Call for Applications: European Cross-Border Grant Programme

Journalismfund Europe supports costs related to journalistic research for all media. This can include travel, translation, access to pay-databases or simply time to research. They do not support fixed costs such as office costs, investments such as cameras or computers or production costs.

Next to a grant, teams can also apply for a mentor to provide assistance with either the focus of the investigation or the need for competences in a specific skill.

This awarded European Cross-Border Grant programme (running since 2009) supports professional journalists who have good ideas for cross-border investigations and for research on European topics. The stories must be relevant to European target groups.

These are projects that have great news value and depth, and at the same time are original, innovative and time-consuming, and would not be realised without financial support. Projects can include cross-border research, networking between colleagues, and established and innovative investigative methods.

Funding Information

• In 2023 there was a total grant budget of €200,000 to distribute over four application rounds.
• Grant Amount: €62,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Cross-border teams of at least two journalists can submit an investigation proposal. These are projects that have great news value and depth, and at the same time are original, innovative and time-consuming, and would not be realised without financial support.
• This grant programme is open to journalists living in continental Europe domiciled in at least two different countries. When relevant for the story, team members from outside Europe can be accepted, too.
• The applicants must be professional journalists (written or audiovisual press). Personal references and/or references to earlier work are essential in that respect. Students are not eligible.
• Only natural persons can apply for a grant.
• The project must be published by at least two professional news outlets in at least two different countries. Letters of intent for publication from at least two professional news outlets are required.
• Investigative journalism published by professional media in any form is eligible, no matter whether print, online, broadcast or cross-media. All journalistic end products qualify for a grant: newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.
• Journalists who were previously allocated a grant by Journalismfund Europe can reapply. The jury will include the result of previous grants in their evaluation of the new application.

Criteria

• The jury will assess the applications based on these criteria:
  • added value compared to mainstream coverage
  • relevance in society
  • newsworthiness
  • quality and originality of research methods and presentation/storytelling
  • feasibility of the investigation, timeline and budget
  • team structure and experience of the applicants
  • work effort requirement
  • cross-border aspect
  • pooling research, capacity and knowledge
  • watchdog of EU institutions, policies and money

For more information, visit Journalismfund Europe.