The ‘Matchmaker’: How Arena powers investigation and collaboration

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A woman and a man chat excitedly over coffee in a conference networking session.

Many of Europe’s most expansive, illuminating investigations did not begin in a newsroom. They began in an auditorium, with an idea sparked by a quote on a powerpoint slide; or in a coffee shop, brainstormed with two new colleagues from across the continent; or over a beer, at the end of a long conference day, … Read more

Arena’s groundbreaking data investigation, Green to Grey, wins Sigma Award

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The Sigma Award logo, an illustration of several pencils pointing at a cloudy sky scene, with the text "winners announced" overlaid.

We’re excited to announce that the Green to Grey investigation is a Sigma Award Winner for 2026! Our groundbreaking data journalism investigation, a collaboration between Arena and 11 news teams across Europe, revealed the scale of nature and cropland loss across the continent over a six year period. It was the first investigation of its kind, … Read more

Apply for a Dataharvest 2026 participation grant

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A large group of journalists in the networking room at Dataharvest 2025, all wearing blue lanyards.

Arena is happy to offer a number of grants to help reduce financial barriers for journalists wishing to attend Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference on 28-31 May in Mechelen, Belgium. The deadline for all applications is 2 February 2026, 17:00 CET, and all grantees will be notified by mid-February. The grants are designed … Read more

Dataharvest 2026 announcement launches call for proposals, reveals developments

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The Dataharvest text logo on a navy blue background with a blue and green pixellated graphic surrounding the text.

Details for the 2026 Dataharvest conference can now be revealed! We’re returning to Mechelen between 28-31 May next year, and as always we look forward to being reunited with our community of Dataharvest veterans, as well as many new faces. We’ve been busy working on Europe’s flagship investigative and data journalism conference since the spring, … Read more

‘Green to Grey’ investigation read by more than 3 million

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The Green to Grey logo on a background grid of satellite images of highly built-up 'grey' areas. The website URL greentogrey.eu and the hashtag are beneath the main logo. At the bottom is the Arena logo, stating this is a collaborative project of Arena for Journalism in Europe, and at the very bottom is a credit to Pleides, CNES and Airbus for the background images.

On October 1, the Green to Grey project went live. In the first investigation of its kind, 41 journalists and scientists from 11 countries worked together for 10 months to reveal the scale of Europe’s nature and cropland loss. We found that every year, Europe loses 1,500 km² to construction. Between 2018 and 2023, we … Read more

Applications open for 2026 European Collaborative Journalism Programme

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Arena is once again partnering with the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung to support 16 journalists to begin a cross-border investigation. Our hugely popular European Collaborative Journalism Programme (ECJP) is now open for applications for a 2026 cohort. You can apply with a letter of motivation, an investigation idea, work samples and references. Previous investigations have been … Read more

Whistleblowers, data and false solutions: Collaborating on climate justice at Climate Arena 2025

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A terrace populated with journalists at tables, in discussion. In the foreground, a couple of young journalists wearing Climate Arena lanyards are discussing animatedly.

Over an unusually sunny mid-October weekend, journalists and scientists from across Europe gathered again in 2025 for the fourth Climate Arena conference. This year we were in Budapest, where specialist environment and climate reporters came together for panels, workshops and networking sessions that delivered practical tools, project ideas and behind-the-scenes revelations. Arena’s signature theme of … Read more

‘First of its kind’: Behind the scenes of Green to Grey’s groundbreaking data investigation

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A collage of the green to grey logo on the left, with a colour coded map of Europe on the right.

We’ve described our latest cross-border collaborative journalism project, Green to Grey, as an investigation that is the ‘first of its kind’. That’s a big claim – so, let us explain what we mean. When we launched the project, we outlined the story of how it came about: inspired by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK’s original investigation … Read more

Climate Arena Fellows begin investigations ahead of 2025 conference

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The 2025 Climate Arena fellows stand with arms outstretched in front of a statue in Bratislava. (One participant's face is redacted at their request.)

This weekend, the 2025 Climate Arena Fellows met for the first time. By all accounts, the group has seen a fruitful start to their collaborative, cross-border climate and environmental investigations. On 12-13 September, in Bratislava, Slovakia, our latest fellows cohort came together to get to know each other, receive an overview of cross-border, collaborative journalism … Read more