2009-03-29
BRUSSELS - There is an overwhelming interest for research grants to do European journalism. 29 journalists in 18 teams applied for 145.000 Euro. The jury thus will have a number of interesting applications to choose among when it distributes the 20.000 Euro for the grants of the pilot phase.
Even after the deadline for applications on March 23rd, requests kept coming to Journalismfund.eu. 29 journalists in 18 teams made it in time, together they asked for 145.00 Euro. The task of the jury to distribute the 20.000 Euro for the pilot phase thus will be a tough one.
The journalists applying hold 11 different nationalities. Applications were sent from Britain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Switzerland.
And the colleagues intend to make an impact: Many of them have prepared or are preparing publication in several countries. Overall 14 countries of publication are envisaged already, several more are under preparation.
Half of the 18 applications come from teams, two of them are national teams, 7 of them international team. The projects by the international teams show, that a number of colleagues use cooperation across borders to pool research capacity and knowledge of a given country, while they publish to each their target group in each their language.
Each application has one main applicant, who – in case of a team application – coordinates the application. Among the main applicants, the number of men and women is completely equal, as there are nine each. The overall number of 29 journalists in the teams is divided into 14 women and 15 men.
The age span of the applicants stretches from 22 as the youngest team member to 69. In the agespan from 20-35 there are 10 applicants, from 26-50 there are 18 and from 51 upwards there is one. The average age is 40.
See the overview here (PDF, 24 KB).
By Brigitte Alfter
