Legal Information Institutes that work with governments, courts and law societies to collate law corpuses and make them freely available online.

The Information Program and Open Society Foundation’s Africa foundations are supporting the development of a larger initiative which is undertaking to make open access to law the norm throughout Africa. To achieve this, Legal Information Institutes are being established at the national level in Sub-Saharan Africa, while a regional body has been developed to provide support and training to the national Legal Information Institutes. OSF is partnering with UNDP, Freedom House and the Africa Technology and Transparency Initiative to support this initiative.

The Open Access to Law Initiative has a full program of work for 2013. The Open Access to Law Initiative will consider applications from new partners in line with above stated priorities.

To apply, initially only a one-page concept note containing a brief description of the project goals and planned activities; information about the applicant organization and project partners; and an idea of how much your project will cost.

For more information, visit this link.

Open Society Foundations’ Grant for ‘Governance of Genetic Information Initiative’

The ‘Governance of Genetic Information Initiative’ grant program of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) seeks “to protect the basic rights of individuals and vulnerable populations affected by the proliferation of genetic monitoring technologies.”

Interventions by the Governance of Genetic Information Initiative will focus on the development of a human rights–compliant standard for the use of DNA by law enforcement.

In 2013, the initiative will support expert NGOs to provide technical assistance to civil society and governments in the South as they set out to develop national laws regulating the use of DNA by law enforcement, as well as supporting capacity-building of civil society in developing and transition countries to engage with these issues.

OSF would continue to support a coalition of NGOs to advocate for the adoption of an international human rights standard for forensic DNA databases.

This grant program is open to accepting proposals from new partners. However, all new partners are required to submit a one-page concept note containing a brief description of the project goals and planned activities; information about the applicant organization and project partners; and an idea of how much your project will cost.

For more information, visit this link.

Open Society Foundations’ Grant for ‘Freedom of Communication in the Digital Environment Initiative’

The Open Society Foundations’ (OSF) Grant for ‘Freedom of Communication in the Digital Environment Initiative’ aims o advance policies that protect free expression, privacy and due process in the new communications environment. In 2013, the thematic priorities for this Initiative include:

    Privatization of law enforcement: Agreements between private parties (for example between ISPs and copyright holders) are increasingly encroaching upon free speech and privacy online. These private entities are not generally subject to the same constitutional restrictions as traditional governments and do not have the same obligations of disclosure, transparency, and public accountability. The initiative will support engagement with companies for better transparency but also include support to document, analyze and litigate these private agreements and practices where they violate human rights norms.
    Protection of privacy in an age of ubiquitous surveillance: Computational advancements, business models built on data capture, and direct government access to data held by companies providing communications and “cloud” services are conspiring to move day-to-day internet use toward an environment of routine and pervasive surveillance. Interventions by the initiative include support for efforts to document the trade of surveillance technologies by Western companies to repressive regimes and support for a campaign advocating for an export control regime over these technologies.

Although the nature of this funding grant is global, OSF can also support projects targeting Europe and influential governments in the Global South. But OSF does not fund advocacy targeting US domestic policies.

Under this grant program, new partners are invited to submit a one-page concept note outlining their project idea in line with the above stated priorities. For more information, visit this ink.