After four years of a successful collaborative partnership between Friedrich Naumann Foundation - FNF Middle East and North Africa and ARIJ, we are pleased to announce the signing of our new MoU for the “Innovate to Investigate” project, the first of its kind pan-Arab incubator in the MENA region.

Rawan Al-Damen, the General Director of ARIJ, and Dirk Kunze, the Regional Director of Friedrich Naumann Foundation - FNF MENA, signed the MoU in early May 2021, which will continue the collaboration between these two organizations for two years.

Looking forward to further success!

Stay tuned for more details.

Our committee is working together, doing their filtering and checking to choose the best 21 applicants who will join us in “Innovate To Investigate” Incubator.

• Arab
• Able to commit throughout the project period (Two years)

• Communication skills (Negotiation and conversation)
• Team work skills
• The desire to change and innovate something new and different
• The desire to be part of a new experience

One month until we all know who the future innovators are, and start the journey together.

Registration for Innovate To Investigate Incubator is closed today, now we have more than 181 applicants from more than 24 countries who are interested to be part of this innovative space.

Only 21 participants from eight different professions will be selected to take the adventure, collaborate and live the journey together.

Now you have extra two days to submit your registration application to be part of a team inside I2I Incubator.

Final deadline to submit Thursday 19 Aug 2021.

Would you like to be part of producing a digital interactive investigation in an innovative way? Would you like to be the first to “innovate to investigate” in the Arab World?

If you are an Arab journalist, investigative journalist, human rights defender, lawyer, developer, graphic designer, researcher or a fact-checker, interested in participating in a collaborative experience, then this is for you.

All Arab nationalities are welcome.

After four years of a successful collaborative partnership between Friedrich Naumann Foundation - FNF Middle East and North Africa and ARIJ, we are pleased to announce the signing of our new MoU for the “Innovate to Investigate” project, the first of its kind pan-Arab incubator in the MENA region.

Rawan Al-Damen, the General Director of ARIJ, and Dirk Kunze, the Regional Director of Friedrich Naumann Foundation - FNF MENA, signed the MoU in early May 2021, which will continue the collaboration between these two organizations for two years.

Looking forward to further success!

More than 181 professionals from more than 25 countries apply to join I2I Incubator and get the chance to be part of this new experience.

Now, we have 27 professionals from 8 professions and 13 countries around the world who have been selected by our prestigious professional committee, who follow the criteria and are very strict and accurate in their choices.

Launching is very soon, keep your eyes on our webpage and follow us on these Hashtags: #I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

The "#InnovateToInvestigate" incubator launched yesterday with a friendly introductory session for the 17 chosen participants from 6 Arab countries. The incubator's workshops will start at the end of this month.

We wish all participants the best of luck!

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

Today, the first workshop of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator kicks off with trainer Michael Koegel, covering the topic of Innovation and Design Thinking

The workshop will last for 3 days, stay tuned for session highlights!

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

“Design thinking is a human-centred approach for innovation, that integrates people's needs with technological possibilities & business success."

-Trainer Michael Koegel, from today's "Innovation & Design Thinking" workshop of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator. #I2I

On the second day of the "Innovation & Design Thinking" workshop of the #InnovateToInvestigatve incubator, trainer Michael Koegel explained the following stages of design thinking:

• Research
• Synthesis
• Ideation

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

After 4 days full of enthusiasm and exciting discussions.. the first training of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator ended today

Yesterday, trainer Michael Koegle concluded the stages of design thinking, and discussed with the trainees how to work in a team remotely.

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

Today, ARIJ's Director General, Rawan Damen, and ARIJ's editorial board member, Hoda Othman, trained journalists on ways to find and plan ideas for interactive investigative investigations, and how to develop ideas for local and cross-border investigative investigative reports.

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

What's the difference between international treaties, laws, & constitutions? And how can you find ratified treaties? This is what trainer Dr. Khouloud Al-Khatib covered in Saturday's workshop, part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator.

#I2I #InnovateToInvestigate

What makes a source reliable?

Primary sources: original documents & eyewitnesses
Authority figures
Experts and specialists
From today's workshop with trainer Bissan Al-Cheikh, part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator #I2I @fnfmena

Why use crowdsourcing in journalistic work?

