Cross-border teams seeking IJ4EU funding span more countries than ever.
Journalistic teams with members based in a record number of countries submitted applications under the latest call of the IJ4EU fund, which closed on October 28.
IJ4EU received proposals for cross-border investigations from 176 teams comprising reporters based in 73 countries — three more than a previous geographical record set in February last year.
A total of 104 teams applied to IJ4EU’s Investigation Support Scheme, which offers grants of up to €50,000. Meanwhile, 72 applied to the Freelancer Support Scheme, which offers grants of up to €20,000 along with additional support.
Applicants requested a combined €4.2 million in funding, a decrease from the previous round when 235 teams applied for €6.95 million.
To be eligible, teams have to satisfy IJ4EU’s core geographical requirements. That means having members 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 co-funds the programme.
Those “core countries” are all 27 EU member states and the following non-EU countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Ukraine.
In the latest round, only Iceland, Liechtenstein and Slovenia were unrepresented.
Assuming teams meet the core geographical eligibility criteria, they can include members from countries further afield. In the latest round, applicants included journalists based in 39 additional countries.
Those countries were Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gambia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Mexico, Madagascar, Moldova, Morocco, Myanmar, Palestine, Pakistan, Rwanda, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Syria, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.
The expansive geographical reach of this round makes it IJ4EU’s most global yet, underscoring the international scope of European-led transnational investigations.
Independent juries will meet later this month to select projects for funding. All teams will be notified shortly after that.
Best of luck to all the teams!