Call for Proposals: Media and Information Literacy for Societal Resilience

The present Call for Proposals establishes specific provisions regulating the process of applying for funding of initiatives aimed at increasing the level of media literacy in Europe by stimulating effective cooperation among educational institutions, academia, media literacy organisations, civil society, media outlets, fact-checkers and online platforms.

Objectives

• The key aim of this Call is to support initiatives that enhance digital media and information literacy skills in targeted European countries or regions by improving all technical, cognitive, social, civic and creative capacities that allow citizens to access the media, to have a critical understanding of it and to interact with it.
• As citizens increasingly access news through social media and other online platforms, in addition to traditional media, this Call is specifically aimed at projects that can demonstrably empower citizens by strengthening their ability to think critically, assess the trustworthiness of information accessed or shared through social media, fully understand the mechanisms that shape online interactions amongst social media users, and take part in the public discourse in a responsible and meaningful way.
• Grants provided under this Call will fund initiatives aimed at:
  • Identifying and testing robust and innovative pedagogic approaches, built on best practices, or
  • Scaling up previous experiences with a successful track-record, notably by extending their scope to new geographies or demographic groups, or
  • Leveraging outcomes of on-going initiatives to maximise societal impact and benefits, and longer-term perspectives for a given geography or demographic group, or
  • Fostering the adoption professional standards for media literacy practitioners at national level, taking into account in particular the regulatory framework set out under the Audio-visual Media Services Directive.
• Applicants are invited to present proposals that can achieve a strong multiplier effect, which may aim to:
  • Establish standards of good practice in (digital) media literacy that can be adopted and promoted across the media literacy ecosystem, in light of the rapidly increasing number of diverse (digital) media literacy initiatives across Europe. Such standards should rely on clear theoretical frameworks and metrics reflecting both the effectiveness of approaches to media literacy and media literacy level among the publics.
  • Design and deliver appropriate, replicable trainings/training materials to school teachers and/or educators active in non- formal education contexts, based on critical analysis of the diverse pedagogic approaches being implemented across Europe to improve societal resilience against disinformation, the identification of effective approaches and the implementation of best practices across linguistic, state and cultural borders.

Funding Information and Duration

• Maximum grant per project: € 400 000.
• Maximum duration per project: 18 months.

Eligible Projects

The projects funded under this call are expected to:

• Develop scalable and sustainable actions, which are adaptable and transferrable across linguistic, state or cultural borders, and so designed as to effectively increase the level of media and information literacy in Europe, and/or at level of individual European countries;
• Establish clear theoretical frameworks on which to ground future media literacy projects or policy recommendations;
• Implement advanced pedagogic approaches that spur methodological innovation within and across European media literacy communities of practice;
• Improve public knowledge on how disinformation is created and spread in Europe and/or at level of individual European countries;
• Foster knowledge-sharing between researchers, media outlets, fact-checking organisations, civil society, and online platforms.

Eligible Activities

• Activities may be developed at local, regional, national, or international levels across the territory of the EU, EFTA and the UK. Cross-border activities within the EU, EFTA and the UK territories are eligible.
• The following types of activities are eligible:
  • Production, distribution and adaptation to different linguistic and cultural contexts of original educational materials, including fact-checked news repositories and interactive educational tools, to improve the capacities of citizens to acquire a critical understanding of, and ability to interact with media and social media;
  • Training activities, as well as awareness-raising campaigns or actions, including conferences, seminars, events;
  • Development of innovative information/pedagogical tools improving the understanding of systemic risks of digital media ecosystems and fostering a critical use of digital media;
  • Identification of best practices and efficient dissemination of the material created by the project;
  • Promotion of social media campaigns and other relevant activities aimed at helping citizens to interact with digital media in a critical way.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants
  • To be eligible, any proposal must be submitted by a group of at least two legal entities (partnership or consortia). The maximum number of partners in partnership of a consortium applying for the grant has not been defined by EMIF and is to be decided by applicant.
  • The following types of organisations may apply and be funded as Lead Applicants or members of the consortium:
    • Non-profit organisations, including public service media
    • Universities
    • Educational institutions
    • Research centres
    • Non-governmental organisations
    • Media literacy organisations
  • Only applications submitted by legal entities established in the EU, EFTA or the UK are eligible. Organisations based in other countries may be part of a consortium, but their activities are not funded.
  • Specific tasks may be subcontracted out to entities or natural persons irrespective of their place of establishment.
  • Natural persons may be part of a consortium, but a natural person cannot lead the project. Activities and expenses pertaining to natural persons shall be allocated to the Lead Applicant.

For more information, visit European Media and Information Fund.