Grants of up to €130,000 available for solutions-focused journalism

A more-balanced, solutions-focused journalism can not only strengthen civic engagement but also help media outlets meet the real needs of their communities, which is key to their financial sustainability.

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

Ten projects were already awarded under the first call under the Solutions Journalism Accelerator in 2022. With the second call launching now, eight proposals will be selected to receive grant funding of up to €130,000 and mentorship support for solutions-focused development journalism.

About the programme

The Solutions Journalism Accelerator aims at delivering grant funding, mentoring, coaching, resources and knowledge transfer to support solutions-focused development journalism in European news organisations.

Its mission is 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.

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.

You can learn more about the programme’s vision here.

When we say solutions journalism we mean…

Rigorous and evidence-based reporting that primarily focuses on responses to societal problems.

We define solutions journalism as a practice that investigates and explains, in a critical and clear-eyed way, how people try to solve widely shared problems.

While journalists usually define news as ‘what’s gone wrong’, solutions journalism tries to expand this notion by emphasising that ‘what works’ is also newsworthy. By adding rigorous, evidence-based coverage of solutions, journalists can tell the whole story.

Who can apply

The Call is for opinion-forming media organisations based in and/or have significant reach to audiences across France, Germany or the United Kingdom.

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.

How to apply

The deadline for applications for the Solutions Journalism Accelerator is Tuesday the 21st of February 2023 at 18:00 CET. Applications must be submitted, in English, via the EJC’s online grants application platform. Creating an account is free of charge.

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 EJC will administer grant awards independently from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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

Do you have questions?

The Call for Applications documentation details all aspects of the grant funding available for media organisations.If you have questions that are not answered in the Call for Applications document or FAQs, you can contact us at info@soljoaccelerator.com.

You can also join the AMA (‘Ask Me Anything’) session via Zoom. The session will be at 11:00 CET, Thursday 2 February 2023. To attend the session, please follow the Zoom link here or add to your calendar.

To keep up to date about the Solutions Journalism Accelerator, including for other strands of the programme such as the Ambassador Network and publication of resources, sign up to the mailing list.