Journalismfund.eu has officially launched Connecting Continents at its Dataharvest European Investigative Journalism Conference 2015 held on May 9, 2015 in Brussels, Belgium.
Crossing Continents is a new, intercontinental working grant programme for investigative journalists. The programme plans to provide €100,000 working grants for Sub-Saharan African journalists collaborating with European colleagues or vice versa.
This project is a separate pilot project from Journalismfund.eu’s regular European cross-border working grant programme. It is launched in cooperation with Oxfam Novib, which provides the money for the grants towards building African-European Teams of Investigative Journalists consisting of at least one Sub-Saharan African and one European journalist.
Journalismfund.eu intends to operate “as a firewall between the funders and the journalists, making sure that there is a strict division between where the money comes from and where it goes, in order to safeguard the independence of participating journalists and media.”
Journalismfund.eu has previous experience with similar types of funds having operated European cross-border and Flemish Fonds Pascal Decroos working grant programmes.
Connecting Continents will run as a pilot project from May until December 2015, with two application deadlines: one in early June and the other in mid-August. €100,000 will be distributed over two application rounds. Therefore, approximately €50,000 is expected to be distributed in each round.
Journalismfund.eu operates as a firewall between the funders and the journalists, making sure that there is a strict division between where the money comes from and where it goes to safeguard the independence of participating journalists and media. We have year-long experience with similar types of funding through our European cross-border and our Flemish Fonds Pascal Decroos working grant programmes.
The deadline for the first call was June 8, 2015 and August 17, 2015 for the second. Applications will be screened by a separate, independent, anonymous jury of four people with ample experience in investigative journalism in Africa and Europe to be chosen by Journalismfund.eu.
Only intercontinental journalist teams consisting of at least one Sub-Saharan African and one European journalist are eligible to apply. Preference goes to African journalists working in DR Congo, Uganda, Nigeria or Mozambique, although others are also eligible. The investigative stories should focus on financial flows and governance, and have to be published in at least one African and one European country.
The approximate timeline is:
- June 8th — DEADLINE of the first application round at 11.59 pm Brussels time
- Approximately June 30th — first jury meeting
- Approximately August 17th — DEADLINE of the second application round
- Approximately September 15th — second jury meeting
A separate website for the programme has been set up: www.conntinents.org. For questions or advice, contact marjorie.blomme@journalismfund.eu
