Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism

Are you an organization looking to enhance your capacity in environmental investigative journalism? Do you have innovative project ideas for upskilling investigative journalists in reporting on environmental issues? The Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism offer an exceptional opportunity to turn your ideas into reality. This grant facility promotes collective development and support services for environmental investigative journalism.

📖 About Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism

This grant facility supports enabling activities and supporting services for environmental investigative journalism as a whole. It seeks to promote collective development and support services for environmental investigative journalism by providing funding to project ideas from organizations and institutions for training and professional development programs. These programs focus on skills-based professional training or fellowship opportunities targeted at enabling investigative journalists to upskill in reporting on environment-related issues.

Opportunity Details

• Date Published: August 02, 2025
• Application Deadline: October 09, 2025
• Category: Grants

🎁 Benefits

• The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported projects will be around €84,000.
• The total budget for 2025 is €252,000.

✅ Eligibility Criteria

This grant program is open to legal entities with a proven track record of working with journalists and/or on environmental issues. The jury evaluates the organization's demonstrable expertise in this respect.

Requirements:

1. The organization must have been officially incorporated at least one year before the application deadline of the grant call.
2. Eligible proposals entail professional development activities and supporting services for environmental investigative journalism in Europe. These can include training sessions, fellowship programs, or other activities, services, or tools that enable investigative journalists to better investigate environmental issues.
3. The project should be clearly defined and limited in time.
4. The grant cannot be used for core funding or financing permanent operations of an organization.
5. Individuals (natural persons) cannot apply for this grant.
6. If the project is a collaboration between several organizations, only one organization should apply for this grant, mentioning others as partners.

💰 Eligible and Non-Eligible Costs

Eligible Costs:

Personnel and operating costs that meet the following conditions:

• Directly attributable to the project.
• Arise after the signing of the grant agreement with Journalismfund Europe and only during the project period.
• Deemed necessary for implementing the project.
• Effectively incurred by the grant beneficiary, identified, and verifiable.
• Not funded by other donors or support programs.

Non-Eligible Costs:

• Personnel and operating costs not directly attributable to the project.
• Internal rental costs (e.g., rent paid to oneself as owner of premises or other infrastructure).
• Overhead costs.
• Meal costs, food, and beverages.
• Tangible investment goods (e.g., IT equipment or personal protective equipment).
• Recoverable VAT.

📅 Deadlines and Timing

• The average interval between grant calls for this grant program will be four months.
• There are three application rounds scheduled in 2025.
• After the application deadline, Journalismfund Europe checks formalities and may request additional information from applicants (usually within one week).
• Applications are assessed by the jury, and applicants are informed about the jury's decision approximately 40 days after the application deadline.

📝 Assessment Criteria

The jury evaluates applications based on the following:

• Track record and relevance of the partners involved.
• Feasibility.
• Complementarity and added value to existing and already supported enabling activities for investigative environmental journalism in Europe.
• Quality and realism of the budget plan.
• Necessity of (co-)funding.
• Professional development for journalists, not students of journalism.

Diversity Considerations:

The jury will also consider variety within the global selection of granted projects, including:

• Forms.
• Topics.
• Methods and approaches.
• Regions.

📄 Application Process

Steps to Apply:

1. Consult the grant details: Review the rules, eligibility, assessment criteria, timing, etc., via the grant details page.
2. Register: After a one-time registration with your email address, access the online application form.
3. Provide Information: Fill out the form with:
   • Information and documents about your organization.
   • Information about the intended project.
   • A detailed project budget using the provided budget template.

You can invite multiple collaborators to work on the online draft application, which can be saved and edited at any time.

📅 Application Deadline

October 09, 2025

🔗 Additional Resources

• View details of Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism.
• Apply for Professional Development Grants for Environmental Journalism.

This grant is an excellent opportunity for organizations to contribute to the development of environmental investigative journalism while empowering journalists with the skills and resources they need to address critical environmental issues.

• Total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported projects will be around €84,000.
• Total budget for 2025 is €252,000.