WikiCite/grants

WikiCite is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support events and activities which promote
open citations and linked bibliographic data to serve free knowledge, in particular by leveraging the Wikidata platform.

WikiCite grants between $2,000 and $10,000 USD to are available to individuals, groups, and organisations
with a project that supports this goal.

[See also the WikCite e-scholarship program for individuals, which provides a living-allowance grant for
up to 5 people to stay at home and work on a project for up to 3 days, relating to the mission of WikiCite.]

Application deadline: 1 October 2020. Projects must be completed by 1 May 2021.

Applications have closed.

Recipients

Approved: No pages meet these criteria. Completed:

Eligibility criteria

Applications must describe the task, project, or event they intend to undertake; why it is important; and how they are qualified and motivated to achieve it. The project should support the goals of WikiCite: open citations, references, and/or linked bibliographic data in Wikimedia.

General criteria

Individuals, groups, and organizations (including but not limited to Wikimedia affiliates) may apply.
Projects may be of any nature. This includes technical (e.g. software, tools), event (online, or in-person), resources (training materials, documentation), or other forms not mentioned – as long as it supports the goals of WikiCite: to promote open citations and linked bibliographic data to serve free knowledge, in particular by leveraging the Wikidata platform.
Requests must be over USD 2,000. Maximum request is USD 10,000.
Funded projects must conclude by May 2021, with final report and financial documentation submitted by June 2021.
Grant proposals and reports are accepted in English.
You must agree to the reporting requirements, be willing to sign a grant agreement and provide the Wikimedia Foundation with the information needed to process your funding. This includes bank account information and personal identification.
Any individual, group, or organization is allowed one (1) approved WikiCite grant, though they may apply for more than one. This does not impact upon WikiCite e-scholarship eligibility, but it does count towards the WMF Rapid and Project grants limit of three open grants at any one time.
WikiCite primarily supports volunteer participation. Volunteer-based projects, in which grant funds are used for direct expenses rather than to pay for people's time, will have a competitive advantage in our review process. However, we will review requests to pay for people's time recognizing that not all projects are feasible to complete exclusively with volunteers.
Grant recipients cannot be currently employed by the Wikimedia Foundation as staff, as contractors working more than part-time, or members of the WikiCite steering committee.
All grantees be in good community standing and have a history of adhering to the Friendly space expectations. Please carefully review the Behavioral requirements of WMF Project grants, which apply equally to WikiCite grants.

In-person events

Grant requests for in-person events (such as training workshops) are eligible to apply for WikiCite grants. However, due to COVID-19, there will be some new restrictions.

A risk assessment calculator for in-person events and a checklist of precautions has been published. This protocol applies to all Wikimedia Foundation supported events. The minimum requirements for in-person events are that:

The activities are accordance with all current local and national regulations (e.g. maximum allowed numbers for indoor gathering).
The activities include no international travel, including ground-transportation between countries which normally allow passport-free travel.

Beyond these criteria, the assessment will ask questions about a series of risk factors and a series of precaution measures, which will generate a score. With a low enough score, a proposed in-person event can be approved. Plans which at first receive higher than acceptable score can be modified, following guidance listed in the tool itself, to lower the risk and/or increase the precaution measures. This will reduce the assessment score down to an acceptable level.

Draft applications for grants for in-person events must include a copy of the results from the risk assessment protocol. Applicants can contact the WikiCite project officer (on lwyatt-ctr wikimedia.org) for advice and assistance.

As usual, a Wikimedia adapted Friendly Space Policy (FSP) must be applied.

Behavioral requirements

We ask that applicants meet the following criteria for behavioral conduct. These standards apply to all members of a group’s or organization’s leadership team, and to any key people involved with organizing the funded activities. A list of these people must be provided to the grants administration team at the time of application.

Applicants should be in good standing in regard to ethical behavior within your community (e.g. social behavior, financial behavior, legal behavior, etc), as determined through the due diligence process of the grant program. Past instances as well as current investigations or incidents will be considered by WMF when determining the eligibility of each applicant.
Within the last year, applicants have not been blocked, banned, or otherwise flagged by WMF or another affiliate for violations of friendly space expectations or friendly space policies, or for other types of violations or conduct issues. If such issues have occurred in the past, the applicants demonstrate learning and understanding in regard to the cause for the issue, such that they are ready to serve as a role model for others as a grantee.
Within the last year, applicants have not been repeatedly blocked or flagged for the same issue and/or have not been banned on the Wikimedia Projects. If a block/ban is recorded in the applicant's account history, the applicant demonstrates learning and understanding in regard to the cause for the block, such that they are ready to serve as a role model for others as a grantee.
On occasion, we make exceptions to these criteria if we believe it contributes to a fair and equitable review process. If there is something you believe is important for us to understand about your circumstances in regard to our criteria, you are welcome to reach out to us at projectgrants wikimedia.org.
Due to issues around privacy and the sensitivity of information, it may not always be possible to share complete information about eligibility decisions with each applicant for every decision.

Review

Once you have marked your application as "open" – and therefore ready for review – the Committee will review your proposal. Sometimes further questions may be asked, this will be done via the provided email or on the application’s talkpage.
Applications for both the WikiCite grants and the e-scholarships programs will be reviewed simultaneously. The committee hopes to be able to give a response to all applications within a month of the closing date.

Selection criteria:

The project should support the goals of WikiCite: open citations, references, and/or linked bibliographic data in Wikimedia.
Supporting endorsements to the application provided by others will be taken into account.
Priority will be given to projects which are innovative and/or focusing on content or communities which are historically underrepresented in Wikimedia.

Report

The WikiCite project officer and grants administrator will be in contact to ensure the funding is made available and any project assistance is provided, if requested (e.g. promotion of activities with the WikiCite social media). Thirty (30) days after the end of the Grant Term, WikiCite grant recipients will submit a Final Report about the project. In this report, recipients will describe the outcomes and knowledge learned, and provide an impact assessment of the Grant and any other information requested by WMF.
The report should also include a full documentation of expenses (scanned receipts). If details are missing, WMF staff will ask for clarification.