Supported projects

BUCHAREST - Context carried out a multi-phase digital engagement project designed to expand its newsletter audience, strengthen its base of paid supporters and experiment with new ways of interacting with its community. They did four coordinated campaigns, on tax redirection, newsletter growth ...

SZOMBATHELY - Nyugat.hu has developed and implemented an innovative, article-integrated audience-research tool. This has enabled the organisation to better understand its readers’ values, motivations, and willingness to support independent journalism via crowdfunding. 

KOLOMIIA - Media2Tickets aimed to update its website to increase audience engagement. After conducting various audience surveys and implementing design-thinking principles, the organisation was able to successfully increase engagement on its website. 

TIRANA - The “What Are You Thinking? A Media for You, You Are the Media” project attempts to bring the audience into the content-creation process at Gogo.al.

BRUSSELS - Mythical as a dragon, but also real; people have become attached to an image of what might have been a dinosaur. A team of researchers set out to find the definitive evidence of what caused the end of the dinosaur era. One fine line in the rock bed contains knowledge down to the minute ...

ANTWERP - With the help of thousands of women, the microbiology lab at the University of Antwerp is going on a voyage of discovery into the underside of the female body: what microorganisms are found in the vagina, what are they doing there and what can we learn from them? The social relevance of ...

BORDEAUX – In this investigation, two journalists followed the Spanish bulk wine route in Europe to analyse and provide an exclusive insight into how wine companies and industry insiders use wine to commit fraud.

MAR MENOR/AMALFI - Since their invention in the 1940s, modern sunscreens have become an essential vacation item, ubiquitous on beaches around the globe. However, after decades of mixing with the world’s seas and oceans via the lathered skin of tourists and sunbathers, the damage caused to sub ...

SURABAYA - Plastic waste from the European Union is making its way to Indonesia in shipments destined for Indonesian paper mills. Non-recyclable plastic ends up in landfills, waterways, or is incinerated, polluting the environment and endangering vulnerable communities.

GOMA – Romanian, Moldovan, and French security contractors deployed as instructors for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s army in Goma, violated international law, faked their numbers and lacked military training.

AUSTIN - When a Belgian filmmaker moves to Texas and becomes a mother, she is confronted with a reality barely comprehensible in Europe: preschoolers trained to keep quiet in a dark closet, schools deploying armed teachers and children crawling behind their school desks with an escape plan in mind.

BRUSSELS - One in five Belgian women decides to terminate her pregnancy. When terminating a pregnancy is seen as an act of care, new conversations can begin. Care for yourself, care for a partner or care for future choices. 

ANTWERP - Take a morning-after pill every day for two years. That was long the doctor's advice to girls who were 'too big'. The side effects, such as reduced fertility, were hardly taken seriously.

GENOA - This investigative project uncovers the various factors that lead to increasing numbers of inmates taking their own lives by systematically exploring how different prison environments operate.

CAIRO - Cairo Encounters follows the lives of four Western European women who have emigrated to Cairo for love. The documentary explores the impact of their life choices on their Western identities and highlights their interactions with Egyptian society.

OXKUTZCAB - An estimated five million elderly parents in Mexico have been separated from their undocumented children living in the US for decades due to strict border policies, with little hope of being reunited.

ROTTERDAM - In the late 1980s, an existing plans to convert Rotterdam The Hague Airport into a residential area was already underway. A team of investigative journalists aims to find out how closing down airports within close proximity to a city delivers a higher quality of life to the residents of ...

VALENCIA - In recent years, several European countries have faced devastating floods, sparking discussions on how to mitigate or prevent such disasters. In Spain, the tragedy in Valencia in October 2024 has led to the exploration of solutions like early warning systems, architectural adaptations ...

MYANMAR – In Southeast Asia, entire cities devoted to online fraud are emerging along the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. While this phenomenon is relatively well-known in China and the United States, it remains largely unrecognised in Europe. 

BAHIA – This cross-border investigation analysed how wind parks owned by Enel, the major Italian energy company, appear to be linked to green grabbing in Brazil.

SIFNOS/AEOLIAN – In Italy and Greece, the number of tourists on the islands in southern Mediterranean is reaching unprecedented levels, while residents and farmers are experiencing a water shortage. This investigation explores the situation on Sifnos and the Aeolian archipelago, to understand how ...

LITOMYSL – Agrivoltaics offers farmers a way to adapt to economic challenges and the climate crisis while reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. The focus was both on companies that have been exploiting agrivoltaics for years and are now looking to switch panels, as well as new companies ...

BERN - ‘Lost Cells’ is an insightful exploration of the emerging cord blood banking industry that resonates deeply with our anxieties about health, technology, and the future.

AMSTERDAM – The Investigative Teaching Lab was an intensive on-the-job training course for European investigative journalists, developed by The Investigative Desk, a Dutch non-profit for investigative journalism.

NOUAKCHOTT - In the Sahel, Mauritania is the only country spared from jihadist incursions and large-scale violence. Meanwhile, nearly two hundred thousand Malian refugees are staying both in the Mauritanian refugee camp of M'bera and in the villages of the Hodh Chargui border region.

BERLIN – This investigation focuses on the winners and losers in the online sex work revolution, where people can buy digital subscriptions to explicit content. A pioneer of this model is OnlyFans, a booming platform whose users spent $6.6 billion in 2023 alone.

SKOPJE / SOFIA – North Macedonia faces record forest loss for the second year in a row, outpacing other countries in the Western Balkans. According to the European Forest Fire Information System, between 2020 and 2024, wildfires have ravaged 134,314 hectares of forest and woodlands in North ...

KAMPALA / PARIS  - This investigation reveals that investments in Uganda's controversial oil projects, led by France's TotalEnergies and totalling $20 billion, primarily benefit President Museveni's inner circle, including his family members, military officials, ministerial staff and diplomats.

BUCHAREST - Toxic chemical smuggling flourished on Romania's borders while the country struggled to become a member of the Schengen area.

AMSTERDAM – This investigative project explores how Big Food and pharmaceutical companies profit from both the causes and "solutions" to obesity. Research by The Investigative Desk for Follow the Money shows that Big Food not only promotes unhealthy eating habits, but also invests in products that ...