Bright Line Watch, a project of the Chicago Center on Democracy at University of Chicago, conducts research, including longitudinal studies, on the health of American democracy.

The Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida is coordinating a project to identify potential solutions for local government agencies, particularly elections offices, to mitigate the impact of unduly burdensome public records requests, often called “vexatious requests,” while protecting the flow of civic information to the public.

The University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) is creating an Election Talent Study Group to address the growing recruitment and retention crisis in election administration.

This grant supports a collaborative research initiative led by the University of Maryland (UMD) in partnership with the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC) and the Millennial Action Project (MAP). This research explores the behavioral and psychological aspects of political cooperation to counteract polarization in American government.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland is conducting research comparing traditional social science methods of determining voting accessibility through distance-based calculations. This research seeks to improve the data and methods used to select and evaluate the accessibility of voting sites.

To support research on radical polarization and the behaviors that lead to increased political violence in the United States and dissemination of the research through white papers and a book. 

To provide project support to the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise at the University of Maryland, which will conduct extensive research into the current and future election cybersecurity issues faced in the State of Maryland. 

This grant will support initial research into the surveillance, experimentation, and persuasion capabilities of platforms such as Facebook and Google and the ways we can prevent or mitigate the use of these capabilities by authoritarians. The initial funding will support the development of a plan for an academic center devoted to these issues as well as the hiring of research support staff for the primary investigator.

The primary goal of this study is to qualitatively evaluate the impact of diversity placement programs on the recruitment and retention of minority journalists in U.S. newspaper newsrooms between 2000 and 2015. This also allows us to engage a scholar interested in journalism institutions with a focus on inclusion, who we may continue to engage throughout our strategy implementation.

Gather supports community-minded journalists and other engagement professionals through an online platform that acts as a hub for critical tools, resources, and conversations for journalists.

Gather is a project that supports community-minded journalists and other engagement professionals through an online platform that’s a hub for critical tools, resources, and conversations for journalists.

The purpose of this grant is to support the University of Oregon School of Journalism’s Agora Journalism Center to create workshops to strengthen the community of practice of Engaged Journalism. This grant builds on Knight’s larger grant that supports building a web-tool, with our emphasis on creating robust connections within the field.

The California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP) at the University of Southern California will design, release, and host the Vote Center Siting Tool in three states: Colorado, Arizona, and Texas. The development of the tool in these three states will help election officials make informed decisions about where to locate polling places and how to better target other services to the voters and potential voters they serve.

This grant provides support for the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California to maintain and expand the Vote Center and Ballot Drop Box Siting Tool.

The State Democracy Research Initiative fosters research and dialogue on state-level democracy, government, and public law across the nation. They produce and promote original academic research and bring together academics, judges, policymakers, and advocates to exchange insights and perspectives on matters related to democracy and the rule of law in the states.

The New Hampshire Listens program at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy will partner with the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University to design and execute a demonstration project of a digital version of a congressional committee hearing. 

Upturn advances equity and justice in the design, governance, and use of technology. They combine research with advocacy, and their approach is informed by a broad range of perspectives and experiences, including computer science, social science, law, and policy. They partner with local and national advocates and others to ensure their work is collaborative and actionable.

From the October 01, 2019 up to May 01, 2020, the Grant funds are restricted for the following purpose: To support Upturn’s research, publication, and coordination on the topic of discriminatory targeting by social media platform companies.
Any remaining funds from this Grant as of May 01, 2020 are hereby released from the project restriction outlined above and can be used for General Operating Support. 

To support Phase II of the RI VOTES project, building off Phase I of the project. Phase II will further develop a set of tools to assist elections officials during the three phases of an election cycle: election preparation, Election Day operations, and post-election analysis.

The purpose of this grant is to implement the election line allocation tools created by the Voting Technology Project, as recommended by the Rhode Island Board of Elections Task Force.