Finance Minister Conor Murphy today opened this year’s £40,000 Innovation and Outreach Fund to encourage the use of open data.
Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone. The Innovation and Outreach Fund provides awards of between £300 and up to £5,000 to individuals or organisations delivering on key components of the Open Data Strategy.
Encouraging people to apply, Conor Murphy said: “More open government data has the potential to increase accountability and transparency, improve public and private services, and help citizens bring about social change.
“This fund encourages the use of data from the OpenDataNI portal as well as open data promotional activities.
“Last year we had some very innovative projects and I look forward to seeing the proposals this year. A new theme of using data to overcome the impact of Covid-19 has been added to the fund.
RELATED: Open Data Innovation and Outreach Fund winners announced
“I would encourage people to get involved.”
Welcoming this second cycle of the fund, Colm Burns, Chair of The Northern Ireland Open Government Network said: “This continuation of this initiative is another positive step in creating a culture of data openness.
“The latest Open Data Fund will provide new opportunities for research, innovation and engagement and continue to help create opportunities to solve problems in original and creative ways.”
Further information about the Innovation and Outreach Fund can be found at: www.finance-ni.gov.uk/niopendatafund. Deadline to apply is 4 March 2021.