Deadline: April 25, 2024
Applications are open for the Journalismfund Fossil Fuel Grants Programme 2024. News media and newsrooms still predominantly operate nationally. However, the climate crisis and power structures that hinder the transition away from fossil fuels markedly transcend national boundaries.
The Fossil Fuel Grant Programme is therefore aimed at cross-border teams of professional journalists and/or newsrooms to investigate and document unreported activities by European fossil fuel companies and their proxies within and beyond the continent.
Next to investigations of fossil fuel industry activities that transcend borders, this programme can also support investigations that compare local industry activities or policies between two or more regions.
The resulting stories must be published in at least two outlets in two different countries, at least one must be a European media.
Funding
- The total available amount to be distributed among all supported investigations will be €50,000.
Eligibility
- Cross-border teams of at least two professional journalists and/or news outlets can submit a proposal for a journalistic investigation about an issue that concerns the European fossil fuel companies and their proxies within and beyond the continent.
- The applicants must be professional freelance journalists or news outlets. Personal references and/or references to earlier work are essential in that respect.
- News outlets must be legal entities officially incorporated at least one year before the application deadline of the grant call.
- The investigation proposal must concern cross-border environmental investigative journalism on European affairs — in or outside Europe. This means that the investigation has (also) to be of relevance for Europe.
- Next to investigations into environmental issues that transcend borders, this grant can also support e.g. comparative investigations into local environmental issues and policies between two or more countries, regions, cities, etc.
- The result of the investigation must be published by at least two professional news outlets in at least two different countries, one of which must be in Europe. Letters of intent for publication from at least two professional news outlets are required.
- Investigative journalism published by professional media in any form is eligible, whether print, online, broadcast or cross-media. Your investigation can be published as newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.
Selection Criteria
The jury will assess the applications based on these criteria:
- Environmental angle
- Added value compared to mainstream coverage
- Feasibility
- Experience of the applicants
- Work effort requirement
- Cross-border research and stories
- Networking between countries, pooling research capacity and knowledge
- Watchdog of institutions, policies, money
- Audience engagement strategy
- Quality and rationality of the budget
- Necessity of (co-)funding
Application
You need to provide the following information in your application form:
- team members’ details
- information about the intended investigation
- information about the intended publication channels, including letters of intent from news outlets
- a detailed budget, according to the budget template
For more information, visit Fossil Fuel Grants.
