Journalismfund.eu is a Brussels-based independent non-profit organization dedicated to fostering independent cross-border investigative reporting across Europe to strengthen democracy. It ultimately benefits the public benefits, promotes accountability and transparency, and encourages critical thinking and informed debate.
Journalismfund.eu offers funds to develop excellent investigative journalism and encourage journalistic innovation throughout Europe and beyond. Journalismfund.eu's flexible grant programs support journalists to produce meaningful public interest stories from worldwide, national, and regional viewpoints while maintaining a European mindset.
Journalismfund.eu respects the editorial independence of its grantees and strives for high journalistic quality and rigor. Journalismfund.eu mentors and supports investigative teams that have great ideas but lack the experience and infrastructure to collaborate across borders when necessary.
About the grant
FOR WHO? Journalists and news outlets
A proposal for a journalistic investigation into a problem that threatens the environment and is related to Europe can be submitted by cross-border teams of at least two professional reporters, journalists, and/or news outlets.
HOW MUCH? €400,000
A total of €400,000 will be available per call to be split among all supported investigations. Arcadia is a sponsor of the program.
Overview
This award initiative aids cross-border teams of professional journalists and/or news organizations in conducting investigations into European environmental issues.
While most news organizations and newsrooms still operate nationally, most power structures and societal and environmental issues do not. As a result, this award initiative is aimed at cross-border teams of investigative journalists and newsrooms to uncover and record illegal, unreported, and unregulated environmental abuses in and around Europe.
This program can support and stimulate roughly similar research into local environmental problems and policies between two or more regions or cities and investigations of environmental issues that cross borders.
Grants may also support preliminary work in the development of new investigative projects.
Working time and expenses such as travel, logistics, insurance, legal help, translations, access to technology and data sets, and so on may be covered by the grant.
In addition to financial assistance, teams can apply for an experienced mentor to help with the investigation's focus or the requirement for specific skill competencies.
How to apply?
1. Applicants are advised to review the grant details (described below) before applying, where rules, eligibility and assessment criteria, timing, and other information can be found.
2. They can access the program's online application form after registering with their email address. Candidates can freely browse the form to choose the information they must provide in their application. This includes the following:
-
Details about the team members' information
-
Details about the planned inquiry information
-
Details about the designed publication channels, including letters of intent from news outlets
-
A complete budget based on the program's budget template
Applicants will also be required to provide administrative papers.
A single team member can start a draft application. They might then ask others to contribute to the online draft. At any moment, the online application in progress can be saved and edited further.
Eligibility criteria
-
A proposal for a journalistic inquiry into an environmental issue can be submitted by a cross-border team comprising at least two journalists and/or news outlets.
-
Applicants must be experienced freelance journalists or news organizations. In this regard, personal references and/or references to previous work are required.
-
News organizations must be legally incorporated at least one year before the grant call's application deadline.
-
The investigation proposal must be related to cross-border environmental investigative journalism on European affairs, either within or outside Europe. This implies that the inquiry must (also) be relevant to Europe.
-
In addition to inquiries into global environmental concerns, this grant can support comparative investigations into local environmental challenges and policies between two or more nations, regions, cities, etc.
-
At least two respectable news outlets must release the investigation's findings from at least two separate nations. At least two reputable news outlets must submit letters of intent for publishing.
-
Investigative journalism published by professional media in any format, including print, web, broadcast, and cross-media, is eligible. Magazine and newspaper articles, books and photo reportages, podcasts, radio and television documentaries and series, journalistic non-fiction books are all eligible for funding.
Covered Costs
There are two types of costs that this grant can cover:
1. Working time of the journalists to conduct their investigation.
2. Expenses:
-
Direct investigative expenses include travel, visa, lodging, translation, fixers, access to pay databases, FOI requests, legal screening, insurance, etc.
-
Costs of development and support, if they have a clear and direct advantage to the specific investigation:
-
Costs associated with team members' attendance at training and conferences to learn or strengthen investigative abilities and/or to interact with experts and peers to discuss their supported study.
-
Costs for technology or tool development required for the inquiry (e.g., datasets, satellite photos, - NO hardware).
-
Overhead, grants do not cover physical investment items (IT hardware, mobile phones, cameras, etc.), production costs, food, and beverage, per diems, and other costs of such nature.
Please follow the link to see the budget template. (https://bit.ly/3uhwcmz)
Mentors
-
Successful applicants who require assistance with a particular inquiry component may request a mentor. Journalismfund.eu selects the mentor from its pool of mentors (comprised of experienced investigative reporters from several continents) in conjunction with the team.
-
Mentors are chosen based on the investigation's emphasis or the demand for capabilities in a specific specialty. They can help with cross-border collaboration, source identification, research methodologies, storytelling, distribution, project management, etc.
-
A mentor provides guidance knowledge and can serve as a source of advice. They do not entirely participate in the investigation. Per project, the most significant amount of mentoring days is five.
-
Journalismfund.eu pays the mentor. The mentor is not required to be included in the budget proposal.
Deadlines and timing
-
There will be 20 application rounds for this funding program over six years. Applicants should subscribe to Journalismfund.eu's newsletter (see the link https://bit.ly/3qsKOhT) to remain up to know on grant opportunities.
-
Following the application deadline, Journalismfund.eu verifies that all requirements are in order and may request more information from applicants. Typically, this takes one week.
-
Following that, the applications are forwarded to the jury for review.
-
Applicants are typically notified of the jury judgment approximately 40 days following the application deadline.
Grant conditions
-
The grantees and all other participants in the project must agree to the principles of the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists as well as the applicable national codes of ethics.
-
Every grantee executes an agreement with Journalismfund.eu outlining the mutual agreements and terms.
-
Grants are awarded in two installments: the first (2/3) upon execution of the Agreement and the second (1/3) upon project publication and submission and approval of the financial statement and supporting papers.
-
Grants are issued in euros. They are only paid into the grantees' bank accounts, not through other money transfer services. Journalismfund.eu bears all bank charges for overseas payments except for currency rates.
-
Any journalistic product created due to the financed initiative must expressly indicate Journalismfund.eu's assistance.
-
Applicants must agree to the general grant rules of Journalismfund.eu. (see the link https://bit.ly/3JxsxHT)
For further information, please click the "LINK TO ORIGINAL" button below.