Call for Proposals: Boosting Fact-Checking Activities in Europe

Objectives

• Independent fact-checking organisations play a key role in limiting the negative effects of disinformation on the public discourse and democratic processes. In addition to raising public awareness about concrete disinformation cases, their work feeds into mainstream news, media literacy practices and research, thereby entailing a strong multiplier effect.

Priorities

• This Call aims at strengthening the European fact-checking ecosystem by focusing on two priority actions:
  • Urgent Actions: projects designed to increase coverage, depth, and speed of factchecking activities by organisations that commit to producing regular flows of fact-checks:
    • in connection to critical events (e.g., elections, public health or public security crises, etc.), which may be likely targets of disinformation campaigns in one or more European countries; and/or
    • aimed at improving the detection and understanding of disinformation narratives in topical areas of public interest (e.g., climate change, economic recovery, immigration, geopolitical issues, EU policies, etc.) within relevant information environments (local/national/European).
  • Scale-up Projects: free-lance collaborations within newsrooms and/or the integration of state-of-the-art technologies for content verification and media and social media monitoring. This Call encourages projects:
    • involving structured and time-framed, free-lance collaborations with specialist staff (journalists, but also subject-matter experts or data analysts) to enhance diversity and bring complementary skills and innovative approaches in fact checking organisations, as well as best factchecking practices in newsrooms, thereby paving the way for more stable job opportunities and expanding journalistic coverage around topics of public interest that may be actual or potential targets of disinformation campaigns; and/or
    • involving the licensing or acquisition of adequate online content verification technologies and network analysis tools, which are instrumental for scaling-up and improving the efficiency of debunking activities, notably in view of the increasingly sophisticated information manipulation tactics and techniques employed in disinformation campaigns.

Funding Information

• Urgent Actions: € 55,000
• Scale-up Projects: € 80,000

Duration

• Urgent Actions: 6 months
• Scale-up Projects: 12 months

Eligible Activities

• The following types of activities are eligible for both priorities:
  • journalistic investigations and fact-checking activities;
  • production of original content in the form of articles (fact-checks);
  • awareness and dissemination actions, including conferences, seminars, events;
  • actions aiming at the creation and improvement of networks, exchanges of good practices, and uptake of innovative methodologies and relevant technologies.

Expectations

• The projects funded under this Call are expected to:
  • raise public awareness and empower diverse readerships in different European countries to critically assess news and information accessed through different media, notably online;
  • facilitate the creation of a European network of independent fact-checking organisations;
  • foster knowledge-sharing between fact-checking organisations, civil society, researchers, media outlets and online platforms;
  • stimulate innovation in fact-checking organisations, newsrooms and improvement of journalistic skills;
  • help reduce the impact in Europe of disinformation campaigns, including foreign interference and influence operations carried out outside Europe.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants shall be legal entities employing fact-checkers and abiding by recognised ethical and professional standards (e.g., Code of Principles of the International Fact Checking Network, deontological Codes for the Journalistic Profession applicable in their country of establishment, European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity).
• Proposals from individual entities are eligible if submitted by:
  • Small-sized independent fact-checking and news media organisations with up to 50 employees, and up to € 10 million turnover or € 10 million total balance sheet;
  • Non-governmental Organisations;
  • Universities;
  • Research centres;
  • Educational institutions;
  • Non-profit organisations.
• Only applications from legal entities and consortium members established in the EU, EFTA or UK are eligible.
• Specific tasks may be subcontracted out to entities or natural persons irrespective of their place of establishment.

For more information, visit EMIF.