The Data Investigator’s Toolkit: Lessons from 2026’s Sigma Award Winners

What does it take to produce outstanding data journalism today? From emerging technologies to innovative reporting practices, leading investigative teams share the approaches behind their work.

On July 7, GIJN hosted a fast-paced webinar featuring all 10 winners of the 2026 Sigma Awards, highlighting innovations behind the most compelling data investigations worldwide.

In this international, lightning-round session, each winning team had five minutes to showcase the approaches and breakthroughs that helped them uncover complex stories. Moderated by Brant Houston, GIJN co-founder and Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois, the session offered perspectives on the trends and practices redefining data journalism today.

Full list of winners below:

• 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)
• Inside Russia’s Shadow War in the Baltics — The Financial Times (UK)
• Invisibles: How System Failures and an Algorithm Left Thousands of Older Adults Without a Pension — Salud con lupa (Peru)
• The Human Trap: Sudanese Refugees Falling Prey to Organized Criminal Gangs on the Border with Egypt — Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and Al-Muhajir (Sudan)
• 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 Nonexistent Companies) — Quinto Elemento Lab (Mexico)
• Syria’s Stolen Children — Lighthouse Reports (Greece), Women Who Won The War, Al-Jumhuriya (Syria), BBC Eye (UK), The Observer (UK), Trouw (Netherlands), Der Spiegel (Germany), Sowt, and SIRAJ (Syria)
• Cerrado — o Elo Sagrado das Águas do Brasil (Cerrado — Brazil’s Sacred Water Link) — Ambiental Media (Brazil)
• The Silent Victims of War: How Russia is Robbing Ukrainian Children of Their Identity — Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland); Texty.org.ua (Ukraine)
• The Poisonous Lead Trade — The Examination and The New York Times (United States) 
• How Iran Moves Sanctioned Oil Around the World — Reuters (Singapore)