This funding initiative helps cross-border teams of professional journalists and/or news outlets investigate environmental issues in continental Europe. This is part of a broader project called the Earth Investigations Programme, which is funded by Arcadia.
While most news organizations and newsrooms still work on a national scale, most power structures and societal and environmental issues transcend national boundaries. As a result, this award initiative is aimed at cross-border teams of investigative journalists and newsrooms to investigate and expose unlawful, unreported, and uncontrolled exploitation of nature involving European concerns in and outside of Europe.
In addition to inquiries into transnational environmental concerns, this program can assist and inspire comparative investigations into local environmental challenges and policies between two or more areas or cities.
The grants can also offer support to preliminary work in the development of new investigative projects.
The grant can cover working time and expenses such as logistics, travel, insurance, access to legal support, translations, access to technology and data sets, etc.
Next to financial support, teams can also apply for an experienced mentor to provide assistance with either the focus of the investigation or the need for competences in a specific skill.
Funding:
The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported investigations will be around €400.000. But in the next round we have a budget of €800.000 available.
Eligibility:
- Cross-border teams of at least two professional journalists and/or news outlets can submit a proposal for a journalistic investigation about an issue that concerns the environment and relates to Europe.
- Only applicants who are legally residing in at least two different countries are permitted to receive funding.
Application:
1. Before you start, please consult the grant details, where you can find the rules, eligibility and assessment criteria, timing etc.
2. After a one-time registration with your email address, you can access our online application form. You can freely navigate through the form to see which information you need to provide in your application. This includes:
- 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 our budget template
You will also be asked to upload some administrative documents.
One team member can start a draft application. He or she can then invite multiple people to collaborate on the online draft. The online application-in-progress can be saved and further edited at any time.
