Entries open for European Local Cross-border Grants

The grant programme will be open for teams of local investigative journalists and/or local media outlets from at least two different European countries who have good ideas for a local cross-border investigation. For example: journalists and/or news outlets from different comparable cities investigate how their cities cope with e.g. housing, waste, tourism, mobility, etc. This programme will:

• Stimulate local journalists and (small) news outlets to conduct investigative journalism and learn from colleagues in other countries, creating a European network of local (investigative) journalists in the long run.
• Stimulate local journalists and news outlets to compare with other regions and cities in other countries that face similar problems or challenges, which are eminently European issues.
• Increase the dissemination, reach and impact of local investigative journalism.

Funding Information

• In 2024 the total grant budget is €475,000 to distribute over four application rounds.

Eligible Cost

• A grant can cover two types of costs:
  • Working time of the journalists to conduct their investigation.
  • Expenses:
    • Direct investigation expenses such as travel, visa, accommodation, translation, fixers, access to pay-databases, freedom of information (FOI) requests, legal screening, insurance, etc.
    • Following expenses cannot be covered by the grants: overhead, office costs, investments goods (such as IT hardware, mobile phones, cameras, software), production costs, recoverable VAT, food and beverage, per diems.
    • Grantees must minimize unnecessary travel, particularly air travel. Their policy is to only make essential trips and to champion alternative ways of collaborating with others. This saves time and money, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions (that contribute to global heating). They ask that their grantees do the same for the work that they fund and report to them on the air travel they make.
    • The grant can only cover costs for research, not for production.

Eligibility Criteria

• Local Cross-Border investigative teams of at least two journalists and/or media outlets can submit a proposal for local journalistic investigations in Europe. These are local projects that have great news value and depth, and at the same time are original, innovative and time-consuming, and would not be realized without financial support.
• This grant programme is open to local journalists/media outlets domiciled in at least two different countries. When relevant for the story, team members from outside Europe can be accepted, too. At least 80% of your requested budget should go to journalists/media from EU countries.
• The applicants must be professional freelance journalists and/or media outlets. Personal references and/or references to earlier work are essential in that respect. Students are not eligible. Media outlets must be legal entities officially incorporated at least one year before the application deadline of the grant call.
• The investigation proposal must concern local cross-border investigative journalism. The aim of this grant programme is to stimulate local journalists and media outlets to compare with other regions and cities in other countries that face similar problems or challenges, which are eminently European issues.
• The result of the investigation must be published by at least two professional media outlets in at least two different European countries. Letters of intent (LOI) for publication from at least two professional media outlets are required.
• Journalists who were previously allocated a grant by Journalismfund Europe can reapply. The jury will include the result of previous grants in their evaluation of the new application.
• Investigative journalism published by professional local media in any form is eligible, no matter whether print, online, broadcast or cross-media. All journalistic end products qualify for a grant: newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.
• All relevant topics are eligible. However, if your investigation proposal concerns the environment, please turn to their Investigation Grants for Environmental Journalism.

Assessment Criteria

• The jury will assess the applications based on the following criteria:
  • added value compared to mainstream coverage
  • relevance for the thematic focus of this programme
  • quality of research methods and presentation/storytelling
  • feasibility of the investigation, timeline and budget
  • team structure and experience of the applicants
  • work effort requirement
  • cross-border aspect
  • pooling research capacity and knowledge
  • watchdog of institutions, policies and money
• 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.