Pascal Decroos Fund for investigative journalism in Dutch media

• Eligibility Criteria: Both early-career and experienced journalists may apply. Applicants must submit a project whose results will be published in a Dutch-language medium in Belgium.
• Type of Funding: Grant
• Target Region: Belgium
• Application Language: English

The Journalismfund Europe is inviting applications for its Pascal Decroos Fund to advance investigative journalism in Dutch-language media in Belgium. These are projects that are newsworthy and in-depth. In addition, they should be original, innovative, and time-consuming projects that would not be realised without financial support.

Thematics

• Projects should have focus on topics relevant for Flanders and must be published in a Dutch-language medium in Belgium.
• Applicants with more than two years of experience must provide a letter of intent for publication from at least one professional news outlet.
• For early-career journalists, a letter of intent is considered an advantage but is not mandatory.
• All journalistic end products qualify for support, including newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.

Eligibility

• Early-career and experienced journalists both can submit a project that cannot be realised through the normal channels of journalism, has major news value/depth and is also original, innovative and time-consuming.
• The applicant must be a journalist with a written or audio-visual press, or be able to prove that they aspire a career in journalism. In this case, personal references and/or references to earlier work are considered essential.
• Only natural persons can apply for a grant.

What the grant offers

In 2026, the fund will distribute €270,000 across four application rounds. This equals approximately €67,500 per round. The funding is subsidised by the Flemish government.

Eligible expenses

• Travel, visa, and accommodation costs
• Translation services
• Fixers
• Access to paid databases
• FOI requests
• Legal screening
• Research time is eligible only for freelance journalists.

Ineligible expenses

• Investment goods (such as IT equipment or cameras)
• Office costs
• Production costs
• Food and beverages
• Per diems

How to apply

Applicants must submit their application through the online application form. Before applying, they should review the full grant details on the fund’s website. The application form will request the following information:

• Personal details
• Project description
• Information on the dissemination of the story
• A detailed budget

Applicants should have the following documents ready:

• Copy of your ID (for Belgian residents) or passport
• CV
• letter(s) of intent of (a) Flemish media outlet(s) (for journalists with less than 2 years of experience this is not a formal requirement)
• A detailed budget (please use this budget template)

The deadline for the current (2nd) round of funding is Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 1 pm CET.

Deadline for third round: 6 August 2026 at 1 pm CET.
Deadline for fourth round: 1 October 2026 at 1 pm CET.

For more information, please vist this page.