Supported projects

OSLO – It’s a global problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent. According to aid organisations, digital image-based sexual abuse – a catch-all phrase that includes “revenge porn”, deepfake pornography and “upskirting” – exploded across European countries during the pandemic.

EDINBURGH - Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a shrimplike crustacean a few centimeters long, supporting the marine food chain around Antarctica. The Antarctic krill fishing industry has been growing in the last two decades, driven by the global growth of aquaculture. Krill is considered a ...

KABWE - One of the largest lead mines in the world closes in 1994. Local people in Kabwe, a metropolis in Zambia, see jobs disappear. They are left uninvited with a mountain of harmful mining waste and residential areas polluted by lead.

BRUSSELS - Belgian firm GSR, subsidiary of dredging group DEME, is dying to go to the deep sea to mine for metal nodules. Ten years ago, GSR applied for an initial licence to do so.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Vila Cruzeiro is one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous slums. People are living in poverty surrounded by a drug war. After far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office, shootings between police and traffickers are much more frequent. Violence in the neighbourhoods is only ...

BRUSSELS - 'Less police force' is a podcast that wants to make police violence in Belgium visible and unravel it through testimonies and interviews with experts. We want to find out why police violence - also in our country - is so common. This automatically brings us to the question: what are the ...

BEIRUT - More and more Lebanese are leaving - they see no future in the country that is virtually bankrupt. The situation has deteriorated further: the Lebanese lira continues to depreciate; access to electricity and water is increasingly limited. Soon, even telephone and internet services may fall ...

HUELVA - Across the southern Iberian Peninsula, plastic greenhouses stretch to the horizon where rain-fed olives, wheat and grapes were traditionally grown. Spain and Portugal are Europe’s main producers of water-intensive berries. But the region is also one of the continent’s driest areas, where ...

KAYAR - Over half a million tonnes of fish are turned into fishmeal and fish oil to feed animals in industrial aquaculture systems and on intensive farms and demand is growing, as is outrage in West African fishing communities.

GDANSK - The Vistula Spit Canal has been a decades-long political prizeproject for the Polish government. The construction has drawn controversy as it cuts straight through a Natura 2000 conservation area. Russian state-sponsored media and the Kremlin, have flasely claims it will devastate the ...

BOSTON/WASHINGTON D.C. - American Dreams is a journalistic multimedia story by Johannes De Bruycker. The project explores a wide range of philosophical and scientific issues, including the nature of reality, (lucid) dreams and nightmares, consciousness and trauma.

IXQUISIS - These series looked into lives and deaths of ‘Water Guardians’. The journalists investigate din depth three environmental murders related to water in Latin America.

ZUGDIDI - As a result of the ongoing conflict in 1992-93, Zugdidi hosted the largest number of IDPs, the material prepared within the framework of the project is based on the personal memories of some of them.  

ABUJA- This story demonstrates that although it is illegal to import used clothes into Nigeria, UK exporters continue to contravene the law by doing the contrary which is now polluting the country's ecology. It demonstrates how UK exporters provided Nigerian vendors with low-quality, deteriorating ...

LELESTI - For years they inhaled it. Former workers of the asbestos-cement factories in Romania worked without any protection against the toxic dust. Except a milk ratio. It was supposed to protect against cancer and toxicity, or so they believed during communism. Long privatized and shut down, the ...

SARAJEVO - Thirty years after the start of the civil war, Bosnia and Herzegovina is once again in troubled waters. The fragile balance between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croat Bosnians risks being disrupted by political instability.

BRUSSEL - Onder het gezag van commandant Walter Van Dyck volgen de jonge rekruten van het Belgisch leger een basisopleiding tot militair. Aan de hand van rollenspelen wordt hun toekomst als beroepssoldaat verbeeld.

ROME - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has upended decades of energy policy and a long-term dependence on Russian gas. Across Europe, governments are scrambling to find alternate energy supplies for the coming winter. 

PANGUINTZA - In Ecuador, cocoa farmers with UN financing and the support of a Dutch Foundation implemented blockchain technology to undermine the market power of big food companies and create more transparency in international supply chains. It’s a desperate intent to fight back illegal gold mining ...

BWINDI - The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda has been chosen by the US National Health Institute (NHI) as a ‘hotspot’ for a potential new outbreak of a zoonotic disease like Monkeypox, Covid or Ebola.

BRUSSELS - Cabinets of Flemish ministers can make certain limited expenditures under the radar. But who are the beneficiaries?

BRUSSELS - The EU notes respect for human rights as one of its core values. However a number of MEPs who represent democratic and liberal countries, have in recent years, become increasingly friendly with autocratic regimes including that of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. 

LVIV - This project was set up by Environment-People-Law (EPL) aims to promote due priority of environmental issues in social agenda of Ukraine and increase environmental awareness of Ukrainians.

SKOPJE - Sunny North Macedonia falls short of solar thermal expectations. Using solar thermal technology to convert sunlight into heat should be a no-brainer in North Macedonia. After all, it’s one of the world’s sunniest countries. But meager subsidies and insufficient regulation have stymied ...

WORLD - Everyday, 30 species of insects disappear from the face of the planet. A quarter of European invertebrates are now on the verge of extinction and, in some areas, the reduction in insect biomass reached 75 per cent in just 27 years.

AMSTERDAM - At the beginning of World War I, 1 million Belgians fled to the Netherlands. About a hundred thousand stayed throughout the war, the majority in large camps. The Netherlands showed hospitality, but conditions in the refugee camps were much to be criticised.

LVIV - The Ukrainian LGBTQI + community has been trying to organize parades since 2012 - then the organizers of the event canceled them because they were afraid for their safety. Today they are fighting not only for their rights but also at the frontline.

DAKAR - Kris Berwouts went to Senegal with the question: 'What are Senegal's strengths and vulnerabilities when it comes to the risk of jihadism spilling over from the Sahel? This received a boost in 2012 in Mali and has since rapidly spread to Burkina Faso and Niger.

ALENTEJO - It hasn't been this dry in Portugal for a thousand years. But in the Alentejo, there have long been debates about the right way to farm in times of drought and record temperatures. This is mainly due to a dam that is supposed to provide sufficient water.

TEHERAN - The Islamic Republic regime in Iran has been oppressing its people for more than 40 years. In response to this repression and suffocation, the popular uprising of ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ is a powerful ‘no’.