Full Fact awarded funds from the Nuffield Foundation to fact check the election

12 November 2019 | Louisa Johnson

We're pleased to announce that the Nuffield Foundation has awarded Full Fact £60,000 to improve the understanding and use of evidence in the 2019 general election campaign.

The Nuffield Foundation has been a generous supporter of Full Fact since our earliest days. Their support helped us fact check the general elections in 2015 and 2017, and the EU Referendum in 2016.

This grant will support us to:

  • Temporarily increase the size of our fact checking team, allowing us to respond to more claims and publish fact checks quicker
  • Temporarily increase the size of our communications team, helping us to increase the reach of our fact checks, through our own channels and through media partnerships
  • Increase the power of our automated fact checking tools by adding the ability to monitor online adverts for new and recurring claims
  • Conduct research into the public’s perceptions of key claims and voters’ experiences of information and factual claims during the campaign, to better understand the influence that inaccurate claims are having on voters' decision making

The Nuffield Foundation funds research, analysis, and student programmes that advance educational opportunity and social well-being across the United Kingdom. The Foundation is financially and politically independent. It has funded Full Fact as part of its work to ensure public debate in the run-up to the General Election is informed by independent and rigorous evidence.

With a month to go until the General Election it is essential that public debate is underpinned by independent, rigorous analysis and fact checking. To facilitate this, we have awarded grants to Full Fact, the IFS, NIESR, and the Education Policy Institute.

We have awarded a grant of £60,000 to Full Fact to fact check claims made during the election campaign. Full Fact will monitor newspapers, TV news shows, radio, party press releases and online campaigning. The team will produce fact checks, explainers and social media content that addresses false or misleading claims and provide independent, evidenced information that readers can use to make up their minds on claims. The team will also conduct national polling and focus groups to track voter belief in, and awareness of, factual claims made by the main parties.

The Nuffield Foundation

 


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