Environmental Investigative Journalism Grants

• Eligibility Criteria: Cross-border teams of at least professional journalists and/or news outlets both within and beyond Europe, investigating regulation-related environmental relevant to European interests.
• Type of Funding: Grant
• Region: Global
• Application Language: English

Journalismfund Europe’s Environmental Investigative Journalism grant is meant to support to cross-border teams of professional journalists and/or news outlets covering issues related to geographical 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 places.

The Environmental Investigative Journalism programme supports investigations of illegal, unreported, and unregulated environmental issues linked to European interests. The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported investigations is €400,000.

Eligibility 

• Cross-border teams of at least two journalists and/or news outlets can submit proposals for a journalistic investigation about an environmental issue.
• Applicants must be legally residing/registered in at least two different countries to receive funding.
• The applicants must be professional journalists or registered media companies. In this case, personal references and links to earlier work are essential.
• News outlets must be legal entities officially incorporated at least 12 months prior to the application deadline.
• The investigation proposal must concern cross-border environmental investigative journalism on European affairs — in or outside Europe. Theinvestigation has to be of relevance for the European audience.
• Next to investigations into environmental issues that transcend borders, this grant can also support comparative investigations into local environmental issues and policies between two or more countries, regions or cities.
• 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.
• Applicants must read the Environmental Investigative Journalism grant rules and eligibility criteria and Journalismfund Europe’s General Grant Rules before applying.

What the grant offers

• The grant offers financial assistance covering costs related to working time and a range of expenses. These may include logistics, insurance, legal support, as well as access to technology and data sets.
• In addition to funding, teams can get support from a mentor.

How to apply

After a one-time registration with their email address, applicants can access the online application form. The form will ask applicants to provide the following:

• team members’ details
• Information about the intended investigation
• Information about the intended publication channels, including letters of intent from news outlets
• A detailed budget, according to this budget template.

The programme will have three rounds of funding in 2026. Applicants shall send proposals for the current cycle by 23 April 2026 at 1 pm CET (Brussels time).

For more information, please visit this page.