FAQ - Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism

Any incorporated legal entity can apply. In the application it should describe its experience with investigative journalism, environmental issues, and/or the development of supporting services. The proposed project should contribute to the further development of environmental investigative journalism in Europe.

If the project is a collaboration between several organisations, one organisation should apply for the Journalismfund Europe grant. In the application form you can provide information about the partnering organisations and their role in the project.

If a grant is awarded, the applying organisation is responsible for the project and the grant towards Journalismfund Europe.

In the budget that is part of the application, only personnel costs of the applying organisation can be listed under ‘Personnel costs’. All costs of partner organisations should be listed under ‘Operating costs’.

There is no fixed minimum or maximum grant amount. In general we ask applicants not to design a project starting from a target amount, but the other way around: start from a relevant project proposal, and then draft a realistic budget. The quality and realism of the budget you submit is one of the assessment criteria for the jury to grant your project. It is therefore NOT a good idea to inflate your budget.

The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported projects is around €85,000.

Grants could vary from €1,000 to as much as €20,000 or even more, depending on the scope, relevance, impact and sustainability of the project.

We ask applicants to start from a project proposal that is relevant and convincing within the framework of the grant programme, and put forward a time frame and budget that are realistic and feasible to execute the proposed project.

The duration of projects could range from a very short period up to one year maximum, if that is relevant. Only separate projects that are clearly defined and limited in time are eligible for this grant programme. This grant is not intended to support the permanent operations of an organisation.

No, not necessarily.

However, it is required to submit your full project application in English. English is the common language of our international jury, and all jury members need to be able to assess all applications on the same basis.

With "Europe" we mean geographical Europe.

Applying entities do not necessarily need to be based in Europe. However, the proposed project should clearly advance investigative environmental journalism in Europe.

Applicants are usually informed about the jury decision around 40 days after the application deadline.

Journalismfund Europe's Earth Investigations Programme is funded by Arcadia.

We adopted an Ethical Funding Policy to ensure that Journalismfund Europe properly manages its priorities and projects with appropriate independence from its funders. This Policy also aims at providing transparency regarding the identity of Journalismfund Europe’s sources of funding to avoid any suspicion of inappropriate influence or conflicts of interest concerning Journalismfund Europe’s activities.

Journalismfund Europe’s financial records are reviewed annually by an independent auditor. You can find all funding information and financial documents here.

Journalismfund Europe vzw is a Belgium based independent non‐profit organisation established with the purpose of advancing independent investigative journalism.

Check the general FAQ about our organisation.