Today, we are excited to announce that 46 projects have moved to the next stage of consideration in Knight News Challenge: Elections. These semifinalists, who include one private submission, will have a week to fine-tune their entries before we begin work with a group of advisers to choose the finalists.

We received 1,056 submissions for the challenge, which centered on the question: How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections?

Over the next week semifinalists will get the chance to provide additional information about their projects and respond to community input. If you are a semifinalist, you will receive a letter today with additional questions and outlining next steps. Please respond by 5 p.m. ET on Monday, April 20.

We will announce the News Challenge winners in July, which will also include a group of winners that we will identify for funding through the Knight Prototype Fund, a program that provides support for teams to test and refine promising early-stage projects. Winners will share in more than $3 million.

Thanks to everyone who has joined us in the challenge, including our partners the Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Rita Allen Foundation. Thanks also to the group of advisers who helped us to review the entries.

We’re looking forward to the next phase of the News Challenge and to continuing the conversation, which you can follow at KnightBlog.org or on Twitter using #newschallenge.

Chris Barr is director of media innovation and Shazna Nessa is director of journalism at Knight Foundation.