A few months back, we launched TESTING 1 2 3, an innovation fund that received 311 submissions from applicants who proposed to test ideas all over the world, using varied approaches to innovatively address a mix of government transparency and accountability challenges.

Today, we are happy to announce the 10 ideas selected for the Lightning Round, the fund’s final step of vetting:

The Open Bank Project

A web application that allows bank account holders in the United Kingdom to share transaction level data with select viewers or the public more widely.

Veritza.org

A collaborative web-based platform that aims to automate the production of regular corruption reports in Serbia through scraping and importing data records, and preforming real-time crosschecks.

Oops! They forgot about us!

A system designed to alert the Latvian public every time a law is drafted in absence of consulting key parties who may be affected by it. 

Simply Visualizing Politics

A visual display of Macedonian politicians and their political views using strictly shapes and colors.

Database of Corrupted Sports Events

An illustration of sports corruption characterized by match fixing linked to global gambling markets.

Access to Spatial Regulations and Urban Development Policies

A web portal that aims to provide Serbian citizens with the opportunity to weigh in on urban planning and regulatory processes.

Wikipedia of Justice

A wiki of country laws aimed to make judicial information freely accessible.

Reporting Judicial Irregularities

A quick and easy application for attorneys to report misbehavior of court officials, breach of duties, non-compliance with procedural rules, and other irregularities in Argentine federal courts.

Police-Citizen Protocol

A simple toolkit that offers Mexican citizens basic, pertinent information on police protocol to protect against abuse and targeted forms of corruption.

Hidden Agenda

A platform of crowdsourced photos documenting hidden lobbying activities in Spain that aims to make transparent issues of public interest that are currently off the record.

Innovators behind these ideas have been invited to prepare quick presentations and participate in extended question and answer sessions with the Global Integrity team. We want to get a deeper understanding of what the idea is, why it is important, how it will be tested, and the risks involved in doing so. This information will inform our final investment decisions, which we plan to announce in mid-March.

All decisions were made based on our selection criteria, and with the help of external expert advice on a case-by-case basis.

The overwhelming volume and impressive quality of ideas we received made our decisions difficult, but also delighted us to see such vibrancy in our own community.

We hope that applicants and others interested will continue to push the envelope with risky ideas for tackling challenges of corruption, transparency, and accountability. To assist in this, we want to direct your attention to the brief online idea descriptions of all the submissions we received, and invite you to leave comments and ask questions.

Thank you to all who applied, and congratulations to those selected to move on!

–Nicole Anand 

–Image Credit: szeretlek_ma / Flickr