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Application Deadline: February 4, 2026
Applications are now open for the 2026 International Press Institute (IPI’s) Global AI Accelerator. IPI’s Global AI Accelerator for Media is an eight-month funding and support programme for small-to-medium-sized independent news outlets from Global Majority countries. It is designed for organizations seeking to experiment with AI and new technology to invest in the medium and long-term viability that ensures the freedom to do journalism independent of outside influence.
Selected media organizations will receive 8 months of up to $14,000 in funding alongside expert-led training and workshops, personalized advisory services, and access to networks and future sources of support. IPI will work directly with participants to co-create a roadmap for AI adoption that reflects changes in consumer markets and business opportunities and doubles down on security and credibility concerns.
Eligibility
- Eligible Geographies: The call is open to the newsrooms from Global Majority countries based in one of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
- You must have a verifiable online presence and must have been fully operational for at least three years before the application call.
- You must be an independent news organization of small or medium size (3–50 staff members) that is already experimenting with, developing guardrails around or investigating AI technologies.
- You will present a pain-point or challenge, alongside user research and other evidence that your organization is responding to.
- You must be able to carry out the grant-funded work within an eight-month timeframe.
Requirements
- The Accelerator has been designed to support media in Global Majority countries explore needs and positional solutions to challenges in their newsrooms. Participating media will have a clear and defined understanding of the challenge they seek to address.
- IPI will support participants with literacy in AI tools and developing safeguards, using product and design strategies to inform next steps, prototyping and developing solutions to challenges through a grant scheme funding, one-on-one needs assessment by IPI’s in-house experts and a tailored accelerator programme that will train, coach and guide grantees toward self-sustained resilience and successful involvement in the accelerator.
- The format is based on IPI’s innovation and product development practice, refined over 5 years of delivering funding and advisory mechanisms worldwide that achieved measurable benefits such as doubling and tripling video, newsletter and paying subscribers, delivery of new products, as well as long-lasting content and funding partnerships.
Benefits
- A grant of up to $14,000 to deliver your project.
- Intensive training focused on tools and skills that can be transferred to your newsroom well beyond the duration of the AI Accelerator, focused on problem-solving and identifying solutions, audience research, strategic planning and product management, journalism formats built for user engagement, digital business models and diversifying revenue models.
- One-on-one personalized advisory services bespoke to the needs of your newsroom, with flexible, on-demand industry experts as coaches during the incubator.
- Group coaching sessions with peers developing similar projects.
- Speaker sessions and workshops based on themes determined in the needs assessments.
- Access to an e-learning platform with training modules and recordings from industry leaders. Monthly “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions allow attendees to directly pose questions to industry experts.
- Access to a networking platform with the current cohort, expert coaches, all programme alumni and a network of media innovators.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the International Press Institute (IPI’s) Global AI Accelerator