Dear Wikimedia Research community, We are happy to announce the launch of this year’s Wikimedia Research Fund. We know some of you have been eager to hear from us on this front. Thank you for your patience as we needed some additional time to make some changes in the funds based on learnings from the past three cycles as well as in response to new opportunities for improving our approach to giving Funds.
If you are ready to review the call for Research Fund proposals, please review [1 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Technology_Fund/Wikimedia_Research_Fund>] and start thinking about and preparing your proposal. The deadline to submit your proposal is April 16, 2025. If you want to know the highlights of some of the changes we made, please read the rest of this email first and then go to [1 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Technology_Fund/Wikimedia_Research_Fund> ]. Why make changes at all? The Research Funds are limited and the research needs of the Movement are numerous. We continuously monitor the needs for funds in the Wikimedia Research community as well as opportunities for impact with the funds. When we identify ways that we expect to help us improve the impact of the funds, we make changes. Highlight of changes: 1. For the first time, we are going to accept multi-year extended research proposals (currently for two years with a possibility of applying for renewal for a third year). Depending on the type of proposal you are submitting for, you may be able to request for more funds than before as well. These are two important changes as we know not all research proposals of impact can conclude in 12 months and the previous lower budget cap limited us in the kind of proposals for impact we could receive and fund. 2. We now accept three types of Research Fund proposals: Research Proposals (same category as the previous years), Extended Research Proposals (New, multi-year, with the possibility to ask for more funds), and Event and Community-Building Proposals (same as the previous years though we are making it more visible and prominent as a category). 3. We have further focused the funds on supporting applications by established Wikimedia researchers or established researchers who want to become Wikimedia researchers. 4. We have reduced the proposal review stages from two to one for this year. 5. In the call for research proposals, we have aimed to be clearer about what we fund as well as what we will not fund. You can find more information about the call for proposals and changes on Meta-Wiki [1 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Technology_Fund/Wikimedia_Research_Fund>]. We are also hosting an open call for you to join us if you have questions about the changes we have made in the Research Funds. The open call will be on Tuesday, March 18, 17:15 – 18:00 UTC (find your time at [2 <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1742318100>]) via Google Meet [3 <https://meet.google.com/gbk-wfbf-acg>]. The changes and improvements in the Research Fund would have not been possible without contributions of multiple individuals and teams in the Wikimedia Foundation. Kinneret Gordon, WMF’s Lead Research Community Officer, worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure we meet all the requirements for making these changes. She also supported us in reflecting on the past three years of the Research Funds. The Finance, Community Resources and Legal teams at WMF supported us extensively. We would like to also thank Davit Saroyan, Janice Tud, and Morgan Jue who continue to provide ongoing support for the fund and our grantees. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at [email protected]. We are looking forward to receiving your proposals. Best, The Research Fund Committee Chairs Benjamin Mako Hill (University of Washington) Leila Zia (Wikimedia Foundation) [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Technology_Fund/Wikimedia_Research_Fund [2] https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1742318100 [3] https://meet.google.com/gbk-wfbf-acg _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
