Apply for European Collaborative Journalism Programme

ECJP brings together a group of sixteen journalists from all over Europe to motivate and enable them to collaborate across borders and to form a community of practice. The program consists of two parts:

24-28 March 2025: Conference Centre Gut Siggen, Baltic Sea

• Part 1: Meeting at Gut Siggen, Baltic Sea to
  • Get familiar with each other
  • Present and discuss your story ideas
  • Build teams to collaborate on an investigation
  • Receive input from experts and peers
  • Exchange on your journalistic practice.

22-25 May 2025: Follow up-meeting at Dataharvest 2025, Belgium

• Part 2: Meeting at the EIJC & Dataharvest conference in Mechelen to
  • Attend a broad variety of workshops, panels, debates
  • Be inspired by innovative skills, methods and tools
  • Meet like-minded colleagues from other countries
  • Follow up on your investigation started at Gut Siggen
  • Strengthen network ties with your fellows.

Topics

• ECJP topics so far mainly dealt with issues of:
  • Sustainability: climate, food, use of ressources
  • Labour: Migration, exploitation, trafficking
  • Governance: corruption, extremism, disinformation

Costs Covered

• Toepfer Foundation will cover all costs including your travel fees, accommodation, conference tickets and meals.

What Does It Entail?

• 24-28 March 2025: Conference Centre Gut Siggen, Baltic Sea
• Intensive five days program at Gut Siggen (about 2 h from Hamburg by shuttle):
  • Inputs from experts – working sessions in which you discuss and elaborate a story
  • Informal fireside talks about your work practice
• 22-25 May 2025: Follow up-meeting at Dataharvest 2025, Belgium
• Intensive three days conference in Mechelen (about 30 min from Brussels):
  • Catch-up meeting and joint diner at the pre-conference evening on 22 May
  • Participation in the conference according to your own interests
  • Further work on your investigation

Eligibility Criteria

• The program is developed for journalists from all over Europe, freelancers as well as staffers from all media. It is suited for juniors as well as mid-career journalists, either already have first experiences with collaborative journalism or who firmly intend to work in this field.
• Participants are asked to apply with a story idea that they would like to work on with other fellows during the course of the program.

Application Requirements

• Please use their application form to submit the following documents:
  • Letter of motivation (max 2500 characters)
  • Story outline (max 750 characters)
  • CV
  • Letter of recommendation or 1-2 contact information
  • 1-2 recent work samples

For more information, visit Toepfer Foundation.