2010-10-19
BRUSSELS – Journalists with a good idea for an investigative story with a European angle can now apply for research grants from the European Union. 1,1 million Euro will be distributed in two rounds of applications. The first deadline is on January 15th 2011.
The EU now offers research grants for investigative stories, which involve two or more EU countries. Journalists with a good idea for a European or a cross-border story must team up with a colleague from at least one other EU country, find ¼ of the funding for their project and then they can apply.
The independence of the money will be safeguarded by an external “Assistance Body”, an organisation with knowledge in the field. It will appoint a jury, maintain a website, administrate the grants and make sure that the experience from the projects is gathered.
A jury of “5-7 independent, reputed experts in journalism, investigative journalism and/or edition in those fields” will decide the awarding of the grants, following predefined rules.
The first round of applications has to be sent to the Commission, while the Assistance body is selected in a call for public tender. However the envelopes with the applications will not be opened by the Commission itself but handed over to the jury via the Assistance body.
The 1,1 million Euro were granted by the European Parliament as a pilot project, which opens the possibility for allocating more money to research grants in the future, if the pilot-project goes well. Key-persons behind the initial idea for the project were German green MEP Helga Trüpel and Danish liberal MEP Anne E. Jensen in the culture and budget committee respectively, when elected to the EP in 2009 Danish liberal MEP Morten Løkkegaard actively made sure to get the project safely through the planning phase.
The European Commission asked players in the field good names for an expert group to design the set-up of the grant-giving. The group includes Nick Davies, author and journalist at the Guardian, Fredrik Laurin, a tv-documentarist, Aidan White from the International Federation of Journalists, Cecile Walschaerts rom the Franco-Belgian journalismfund and Ulrik Haagerup, head of the news department at Danish public service radio and tv DR. Journalismfund.eu has been asked to suggest journalism personalities to the expert group and we suggested Nick Davies and Fredrik Laurin.
The pilot project is scheduled to run until late 2011.
Read the EU call for applications for research grants.
Read the tender specifications for the administrative body to learn more about how your application will be treated in detail.
Fredrik Laurin of the expert group has criticised the set-up of the tender in Swedish journalist magazine Scoop.
Written by Brigitte Alfter
