We are excited to announce the launch of the Open Data Day 2024 Mini-Grants Application to support organisations hosting open data events and activities across the world.

This year, for the first time, we are running two separate calls to accommodate the diverse interests in our community. The first call is for the general community, and the second is specifically for activities related to open mapping. See details below:

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ODD24 General Open Call

This call is open to any practices and disciplines carried out by open data communities around the world – such as hackathons, tool demos, artificial intelligence, climate emergency, digital strategies, open government, citizen participation, automation, monitoring, etc. Only mapping activities are excluded from this call (see specific call below).

A total of 18 events will be supported with a grant amount of USD 300 each, thanks to the sponsorship of Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia), Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), Open Knowledge Germany, Datopian and Link Digital.

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ODD24 Open Mapping Call

This call is specifically seeking to promote events related to open mapping – such as the use and promotion of geodata, mapathons, environmental monitoring, disaster response, community mapping, land productivity analysis, etc.
A total of 8 open mapping events will be supported with a grant amount of USD 300 each, thanks to the sponsorship of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT).

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Who and How to Apply

The deadline for both applications is 5th February 2024. The call welcomes all registered organisations across the world interested in hosting in-person open data events and activities in their country. An individual cannot apply, and the events cannot be virtual or online.

The events supported by the grants should take place during the Open Data Day from 2nd to 8th March 2024 and must be registered at the Open Data Day website. To be awarded a mini-grant, the event must fit into this year’s thematic focus “Open Data for Advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

Registered civil society organisation events supported by the mini-grants cannot be used to fund government events. The grant payment will be transferred to the successful grantees after their event takes place and once the Open Knowledge Foundation team receives a draft blog post about the event.

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Selection Criteria

The submitted events will be assessed by an organising committee made up of one member from each above sponsoring organisation, plus one member from Open Knowledge Ghana and one from Open Knowledge Nepal. Applications will be blind-reviewed and given a score according to the following criteria.

• Alignment with Open Data Day 2024 thematic focus
• Diversity within SDGs, and in terms of geography, gender, and type of activities
• Novelty/creativity of the proposal
• Community aspect: to what extent the proposal promotes community involvement (especially local communities)
• Achievability of the activity and level of commitment of the organisers when writing the proposal

* Organisations taking part in Open Data Day for the first time will receive an extra point, as will organisations that have not received mini-grants in past editions of the event.

The winning organisations will be contacted from 19th February. The official announcement of the list of grantees will be made on 26th February.

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About Open Data Day

Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities. ODD is led by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and this year’s edition is co-organised by Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia), Open Knowledge Germany, Open Knowledge Ghana, and Open Knowledge Nepal, all members of the Open Knowledge Network.

As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, since 2023 we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date between March 2nd and 8th. In 2023, a total of 184 events happened all over the world, in 25+ countries using 15 different languages.

All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.

In 2024, Open Data Day is also a part of the HOT OpenSummit ’23-24 initiative, a creative programme of global event collaborations that leverages experience, passion and connection to drive strong networks and collective action across the humanitarian open mapping movement

For more information, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org. You can also join the Open Data Day Google Group to ask for advice or share tips and get connected with others.