Arena for Journalism is very happy to announce we are now an official partner in the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) program, and we look forward to providing training, support and match-making for cross-border journalism teams.
Now in its fifth edition, IJ4EU is a major project to support cross-border journalism in Europe with funding, and opportunities for training, mentoring and legal advice.
The project includes two major grant schemes. Grants of up to €50,000 for investigative teams will be available through the Investigation Support Scheme, with €1.5 million available, managed by project lead the International Press Institute.
Running in parallel is the Freelancer Support Scheme, managed by the European Journalism Centre, offering grants of up to €20,000 to journalists primarily working outside of newsrooms, with a total of €500,000 available. The freelancers will also get tailored assistance including mentoring throughout the lifecycle of their projects.
Arena’s inclusion in the IJ4EU consortium will bring extra support for transnational collaboration. We will host open cross-border master-classes in the run-up to calls for grant applications, to support teams and journalists to develop great cross-border ideas and translating those into great pitches.
Throughout the projects, Arena will also provide a key role in bringing people together to develop cross-border connections. We will provide match-making, help journalists to develop ideas for collaborative projects, to find potential partners, and bring over a dozen participants to Dataharvest – The European Investigative Journalism Conference, which Arena organises in late spring every year.
IJ4EU grantees can also use the Arena Collaborative Desk, a secure digital workspace for remote teams developed by Arena. This access comes with tailor-made tech support and mentoring on editorial coordination, project management and knowledge-sharing.
Arena director Brigitte Alfter said: “We are very happy to contribute with support to journalists, so they can focus on the thing that only they can do: Find and document their story.”
“We can give tips on how to write a good grant application, we have a network all over Europe, and with the Collaborative Desk, we can help teams to work in a secure digital environment without having to spend a lot of time on it. We look forward to seeing some of the investigations presented at Dataharvest!”
Both the Investigation Support Scheme and the Freelancer Support Scheme will have three calls for applications during the 2024/25 edition.
The first will open on February 1, 2024, followed by a second in the autumn of 2024 and a third in early 2025. Sign up for the IJ4EU newsletter to keep updated.