1 Access and communicate with eyewitnesses
2 Employ technology to organize responses
3 Employ citizen journalism in reports

From the Crowdsourcing workshop with trainer @RashaFaek, part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator #I2I

Rules for selecting the target sample for surveys

🔸To be an accurate representation
🔸To be on par with the original community
🔸Its results can be generalized

From the "How to Create Surveys" training with trainer Said Abu Mualla, part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator

As part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator's training yesterday with @mohamed_kawmani, the trainees got to know about:

Open source investigations
Using search engines
Searching social media
Examples of open sources related to the incubator's projects

"When it comes to international loans and donations, all you have to do is follow the money and how it's spent."

-Dr. Mohamed Sameh, from the "Reading International Budgets and Loans" workshop last week, 30 Mar 2022, part of the #InnovateToInvestigate incubator.

Capacity building stage is the main block in incubators programs around the world regardless of their fields, it is impossible to find an incubator that is devoid of this stage.

And it’s the same here in “Innovate for Investigation” incubator, the first incubator of its kind in the MENA, as we are looking forward in this stage to develop the skills of all participants in all needed skills and knowledge that are included during the production of the investigation, starting from a hypothesis until they got the final form.

Making them more up-to-date with the skills of the times, more familiar with the new knowledge and technologies, more familiar with modern production strategies which are all building based on the perspective of the target audience, not from the specialists perspectives, and that what makes them more able to find and develop an innovative interactive investigation suitable for their targeted group.

This couldn't be done without providing a series of training sessions, webinars and practical workshops. Here are the list of incubators’ workshops for project participants:

• Innovation and Design Thinking
• Digital Security and cyber security (One to one sessions)
• Lessons in Innovation from ICFJ Knight Fellows
• Media Sustainability in the Arab World: Best Practises and Lessons Learned
• Photojournalism... an Investigative Tool for Storytelling
• Environmental Investigations... The Use of Satellite Data and Digital Tools

This is the stage that follows the capacity-building stage, as we can say that teams are ready to draw their road map to achieve their goal.

This stage is very sensitive, since the whole team members will work perhaps for a year, maybe two or three years, according to the timeline of the team's goal. And in our small innovative incubator, our schedule is relatively short, seven months to produce an innovative, interactive, cross border investigation, so each team must be careful in this stage and the lack of urgency is the first pillar of success for their collaborative work.

Each team is doing the following:

• Put the main teams roles
• Select weaknesses and strength points of the team
• Put the timeline to achieve their goal
• Select the gaol which suite project criteria and team skills and knowledge (Strength and weaknesses points an project timeline)
• Distribute tasks on team members
• Select communication methods inside the team
• Select used tools inside the team and how to complete tasks
• Creating a system to track tasks
• Select taking decision method and tool
• deal on the internal and external meeting

After that, teams were ready to fly towards their goal, ensuring success by taking all necessary steps and agreeing on all the details. Good planning makes team communication way easier and reduces the chances of conflict.

Coaching stage is one of the indicators that teams are working on their plan and the beginning of the completing the components of the final product, and since the incubators are working on innovation idea and creating all unique, new and different things; This in itself requires to provide coaches from the various fields to ensure that teams are on the right path during of their journey.

And according to the different types of incubators and their outputs, the specialisations of their coaches differ. In entrepreneurial business incubators, incubators’ managers mostly provide some legal coaches and mentors, others from the financial field in addition to the coaches from business management field as well, which enable incubators’ participants to put their business model, capital management, and being aware of the laws to avoid any legal confusion and problems in his country of residence.

In the "Innovate To Investigation" incubator, the jurnalism incubator, we provide coaches in the editorial, legal and front-end development fields. With these three fields, participants will be able to provide information that avoids legal issues, correct and realistic, supportive of the desired content and in line with the presentation method and Investigation design, to ensure that content and materials support the visual and interactive appearance that designer is looking for to reach a wider audience.

Here is the stage where teams reap the fruits of their efforts, which comes after the teams follow their working plan and the instructions from the different coaches, according to the timeline of producing this innovation.

It is the stage of being proud of achievement, celebrating and starting planning for a new upcoming innovation.