Press release
Minister of State Smyth welcomes launch of the Open Data Engagement Fund 2022/2023
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
Minister of State Ossian Smyth, with responsibility for Public Procurement and eGovernment at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, today (11 September, 2022) announced details of the 2022/2023 competitive Open Data Engagement Fund. This fund is designed to raise awareness of open data and to promote the reuse of open data on the national Open Data portal. The portal is a repository of open government datasets and currently links to nearly 15,000 public service datasets in open format.
The Open Data Engagement Fund (totalling up to €30,000) has been developed in conjunction with the Open Data Governance Board (ODGB) which provides leadership in implementing Ireland's Open Data Initiative and this is the fourth year in which the fund has been made available. Promoting reuse of the data on the open data portal data.gov.ie is a key theme in the national Open Data Strategy, 2017-2022. Opening up government data provides new opportunities for research, innovation, engagement and greater efficiency for all sectors of the economy.
Previous winners have included projects have included hackathons, promoting access to heritage data and running a Climate Action Challenge Showcase, which is actually running on 14 September, attendance is free to all and accessible here.
The call for application is open until 27 October 2022 and applications can be made for funding to support a variety of Open Data related activities. These include; the organisation of outreach and engagement activities, for example, seminars, competitions and hackathons; the building of applications and development of visualisations to demonstrate the use that can be made of open data; or specific research on open government datasets with a view to arriving at outcomes that help create efficiencies in the public service or assist in government decision making as well as research to measure the benefits and impact of Ireland’s Open Data Initiative to date.