Deadline: April 9, 2024
Applications are open for the Internews EJN Biodiversity Media Grants 2024. Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is offering 3-4 grants to organizations averaging 10,000-12,000 EUR each to support activities that strengthen media reporting on biodiversity issues.
The Biodiversity Media Grants will support projects that:
- Produce in-depth stories to expand the breadth and depth of coverage of biodiversity and conservation issues.
- Carry out biodiversity and/or conservation training activities for journalists and/or media organizations to build their capacity to report on biodiversity and conservation issues more effectively.
- Create or strengthen journalist networks focused on these issues, enabling them to invest in strategic opportunities, build the capacities of their members and respond to communities’ needs.
Grant
- They anticipate supporting 3-4 organizations with grants of 10,000-12,000 EUR each. In general, proposals with smaller budgets will be more competitive. Larger grant amounts will be considered for projects that use innovative approaches and may be more resource- and time-consuming.
Eligibility
- Open to journalist networks, media organizations, civil society organizations or academic institutions. Although they will consider applications by NGOs or environmental groups looking to build the capacity of journalists to cover conservation issues, preference will be given to applications from or affiliated with professional journalists, media organizations, journalism schools and the like.
- Applicants must either note their affiliations with existing media organizations or provide detailed plans about how this project would facilitate the creation of a new network or organization.
- They will not consider applications rooted in advocacy or political campaigning.
- Existing or former EJN grantees are eligible to apply, although preference will be given to grantees they have not supported previously. They will take the performance of existing or previous grantees into consideration during the selection.
- For the purposes of this funding opportunity, they will only be accepting applications in English. Unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to consider applications in other languages at this time. Applicants must either have a working understanding of English or have a translator available to assist with communication with Internews staff. However, applicants may produce stories and training materials in any language.
- They are especially interested in projects in biodiversity-rich regions of the world, such as the Amazon, Central Africa and Southeast Asia, or other biodiversity hotspots. They would also like to hear from applicants based in countries in which EJN has not offered grants to previously. They encourage applications in particular from West Africa, Central America and Eastern Europe, and specifically from the following countries: Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Applicants are required to be transparent about the use of generative AI tools, if any, in the development of their proposals. EJN reserves the right to disqualify applicants from consideration if they have been found to have engaged in unethical or improper professional conduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism and submitting AI-generated content as their own.
Judging Criteria
All applications we receive are reviewed and discussed by a panel of international judges, comprising Internews staff and experts in environmental journalism.
Applications will be evaluated using the following assessment criteria:
- the overall quality of the proposal; the relevance of the proposed project in contributing to the objectives and priorities of this grant program;
- the potential impact of the proposed project, including the quality and effectiveness of the project design;
- the innovative characteristics of the proposed activities;
- the financial viability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed activity;
- the ability of the applicant to carry it out;
- the geographical spread of the selected grantees.
Application
Applications should provide a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested. Download the budget template here.
For more information, visit EJN Biodiversity Media Grants.