To enable media organisations across Europe to carry out solutions-focused development journalism, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) is partnering with the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) to provide more than USD $4m in grants, mentoring, coaching, resources and knowledge transfer in the coming three years.

About the programme

Since 2013 the EJC has financially supported more than 200 journalism projects reporting on global challenges. Development journalism — the production and distribution of vital information that attempts to document the socio-economic conditions within disadvantaged societies, so that larger and global audiences understand them — has been at the root of EJC’s grant-giving initiatives.

And increasingly we have recognised that solutions-focused and community-focused approaches to such journalism are not only beneficial for media organisations but also for more impactful reporting outcomes.

Based on all of our learnings, the Solutions Journalism Accelerator was created to achieve the following:

Purpose: The Solutions Journalism Accelerator is a programme delivering grant funding, mentoring, coaching, resources and knowledge transfer to support solutions-focused development journalism in European news organisations.

Mission: To create demonstrable impact on the public, key stakeholders and the media landscape through raising awareness of, and enabling media organisations to undertake more, solutions-focused development journalism.

Vision: To inspire and enable all media organisations in Europe to build resilience through creating greater public awareness, critical understanding and positive social change about urgent global issues.

Call for Applications

Today we are launching a Call for Applications aimed at opinion-forming media organisations based in and/or have significant reach to audiences across France, Germany or the United Kingdom. This strand of the Accelerator is providing grants of up to €130,000 together with bespoke mentoring and coaching for each grantee.

Grant funding

Individual media organisations or consortiums of up to two media organisations will be awarded up to €130,000 to help them deliver one comprehensive solutions-focused development journalism project comprising a 12-month reporting period.

Mentoring

During the Accelerator, grantees will have access to mentors and coaches in order to help them effectively deliver their project objectives, develop skills, knowledge and confidence within project teams, and implement a solutions journalism approach to their stories.

Each grantee will be matched with a dedicated mentor(s) that will provide monthly, online, hands-on expertise, resources and advice. Mentors will be matched with grantees based on the needs of the project team/ project objectives.

Coaching

Grantees will also be provided with group-based coaching on specific topics, concepts or challenges during two, full-day, in-person bootcamps.

The Solutions Journalism Network team will also contribute their expertise to the mentoring and coaching of grantees to ensure project teams are confident, equipped and able to fully employ a solutions journalism approach to their published stories during the Accelerator and beyond.

How to apply

The application deadline is 18:00 CEST / 17:00 BST Friday 6 May 2022. Applications must be submitted, in English, via the EJC’s online grants application platform. Creating an account is free of charge, and after logging in, applicants should select the ‘Solutions Journalism Accelerator’ option in the website menu.

The Call for Applications documentation, which includes the full eligibility criteria, conditions of the grant and selection criteria can be found here.