European Journalism Centre
/OVERVIEW: This funder supports European journalism by providing access to new ideas, techniques, people, and funding.
IP TAKE: While the EJC prioritizes grants for specific European countries, there are opportunities for grant seekers outside Europe to find funding, including journalists based in the United States so long as funded reporting addresses occurrences in one of the EJC’s target countries.
The EJC funds freelancers, but particularly encourages “newsrooms and their employed journalists” to apply; however, “applications from state-owned or directly government-controlled entities are not eligible” nor are The Guardian and Le Monde Afrique, which receive direct support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Furthermore, ineligible media outlets “cannot be considered as primary publication partners, but can be included as part of an application as secondary publication partners alongside other eligible outlets EJC encourage the applicants to seek engagement and collaboration with local reporters on the ground.”
The EJC also clearly states: “Only media outlets from the eligible countries can be considered as primary outlets. Secondary outlets may cater to any other European country, while publications outside Europe are most welcome for supplemental dissemination.
PROFILE: Created in 1992, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) works to reimagine, fund, and strengthen journalism across Europe. As a partner of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EJC seeks to build “a sustainable, ethical and innovative future for journalism through grants, events, training and media development.” Beyond supporting journalists and funders at a time when journalism faces financial divestments, the EJC also works to “build skills, contacts and networks for all (its) grantees that create sustainable ecosystems, partnerships and careers.” The foundation offers several grants to journalists who report on global development, global health, and more general grants to the journalism field.
Many of the European Journalism Centre’s grants are exclusive to European journalists, specifically in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK; however, it does fund some journalists based in the U.S. All of the below areas reflect various kinds of Grants for Journalism. In addition to the journalism grants below, the EJC also offers the European Publishers Longterm Reporting Grants, which address a wide range of topics, including gender equity. This award funds coverage that “takes the form of a dedicated microsite or website sub-page” and offers around “€100k, with an aim to support media outlets to perform thorough research and to develop new, exciting, and experimental reporting, employing state of the art presentation methods and storytelling techniques.” In fact, you can secure Grants for Women and Girls in the journalism space through many of EFC’s grants, provided a story focuses on women and girls, though grantees may be either women or men.
The EJC conducts grantmaking to benefit international development through its Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR), which aims to “advance creative reporting approaches and innovative storytelling techniques around international development issues.” Awards have funded over 140 projects with an impact on millions of readers in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom. The IDR program intends to raise awareness about issues facing international development, such as gender equity, by “enabling the production of stories that have a strong impact on media audiences.” Specifically, the jury seeks a “strong, under-reported story angle.” Awards are not restricted in terms of format, funding work featured in print to virtual reality. However, grantmaking emphasizes projects that demonstrate a “strategic and focused approach to reaching the right audience, at the right time.” This program has so far awarded 4 million euros to over “140 projects involving 365 grantees and 230 media partners” and counting. Further journalism grants that support global development reporting may be found here.
Grants here average about 20,000 euros and are available to either journalists or newsrooms. The EJC frequently announces online when applications are open and you can stay up-to-date through its newsletter. See below for further grantmaking insights.
Grantmaking for Global Health
The EJC funds several awards centered on global health, namely the Global Health Journalism Grant for Germany, which aims to “advance creative reporting approaches, enabling a better coverage of international health, health policy and development related issues in German media.” The EJC conducts similar grantmaking through its Global Health Journalism Grant for France, focused on related issues in French media; however, this latter program may be ending in 2020. So far, EJC has funded 43 journalism projects to report on German media outlets and have won major media outlets in Germany such as Der Spiegel, RTL and n-tv, Geo Magazine, WDR, Die Welt and N24, and Zeit Online.
The Global Health Journalism Grant for France, which appears to be ending in 2020 but may give indications of future funding, works to advance a “new and distinctive agenda for development coverage through the award of funding to a selection of state-of-the-art reporting projects of great impact and high visibility.” The Grant for France must address health issues in developing countries. Past topics have included the “co-operation of European scientists with traditional healers in Africa, mental health of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, and the fight against fake medicine in Kenya and Cameroon.” This grant aims to “raise awareness about global health issues of the general public and of young adults in particular, and to inform and engage influencers and decision makers in government, civil society, industry, and the medical as well as development communities.” It offers between €5,000 and €20,000 per award and can fund “potential travel and technical expenses according to the scope of project.”
Lastly, the COVID-19 Support Fund offers $3 million USD in grants to “support hundreds of community, local and regional European news organizations” by the EJC and the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP). The Fund works to help journalists “provide essential coverage, inform citizens and fight misinformation with minimal resources during the COVID-19 crisis” in support of “community engagement initiatives, address critical business needs, and facilitate innovative journalistic coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Important Grant Details:
Innovative reporting project grant amounts average €20,000. Each program seeks to “advance creative reporting approaches, thus enabling a better coverage of international development issues.” The call for proposals offers a different topic each year, so grant seekers should check the application requirements carefully. Proposed projects should reach media audiences in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and proposed stories must report on one of the world’s least developed countries. The list of past grantees and their funded projects is useful and new grant seekers should look it over before applying online.
Grant applications are open to both freelance journalists and employed newsroom staff. Awards do not restrict grants based on “citizenship, nationality or residence/location (…) as long as the final results are published in relevant media organisations* with significant reach to audiences” in its target countries. Funded stories may also be published in any of the official languages of the EJC’s 5 target countries. The EJC also has several requirements for what kind of journalistic coverage it will fund, so read it’s complex website closely.
The EJC offers clear ways to apply for grants through its website. Grantseekers can contact the foundation with questions at info@europeanjournalism.fund.
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