Call for Proposals: EU Digital Reporting

The Multimedia Actions fund general EU information, news and programmes for the public from European perspectives. These actions aim to increase the visibility of the EU institutions’ work, the decisions taken and the steps involved in building the EU. Consequently, the activities should be designed to enhance citizens’ access to content, enabling them to exercise their right to be informed about EU policies, engage with them and contribute to a more robust European public sphere. All actions and beneficiaries operate with full editorial independence.

For the purpose of this funding, in addition to news content on the main EU institutions, the definition of EU affairs may include:

• general economic, political, and cultural affairs, demonstrating how different EU countries address the same issues;
• regional and national decisions that have the potential to influence opinions on the EU and impact daily lives in other EU countries;
• economic, political, and cultural affairs from individual Member States, illustrating to those living in other countries how issues of common concern are addressed.
• This call targets the provision of diverse, multilingual digital news content across the European Union.

Objectives 

• EU citizens consume information increasingly online. Digital technologies offer new opportunities for debate, but the European information sphere remains fragmented and exposed to media financial challenges and disinformation threats. The call “EU digital reporting” aims to provide citizens with a wide choice of online news content, leveraging Europe’s diversity as an asset for democracy and pluralism.
• The call targets news media organisations and organisations active in the media domain to help them prepare and present digital news content on EU affairs in as many languages and Member States as possible, and potentially on a pan-EU basis. The call has the objective to support media players in.
  • Establishing and/or developing online news platforms across the EU.
  • Enhancing EU citizens’ access to reliable digital information, in particular about EU affairs.

Themes and Priorities (scope) 

• Content Production
  • Applicants should produce news content of pan-European interest, thereby increasing the variety and diversity of factual content accessible to EU citizens. They should contribute to an informed debate and foster a shared European public sphere. Applicants are strongly encouraged to offer the same content in as many EU Member States as possible.
  • Applicants should include original, digital, innovative, participatory, and multilingual formats. Formats can include daily/weekly digital contents (i.e. audiovisual, textual in-depth reporting, debates, news), live coverage, news about the EU institutions’ work and decisions, rich media (images, video, soundbites, infographics, data visualisations, animations, interactive content, maps…), social media posting, usergenerated content, community engagement. Other formats are possible, if relevant to the objectives of the call and duly justified.
  • Applicants must provide definitions of the formats offered and quantify the number of items proposed for each format. They must outline the main formats proposed, including length, frequency, editorial and technical aspects, number of languages and mediums used and production methods. Applicants are encouraged to provide taxonomies of topics illustrating the coverage foreseen by the proposal. They must guarantee that the content proposed is original and, for licensed/curated content, they must prove they have the rights for exploitation, distribution and communication to the public.
  • The proposed content must focus on the European Union and European affairs. Applicants must justify the choices made in terms of expected EU added-value, audience preferences, innovation aspect and costeffectiveness. Applicants should indicate the estimated cost per item of each of the formats presented, in line with the budgetary request.
• Digital distribution 
  • This call focuses on online activities. Applicants should propose dedicated platforms/cross-platforms online, both to guarantee the impact of the proposal’s editorial offering and ensure proper outreach. Applicants are encouraged to develop distribution mediums such as web portals, apps, plug-ins, newsletters, social media, etc., and consider ways to enhance organic direct traffic, rather than hosting the content exclusively on third-party platforms. 3 This content must be fully or at least significantly created specifically for the proposal. It is possible to complement the content offer with curated items. Understood as including adaptations (e.g. translation) to maximise audience reach. All relevant elements should be included in the technical description of the project. This is understood as the final result, as sometimes media use third party sources to deliver their content. In such cases, the proposal must specify which types of third party content are used to deliver the final format.
  • Applicants are encouraged to use innovative digital technologies (AI, data processing, augmented reality, blockchain) and also integrate and optimise the use of readily available, off the shelf technical digital tools (translation modules, AI bots, search engines, crawlers, recommendation systems, user IDs, etc). They must describe in detail the features, functions and capabilities of the technical components underpinning the proposal.
  • Proposals should consider ways to ensure discoverability and sorting, userfriendliness, dissemination of content as well as adequate tools to monitor the impact and audience reach of the project. They should provide cross-device access and a personalised browsing experience to audiences across the Union in a minimum of 6 EU languages. Applicants are encouraged to cover markets where there is limited information on EU affairs.
  • Proposals should provide a provisional visual mock-up of the envisaged platform/s and visual identity foreseen under this project.
• Governance, methods and workflows 
  • Applicants must outline their governance and the editorial and technical arrangements underpinning the proposal. They must include detailed descriptions of the organisation, composition of the teams and multilingual strategy.
  • In terms of editorial workflows, they must show and explain the applicable guidelines and editorial standards. They should indicate how these standards are respected and implemented internally and externally (e.g. through independent analyses of editorial quality) ensuring transparency and/or measures to increase accountability towards the audiences. Applicants will bear editorial responsibility for the content (and, in case of consortia, share this responsibility among the partners). They can draw up editorial guidelines at the start of the project, and must monitor compliance regularly. Finally, applicants should explain their understanding of EU affairs and EU relevance, and must demonstrate the extent to which their editorial arrangements underpin a European perspective (i.e. are appropriate to provide European perspectives8 to audiences across the EU).
  • Applicants need to describe the technical workflows underpinning the production and distribution of the content, including the proposed platforms and tools. Applicants should elaborate on how content would be hosted and under which technical and legal conditions it would be handled and distributed across borders. In all, proposals must demonstrate how the management, editorial and technical teams work together and are adequate to ensure maximum quality and impact.
• Outreach 
  • This call aims to enhance trusted, shared EU public spaces online across the Union. Proposals must work based on online platform/cross-platforms offerings and integrate the outreach aspect in ways that: – maximise audience impact.

Funding Information

• The available call budget is EUR 5000 000.
• The Commission expects to fund two projects. The maximum grant amount per project is set at EUR 2,7 Mio. This is a maximum ceiling, and it does not preclude the submission/selection of a proposal requesting a lower amount.
• The EU co-financing is limited to a maximum co-funding rate of 95% of the total eligible costs.
• Projects should have a duration of between 18 and 24 months.

Eligible Funding Activities

• The following types of activities are eligible under this call:
  • Editorial online projects, content production, curation and dissemination.
  • Coordination and editorial supervision, governance, management, technical and editorial workflows, staff, control systems.
  • Setup, maintenance and/or development of technical delivery, distribution and transmission systems (via digital platforms, websites and tools, etc.).
  • Advertising, promotion, awareness and outreach actions.
  • Data studies and research related to the editorial needs, technical components and audience measurement.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
• Proposals may be submitted by any of the following applicants or combinations of:
  • News media organisations.
  • Other organisations active in the media domain – Technology developers.

For more information, visit European Commission.