The Sigma Awards – the premier international data journalism competition – attracted 543 entries from 84 countries for the 2026 iteration. And we at GIJN – in this, our second year of hosting the prize – are delighted to announce the shortlist of this year’s Sigma Awards.
A diverse panel of Sigma jurors chose a total of 31 outstanding data journalism projects and portfolios — 26 of the former, five of the latter — as finalists. This esteemed group hails from 23 different countries and territories around the globe.
Subjects tackled by these shortlisted projects range from Russia’s recruitment of foreign mercenaries and algorithmic failures in Peruvian social programs to the deepfake targeting of female journalists and lead poisoning from car battery supply chains. Several projects offered interactive maps, where – with just a click – readers could identify everything from tax havens to heat islands in their local area. And some of the pressing global topics explored through their innovative data sourcing and visualization include hidden deforestation, ongoing slave labor, sanctions evasion, and the links between domestic investments and unjust foreign wars.
In order to encourage the most innovative data projects, the Sigmas do not feature any topic or format categories. Instead, they are divided only between Single Projects and Portfolios (larger bodies of data journalism work).
Indeed, jurors noted that story formats among the 2026 finalists include podcast investigations, long-form serialized reporting, interactive databases, explainer projects, and visually-driven efforts that combine maps, charts, video, and illustration.
This year, the convenor of the Sigma jury is GIJN Turkish editor Pınar Dağ, who is also co-founder of the Data Literacy Association (DLA), Data Journalism Platform Turkey, and DağMedya, and a data journalism lecturer at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.
"The shortlist demonstrates remarkable diversity not only in geography but also across categories and formats,” Dağ points out. “We see a strong balance between investigations, visualizations, the use of innovation and tools, open data projects, and substantial portfolios from leading data teams.”
Veteran Sigma jurist and competition officer Kuek Ser Kuang Keng also notes that this year’s entries included many more projects from small newsrooms using advanced and innovative data methodologies. "The quality of this year's entries is beyond the expectation of many judges,” he adds.
Dağ says notable methodologies employed by finalist teams included open source intelligence research, cross-border collaboration, satellite imagery analysis, technological experimentation, and audience-centered design.
“Thematically, the shortlisted projects confront some of the most urgent global issues of our time,” she explains. “War and geopolitical conflict are addressed through cross-border investigations into sanctions evasion, shadow warfare, mercenary networks, oil smuggling, and the theft of children’s identities. Human rights and immigration feature prominently, alongside corruption, organized crime, and the misuse of public funds. Environmental investigations are particularly strong this year.” (See the 2025 Sigma winners here.)
GIJN will announce the winners of the Sigma Awards 2026 in April. Here are the finalists:
Single Project Category (26 finalists)
Cerrado – o elo sagrado das águas do Brasil (Closed — the sacred link to Brazil’s Waters) – Ambiental Media (Brazil)
How AI data centers drain local water supplies, raise electricity prices, and pose a global economic risk – Bloomberg News (US)
AI and TikTok: How famous female journalists are being systematically used for undisclosed AI generated content – Texty.org (Ukraine)
Silent victims of war: how Russia is robbing Ukrainian children of their identity – Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland); Texty.org.ua
Chennai's heat index: How heat stressed are you? – The Hindu (India)
Das Steueroasen Verzeichnis (The Tax Haven Directory) – FragDenStaat (Germany)
The Vanished Children – VG (Norway)
The Outlaw Ocean Podcast – The Outlaw Ocean Project (US)
How Iran moves sanctioned oil around the world – Reuters (Singapore)
Inside Russia’s shadow war in the Baltics – The Financial Times (UK)
Your pension savings end up in companies linked to the war in Gaza – Cuestión Pública (Colombia)
The poisonous lead trade – The Examination (United States)
Sudanese refugees fall into the trap of organized gangs on the Egyptian border – Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and Al-Muhajir (Sudan)
Até a Última Gota (Every Last Drop) – InfoAmazonia (Brazil), GK (Ecuador), Ojo Público (Peru), and Rutas del Conflicto (Colombia)
National Greenwashing Program: From Green Dreams to Barren Realities – Thibi (Philippines) Davao Today, Lighthouse Reports, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Deutsche Welle
A comprehensive check-up of roundabouts across Taiwan — The Reporter (Taiwan)
Fantasmas del Erario: Cuatro sexenios de destinar recursos públicos a empresas inexistentes (Ghosts of the Treasury: Four six-year terms of allocating public resources to non-existent companies) – Quinto Elemento Lab (Mexico)
Invisibles: How system failures and an algorithm left thousands of older adults without a pension – Salud con lupa (Peru)
Green to Grey: How Europe is squandering the little nature it has left – Arena for Journalism in Europe (The Netherlands) and NRK (Norway), with De Standaard (Belgium), Le Monde (France), Long Play (Finland), Die Zeit (Germany), Reporters United (Greece), Facta (Italy), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Datadista (Spain), The Black Sea (Turkey), and The Guardian (UK)
Mercenaries From at Least 48 Countries Are Participating in the War on Russia’s Side – IStories (Russia)
"TrackingFiles": comment la vie privée de militaires, de diplomates et du personnel politique français est exposée par les données de géolocalisation (How the private lives of French military personnel, diplomats, and political figures are exposed by geolocation data) – France 2, Franceinfo.fr (France)
Pirates of the Azov Sea – KibOrg (Ukraine), NGl.media, Slidstvo.Info, OCCRP
Syria's Stolen Children – Lighthouse Reports (Greece), Women Who Won The War, Al-Jumhuriya, BBC Eye, The Observer, Trouw, Der Spiegel, Sowt, SIRAJ
Vermessung der Zerstörung -- Kann man in Gaza überhaupt noch leben? (Measuring the Destruction -- Is it Still Possible to Live in Gaza?) – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)
When a typhoon hits Hong Kong – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Россия 200 (Russia 200) – Mediazona (Russia)
Portfolio Category (five finalists)
Civio (Spain): Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, Entry 4, Entry 5
Der Siegel (Germany): Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, Entry 4
Chunichi, Chunichi Sports (Japan): Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, Entry 4
LA NACION (Argentina): Combined portfolio entry
