Civic Tech Responds to COVID-19
In 2020, we curated this collection of civic tech responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic. We connected our community to virtual events, funding opportunities, and collaborative civic tech projects that tried to help the world respond and recover.
Suggested reading:
- A Decision Framework for Nonprofit Leaders and Boards, by SeaChange
- Free coronavirus reporting from The New York Times
- Participatory Aid: How people can help in times of crisis using the internet
- Luminary Lab’s more extensive reading list
Projects
Engagement | Govtech | Data | Organizing | Media | Emerging tech
COVID Engagement Projects
How are people engaging the public and private sectors to help contribute to a collective response to the pandemic? How are people helping to contribute informal, mutual aid, to address common needs like social connection and remote work? How is the trend towards digital civic engagement accelerating because of social distancing requirements? We’ll track global responses to these needs here.View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Engagement projects
COVID Govtech Projects
Resources for governments to better engage the public, and vice versa. We will better understand our reliance on effective governance more than we have in recent years. View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Govtech projectsCOVID Data Projects
Open datasets, civic data, government data, data visualizations, and other key sources for coronavirus response work. View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Civic Data projectsCOVID Organizing Projects
How do we engage in politics in a new era of social distancing? What role does watchdogging and transparency serve? Which campaigns will we support to build the world we need?View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Advocacy Tech projects
COVID Media Projects
State and non-state actors are taking advantage of the panic and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic to destabilize democracies. How do we counter this misinformation? Resources for journalists and informed citizens alike.View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Media Tech projects
Emerging COVID Tech and Hardware
How can emerging technologies like AI support us in these times? Can they? Medical supplies are in very short supply – are there safe, effective public responses to help fill the need?View the Civic Tech Field Guide’s full collection of Emerging tech projects
Funding opportunities archive
This is an archive and no longer updated.- Resistance Labs is offering $10,000 in-kind grants to make use of its SMS platform for community COVID relief organizing (rolling basis)
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard Launch Initiative to Speed Development and Access to Therapies for COVID-19
- Mobilizing a private sector response to COVID-19
- $1 million+ in Emergent Ventures Prizes for coronavirus work
- Best investigative journalism on coronavirus — 50k
- Best blog or social media tracking/analysis of the virus — 100k
- Best (justified) coronavirus policy writing — 50k
- Best effort to find a good treatment rapidly — 500k, second prize 200k
- Best innovation in social distancing — 100k
- Most important innovation or improvement for India — 100k
- Sam Altman: Funding for COVID-19 Projects
- Gates Foundation: Announcing the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator
- UK Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Emergency Competitive Revisions for Research and also
- Forcit Non-Profit Venturing Program: call for the program is extended for an unlimited time and fully open for non-profits and initiatives that need guidance, experts to build impactful solutions that can help in this crisis.
- The EU: Applications welcome from startups and SMEs with innovative solutions to tackle Coronavirus outbreak
- An existing funding source, the $1M Roddenberry Prize, would like to “strongly encourage applications that address the range of societal, health, and economic repercussions of the pandemic.”