CFPs: Boosting Fact Checking Activities in Europe

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
  • Maximum grant per project: € 55,000.00
  • Maximum duration per project (months): 6
• Scale-up Project:
  • Maximum grant per project: € 80,000.00
  • Maximum duration per project (months): 12

Eligibility Criteria  

• Applicants shall be legal entities employing fact-checkers and abiding by recognized 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).
• Should an applicant not be a signatory to any code, it should explain how it ensures defacto adherence to the ethical and professional standards applicable to the type of activities carried out by its organization.
• Proposals from individual entities are eligible if submitted by:
  • Small-sized independent fact-checking and news media organizations with up to 50 employees, and up to € 10 million turnover or € 10 million total balance sheet;
  • Non-governmental Organizations;
  • Universities;
  • Research centers;
  • Educational institutions;
  • Non-profit organizations.
• Proposals from consortia are eligible if submitted by:
  • any of the entities mentioned above under points
  • news media organizations, including for-profit entities of any status or size, on condition that the consortium also integrate one or more entities mentioned above points
• 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 European Media & Information Fund.