Journalism, and investigative journalism in particular, functions as a watchdog to power and is a pillar of open, democratic societies. IJ4EU’s purpose is to foster and strengthen collaboration among EU-based journalists and news organisations by providing them with grant funding, coaching, training, expert support and networking opportunities. The initiative’s objectives rest on four key pillars: funding, support, independence and inclusivity.

The IJ4EU initiative is co-funded as a Preparatory Action by the European Commission (DG Connect). It is also supported by a grant from the Foundation Open Society Institute in cooperation with the Program on Independent Journalism of the Open Society Foundations, by the Fritt Ord Foundation and by Luminate.

IJ4EU is managed by a consortium led by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), together with the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and the Germany-based European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).

As a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis, communities across Europe are also facing a crisis of information. This situation is also testing the limits of community, local and regional media’s already fragile resilience. However, journalists have a vital role to play in supporting important information needs at this time. With support from the European Journalism COVID-19 Support Fund, they can continue delivering services and mitigate challenges related to financial sustainability during the COVID-19 crisis.

Our mission is to protect news organisations and journalists that are supporting the most affected communities across Europe. Our grants will help them provide essential coverage, inform citizens and fight misinformation with minimal resources during the COVID-19 crisis.

The purpose of the Fund is to provide core funding to support community engagement initiatives, address critical business needs, and facilitate innovative journalistic coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR) aims to advance creative reporting approaches and innovative storytelling techniques around international development issues. So far we’ve funded over 140 projects with a strong impact on millions of readers in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Our grants are not just about the money. We build skills, contacts and networks for all our grantees that create sustainable ecosystems, partnerships and careers. At a time when many media organisations face financial constraints, these grants enable funders and journalists to make a difference.

The IDR programme aims to raise awareness about development issues by enabling the production of stories that have a strong impact on media audiences. The jury look for a strong, under-reported story angle. Regardless of innovative format, whether it is via print or virtual reality, awarded projects will also demonstrate a strategic and focused approach to reaching the right audience, at the right time.

The European Development Journalism Grants programme enables media organisations with audiences in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom to go beyond their usual reporting approaches and set a new and distinctive agenda for development coverage.

From globally-renowned media to investigative journalism initiatives, grantees demonstrate an innovative and impactful approach. Focus is on Least Developed Countries and they inform communities about global issues and connections by reporting on topics related to the first six Sustainable Development Goals like health, food, education, gender and poverty.

Awarded media organisations include CNN Global (UK), Dagens Nyheter (SE), De Correspondent (NL), De Volkskrant (NL), Euronews (FR), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (DE), Die Welt (DE), New Internationalist (UK), Spiegel Online (DE), The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (UK), Vanity Fair (FR) and VPRO (NL).

The coverage takes the form of a dedicated microsite or website sub-page. Innovative approaches are awarded 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.

Global Health Journalism Grant for Germany aims to advance creative reporting approaches, enabling a better coverage of international health, health policy and development related issues in German media. The grant intends to raise awareness about these topics in connection with German global health activities by supporting the production of stories that have a strong impact on media audiences in Germany.

From September 2016, when the first call was launched, until November 2019, 43 journalistic projects have been funded to report on global health in major German media outlets. Winning projects have received endorsement from major media outlets in Germany such as Der Spiegel, RTL and n-tv, Geo Magazine, WDR, Die Welt and N24, and Zeit Online.

The project rewards quality journalism and advances 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 awarded projects address a variety of health issues in developing countries. Topics include 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.

Another approximately 12 projects will be awarded and implemented in another round of applications open until early 2020.

Since 2018, the EJC has been running a similar Global Health Grant Programme for France, with 23 projects funded so far.

The Global Health Journalism Grant Programme aims to advance innovative reporting on global health topics in developing countries in French media.

The goal of the grant is 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. The grants are worth between €5,000 and €20,000 each - including potential travel and technical expenses according to the scope of project.

The grant programme, worth a total of €400,000, aims to advance creative reporting approaches, enabling a better coverage of international health, health policy and development related issues in French media. The European Journalism Centre has awarded 23 projects already and will grant around another 8 stipends to freelance and staff journalists in the course of this programme. This last call will end in February 2020.

This project is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since 2016, the EJC has been running a similar Global Health Grant Programme for Germany, with 43 projects funded so far.

The New Arrivals is a collaborative journalism project that brings together El País (ES), The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (FR) and Spiegel Online (DE) to report on migration to Europe.

Over a period of 18 months, these four media outlets have embedded themselves inside newly-arrived families and communities. In each they illustrate their integration challenges, their humanitarian situation, their professional aspirations, and the impact of their arrival on both the host and the home countries.

The European Journalism Centre, via a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, supports this reporting. The four publishers have been using longform journalism, photography, documentaries, social video and data to tell their stories. Facebook Live and Snapchat have been used to drive engagement with new demographics in new ways.

In additional to the original reporting, the four media outlets have translated and contributed to each other’s articles, studying and comparing different scenarios for migrants and refugees within the four countries.