This News Challenge is an opportunity to accelerate promising ideas and trends. Through this contest, we hope to help extend the spirit of open gov and to catalyze partnerships between hackers, civic innovators, governments, journalists and others. Closes April 5th.

The Fund is accepting applications for its next grant cycle, by the December 9 deadline. There's a special call for projects focusing on environmental and governmental accountability issues as a result of a generous grant from the Parks Foundation in Ithaca New York.

The FCIR Watchdog Fund is particularly interested in funding projects dealing with government corruption, waste and inefficiency; immigration; environment; education; and social justice. Proposals will be accepted until the extended deadline of Oct. 22, 2010.

In recognition of the United Nations declaring 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, Project AWARE Foundation and SeaWeb's Marine Photobank are calling for entries for the third "Ocean in Focus" Conservation Photography Contest that feature species in need of protection, the human impacts upon them and their environments, and the importance of conserving biodiversity.

Awards in eight categories recognize excellence in conveying awareness of population problems and their relationship to resources and environment. Deadline: extended to Oct 31, 2016.

2010 deadlines for participating countries are Bolivia (July 31); Brazil (April 26); Brazil — TV category (April 26); Columbia (August 18); and Madagascar (August 30). First place winners from Latin American countries receive an all expenses paid trip to an international environmental journalist conference.