'Get Creative' - The 2020/21 Open Data Engagement Fund has been launched

Ossian Smyth, Minister of State with responsibility for eGovernment announced details of the 2020/2021 competitive Open Data Engagement Fund on 16 July, 2020.   Closing date for applications is 9th October 2020.

The Open Data Engagement Fund (a fund of €30,000), has been developed in conjunction with the Open Data Governance Board (ODGB), which was established in 2015 to provide leadership in implementing Ireland’s Open Data Initiative.  This is a competitive fund designed to provide support towards promoting the use of open data on the national Open Data portal data.gov.ie.  The portal currently links to over 10,000 public service datasets in open format.

Applications can be made for funding to support a variety of Open Data-related activities.  These include the organisation of outreach and engagement activities (for example, seminars, competitions and hackathons), the building of applications and development of visualisations to demonstrate the use that can be made of open data, or specific research on open government datasets, with a view to arriving at outcomes that help create efficiencies in the public service or assist in government decision-making.    Funding will also be considered for the development of use cases or research to show the impact or potential impact of the use of open data.

Minister Smyth, launching the fund, said "This year, particular consideration will be given to projects that use Open Data to address the issue of Covid-19."

Read the full Press Release here.

Successful applicants will report on their activity for example via a blog post and, where applicable, will be required to have their project developed into a use case for promotion of the open data initiative or other promotional activity as determined by the Open Data Governance Board.    

See here for details of projects funded in 2016, 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020

Some completed projects are available here.