€102,000 available in grants for solutions-focused journalism projects

This Call will provide grants of up to €8,500 per project and is aimed at journalists publishing stories in opinion-forming media organisations across France, Germany, and the UK. There is no citizenship, nationality or residence/ location restriction on the applicants.

Who can apply:

This Call is for individual journalists (freelance or employed) or for small teams of journalists who are experienced in development reporting.

Conditions of the grant:

• The project directly addresses one or more of the first six Sustainable Development Goals
• The project focuses on the Global South and/or its development relations with key European donor countries
• Solutions journalism must be the overarching approach used for the story/stories 
• The funded story must be published in an opinion-forming media organisation (and preferably more than one) that is based in and/or has significant reach to audiences in one or more of the following target countries: France, Germany, and the UK. 

The published story must be either one comprehensive long-form story or a series of stories.

A recent Reuters Institute survey shows that 36% of the examined news consumers actively avoid the news due to a lack of trust and engagement. News-avoiders are more interested in positive or solutions-based journalism and less interested in the big stories of the day.

Based on that finding there’s an important role to play for the media to counter intentional news avoidance.

The aim of this more balanced approach to journalism is to underline that audiences are not simply passive consumers of the news, but they can engage with answers and collectively create a world in which hope is possible. It replaces their feeling of helplessness and stress with a feeling of belonging and a sense of being able to make a difference in society.

“The idea [of solutions journalism] is not to change minds; it’s to show possibilities.”

-Claudia Rowe

How to apply:

• The application deadline is Friday, 5 April, at 17.00 CEST.
• Applications need to be submitted in English through the EJC’s online grants application platform
• Applications can be submitted by ‘Lead Applicants’ who are individual freelance journalists, individual staff journalists, or freelance journalists or staff journalists submitting on behalf of a team.
• The applications awarded funding will need to meet the eligibility criteria and conditions of the grant and will also be shortlisted by an independent jury on the basis of the best, most compelling match to specific selection criteria.
• The Call for Applications documentation, which includes the full conditions of the grant and selection criteria and the FAQs, can be found here.

Do you have further questions?

If you have questions that are not answered in the Call for Applications document or FAQs, please email solutionsjournalism@ejc.net.

You can also join the AMA (‘Ask Me Anything’) session on 21 March via Zoom at 11:00 CET at this link. You can also add the event to your calendar.