Investigative Journalism Publication Support Scheme

Key Information

• Eligibility: Applications must be submitted by teams of journalists and/or news organisations collaborating on cross-border investigative projects on any topic.
• Funding amount: up to €10,000
• Type of funding: Programmatic – Grant funding may be used to cover any costs necessary for the completion and publication of the investigation and production of journalistic content, including salary and human resource costs, research-related costs, translation and travel costs.
• Target countries: Applicants must be based in at least one EU member state OR one official EU candidate country.
• Process/award timelines: EJC will receive and review proposals on a rolling basis until 18 September 2020. Successful applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application within four weeks of the submission of their proposals. Grants will be awarded for a period between 1 and 5 months. 80% of the grant amount will be paid upon signing of the grant agreement;  the remaining 20% will be paid following the submission of a final report by the project team.
• Application languages: English
• Success rate: €200,000 is being provided via the Publication Support Scheme to support at least 32 collaborative projects. In 2018, a total of 63 cross-border teams applied for the fund, and the fund provided 350,000 euros to 12 projects.

Read more about the project here. Full eligibility criteria can be found here.

GFMD Hosted Webinar About the Grant Programme

On May 7^th, 2020, Scott Griffen, Deputy Director of the International Press Institute (IPI) and Kathryn Geels, Programme Director at the European Journalism Centre (EJC) hosted a GFMD member-only webinar focusing on their ongoing Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) grant programme. You can read about the webinar or see the webinar recording here.

The IJ4EU Publication Support scheme provides additional, shorter-term support for the completion of cross-border investigative projects that are already underway. As of 22 July 2020, the following changes have been made to the Publication Support Scheme criteria:

• The maximum grant amount teams can apply for is now €10,000 (it was previously €6,250);
• It is no longer compulsory for teams to be physically based in two different countries. Applying teams can now be based in one EU/EU candidate country, provided that their investigation is of cross-border relevance and will be published in at least two countries (at least one of which must be an EU member state).

€200,000 is being provided via the Publication Support Scheme to support at least 32 collaborative projects with up to €10,000 grant funding each project, for investigations that have already been initiated and in more-advanced stages of development. These are projects that need additional, shorter-term support in order for journalists or news organisations to complete and publish their stories.

The Publication Support scheme operates on a rolling basis. Applications can be submitted anytime between 5 May and 18 September 2020. Applicants can expect a response within four weeks. Grants will be awarded for a period between 1 and 5 months, depending on the nature of the request. The grants can be used to cover salary and human resource costs, research-related costs, translation and travel costs, and other production or reporting costs that are associated with finalising and publishing an investigation.