IJ4EU fund awards €102,000 to freelance journalists for cross-border investigations

An independent jury has chosen six teams from across Europe to participate in the first round of the European Journalism Centre’s IJ4EU Freelancer Support Scheme, offering grants, mentorship, training and networking opportunities.

Designed for journalists working outside of newsroom structures, the scheme allows freelancers to collaborate on cross-border investigations on topics of interest to audiences across Europe and beyond.

The awarded projects

An independent external jury has awarded €102,000 in grants to the following projects (in no particular order):

• An investigation by a team of journalists from the Czech Republic, Italy and Greece, exploring the link between surveillance policies, artificial intelligence and corporate interest in the EU — €20,000.00
• A cross-border team of 3 freelance journalists will investigate the reuse of EU subventions provided to European industries — €19,080.00
• Two freelance journalists based in Poland and Spain will investigate the impact of the wall constructed on the Polish-Belarusian border, exploring angles such as migration policy, impact on the local population, criminalisation of humanitarian aid and the cross-border impact of the wall on the environmental level — €15,600.00
• With satellite and radar data, Vertical52 want to analyse, forensically prove and globally map the environmental, political and social long-term consequences of lithium mining — €17,542.50
• An investigative project on the abuse linked to the provision of palm oil and rubber to the European market from Western Africa — €20,000.00
• A cross-border investigation exposing how a shadow banking system is enabling crime and people smuggling on Europe’s borders — €10,000.00

About the Freelancer Support Scheme

Managed by the European Journalism Centre (EJC), the Freelancer Support Scheme is one of the two grants of the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund, which supports cross-border, collaborative journalism in the European Union and beyond. The Freelancer Support Scheme runs in parallel to the Investigation Support Scheme, managed by the International Press Institute (IPI). Both grant schemes will have another open call for applications expected in January 2023.

In total, the IJ4EU fund will provide €1.23 million in direct grants to support investigative journalism on transnational subjects in the 2022/23 edition of the programme. Approximately €900,000 will be distributed through the Investigation Support Scheme and €330,000 through the Freelancer Support Scheme.

Read more about the IJ4EU fund and why we’re dedicated to supporting investigative journalism.

IJ4EU is co-funded by the European Commission as a Preparatory Action. It is implemented by a consortium led by the International Press Institute (IPI) in partnership with the European Journalism Centre and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom in Leipzig.