Project overview

Wikimedia projects are created and maintained by a vast network of individual contributors and organizations with different roles and expertise. The Wikimedia Foundation, including Wikimedia Research, plays an important role in supporting these efforts, but our internal capacity and expertise will always be more limited than those of the Movement as a whole. Tackling the strategic challenges ahead requires an investment in ​foundational social and technical infrastructure that individuals, groups, and organizations across the Movement can use.

We see an urgent need for increasing the development and dissemination of foundational resources to grow research capacities across the Movement. These foundational resources take many forms: new tools for developing scientific knowledge about projects and contributors; new open data resources and improved tools for working with them; new methods and guidance for mission-aligned research and technology development; and outreach activities designed to foster a healthy, diverse, and dynamic community of researchers to be part of the Wikimedia Movement.

More information can be found in our white paper and research community vision and strategy.