NOFO: Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (Serbia)

Grant activities may take any number of forms, including the production of print, broadcast or digital media content; app or website development; or other creative undertakings. It may also include reporting tours, cross-border exchanges, courses, seminars, speakers’ series, workshops, or other training and educational activities aimed at journalists, analysts, and/or media commentators.

Program Objectives 

• This program aims to counter FIMI in Serbia by providing Serbian news and information consumers with objective, fact-based reporting on issues that are frequently the subject of FIMI campaigns, including but not limited to:
  • U.S.-Serbia relations, including economic and security cooperation
  • Serbia’s relationship with, and potential future membership in, European and EuroAtlantic institutions, including the EU and NATO
  • Serbia’s economic integration with other countries of the Western Balkans region and with the European Union
  • Serbia-Russia relations, historically and in the present
  • Serbia-PRC relations
  • Serbia’s relations with its neighbors

Funding Information

• Total available funding: $200,000
• Award amounts: Awards may range from a minimum of $20,000 to a maximum of $75,000
• Length of performance period: Up to 18 months
• Number of awards anticipated: Up to 10

Participants and Audiences 

• For projects involving content production, audiences should be a specific, targeted segment of the broader audience of news and information consumers in Serbia.
• For projects involving reporting tours, exchanges, or educational activities, audiences can include journalists, media editors and managers, students and teachers/professors of journalism, journalists’ professional associations, and non-profit organizations. Applicants should also explain how engaging these groups will translate into better information for Serbian audiences vulnerable to FIMI.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants: The following entities, from Serbia or from the United States, are eligible to apply:
  • Media outlets and production houses, including for-profit media companies
  • Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/nongovernmental organizations
  • Journalists’ professional associations
  • Departments of journalism at Serbian public universities
• To be eligible for consideration, every Serbia-based applicant organization must be registered in the territory of the Republic of Serbia with the Agencija za privredne registre (APR), or a relevant court.

Funding Restrictions

• You may not apply for a grant from PDS if your project:
  • involves partisan political activity;
  • involves charitable activities and/or the distribution of humanitarian aid;
  • is a fundraising campaign;
  • is commercial in nature, i.e., you or a project partner are making money from this project, or the activity supports a current or future business or entrepreneurial venture.
  • involves the provision of health care or services, childcare, food subsidies, or other social services to populations.

For more information, visit U.S. Embassy in Serbia.