CFAs: Environmental Investigative Journalism Grant Program

While news media and newsrooms still predominantly operate nationally, most power structures and societal and environmental problems transcend national boundaries. This grant programme is therefore aimed at cross-border teams of investigative journalists and newsrooms to investigate and document illegal, unreported and unregulated abuse of nature that involves European affairs in and outside Europe.

Next to investigations of environmental issues that transcend borders, this programme can also support and stimulate investigations that compare local environmental issues and policies between two or more regions or cities. The grants can also offer support to preliminary work in the development of new investigative projects.

The grant can cover working time and expenses such as logistics, travel, insurance, access to legal support, translations, access to technology and data sets. This is part of a larger programme: The Earth Investigations Programme supported by Arcadia.

Funding Information

• The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported investigations will be around €400,000. The total budget for 2024 is €1,600,000.

Grant Conditions

• The grantees and all other persons involved in the project have to endorse the principles of the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists as well as the national codes of ethics that are in force.
• Every grantee signs an Agreement with Journalismfund Europe that states the mutual arrangements and conditions.
• Grants are paid in two instalments: the first (2/3) upon signature of the Agreement, the second (1/3) after publication of the project and submission and approval of the financial report and supporting documents.
• Grants are paid in euro. They are only paid out on the bank accounts of the grantees, not via other money transfer services. Any bank charges for international payments are carried by Journalismfund Europe, except for exchange rates.
• Any journalistic product that is the result of the supported project explicitly has to mention the support from Journalismfund Europe.

Eligibility criteria

• Cross-border teams of at least two journalists and/or news outlets can submit a proposal for a journalistic investigation about an issue that concerns the environment. Only applicants who are legally residing in at least two different countries are permitted to receive funding.
• The applicants must be professional freelance journalists or news outlets. Personal references and/or references to earlier work are essential in that respect.
• News outlets must be legal entities officially incorporated at least one year before the application deadline of the grant call.
• The investigation proposal must concern cross-border environmental investigative journalism on European affairs — in or outside Europe. This means that the investigation has (also) to be of relevance for Europe.
• Next to investigations into environmental issues that transcend borders, this grant can also support e.g. comparative investigations into local environmental issues and policies between two or more countries, regions, cities, etc.
• The result of the investigation must be published by at least two professional news outlets in at least two different countries, one of which must be in Europe. 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, whether print, online, broadcast or cross-media. Your investigation can be published as newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.

Assessment Criteria

• The jury will assess the applications based on these criteria:
  • Environmental angle
  • Added value compared to mainstream coverage
  • Feasibility
  • Experience of the applicants
  • Work effort requirement
  • Cross-border research and stories
  • Networking between countries, pooling research capacity and knowledge
  • Watchdog of institutions, policies, money
  • Audience engagement strategy
  • Quality and rationality of the budget
  • Necessity of (co-)funding
• Finally, the jury will also take into consideration the variety within the global selection of granted projects. This means diversity in terms of:
  • region (both regarding stories and team members)
  • topics
  • methods and approaches
  • publication forms
  • team composition

For more information, visit Journalismfund Europe.