The IJ4EU Impact Award celebrates Europe’s top cross-border investigative journalism with a total prize pool of €15,000. Managed by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), this high-profile award highlights the power of collaboration in uncovering the truth.
Each year, an independent jury of experts selects three groundbreaking investigations to win €5,000 each, with the winners revealed at the IJ4EU UNCOVERED Conference in the autumn.
Do you think your team’s investigation has what it takes? Submit your project securely via our Good Grants platform. Be sure to check the eligibility details, application guidelines and our FAQ section to get started.
General eligibility
The eligibility criteria will be broadly similar to the submission requirements for the Investigation Support Scheme and the Freelancer Support Scheme. Specifically:
- The award will be open to cross-border investigations published via any credible medium (e.g. print, broadcast television or radio, online, documentary film, multimedia etc.).
- Nominated investigations must have been published between January 1 and December 31, 2025.
- Nominated investigations must involve journalists based in at least two European countries that have signed up to the full cross-sectoral strand of the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme, which provides core funding for IJ4EU.
- Nominated investigations need to highlight issues of common interest for European countries, and be seen to have strengthened European media.
- Nominated investigations may have been published in any language. However, for investigations not published in English, a translation in English of the core investigation/summary must be provided.
- Nominations must include any significant challenge to the honesty, accuracy or fairness of an entry, such as published letters, corrections, retractions as well as responses by the relevant newspaper or website.
Application requirements
The IJ4EU Impact Award nomination process aims to be simple, secure and efficient.
All nominations must be submitted in English via the online Good Grants platform. Good Grants is a free-to-use secure platform for submission and storage. It is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, and has multi-factor authentication, encrypted data, multi-tier backups and a secure multi-server architecture in VPC.
Each person making a nomination needs to create a personal user account to ensure that the application can be submitted securely and so as not to jeopardise the proposed investigation or those involved. The nomination form can be saved and is accessible until the nomination is completed and ready for submission. Once the application is submitted, it can no longer be edited.
Only nominations in English received via the Good Grants platform by the stated date and time will be considered. You will receive an email confirmation of your submission.
Brevity in supplying the information requested will be appreciated.
Nominations for the IJ4EU Impact Award must include:
- Name and contact details of the person submitting the nomination
- Name and contact details of the lead nominee
- Country where the nominee is based
- Title of the project or story (in English)
- Date of first publication
- Brief summary of the project, including the core findings of the investigation
- Publication format (for example: print, television broadcast, radio broadcast, online, documentary film, multimedia, podcast)
- Link to the published project
- Investigative methods used
- Brief overview of the investigative process
- Brief description of obstacles or challenges encountered during the investigation
- Brief summary of the project’s cross-border relevance and effectiveness
- Estimated duration of the project
- Names of all team members, including their countries of residence and contact details
- Name(s) of the outlet(s) where the project or story was first published
- Name(s) of other media outlets or platforms where the story was subsequently published
- Summary of the project’s impact, including political, institutional, or structural changes; actions and reactions; impact within the journalistic community; awards or recognitions; and potential for further impact
- Evidence of any impact that the story/project has had
- Brief explanation of why the nominator believes the investigation merits this award
- Summary of any critical responses following publication
- Links to the project and/or PDF copies of published materials
- Copies of any significant criticism that resulted in corrections, retractions, or formal responses by the publishing outlet(s)
Pre-evaluation process
All eligible nominations will undergo a pre-evaluation process conducted as part of a BA course in Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University. The purpose of the pre-evaluation is to provide a structured shortlist of 10 nominated investigations, serving as a reference for the award jury in their independent decision-making.
The pre-evaluation will be based on the following criteria:
- Productivity: Number of publications per team member
- International scope: Reach and collaboration across borders
- Impact: Measured by political, institutional and structural changes and reactions, influence within the journalistic community, audience engagement, recognition through awards and mentions, as well as the investigation’s potential for further impact.
The jury has access to all eligible nominations and maintains full independence in selecting the three equal winners of the IJ4EU Impact Award, whether from the shortlist or beyond.
Selection process
While the jury will be fully independent in its decision-making, it will be provided with a set of criteria to guide the process. The jury’s decision should take into account, but will not be limited to, the following:
- Impact of the nominated investigation
- Journalistic quality of the nominated investigation
- Innovative use of cross-border journalism to cover a topic of public interest
- Newsworthiness / added value of the nominated investigation to public discourse in the EU
- Storytelling techniques
- The potential of the nominated investigation to inspire similar cross-border journalism and contribute to the sustainability of investigative journalism in the EU
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony during IJ4EU’s UNCOVERED Conference in September 2026.