FPD – Low Countries: Research Grants for Dutch & Belgian Journalists

Deadline: 15 May 2025

The Journalismfund aims at addressing the shortage of local independent journalism by awarding grants to local investigative journalistic projects in Belgium and the Netherlands and by stimulating the cross-border collaboration.

This project aims at strengthening local cross-border, independent and investigative journalism in order to increase the availability of qualitative local news, and at making citizens more aware of local – and often interrelated and global – issues and possible solutions. As such it aims to contribute to citizens’ critical thinking, well-informed debates/decisions and to foster civic engagement.

Grant Categories

The Pascal Decroos Fund has three types of grants:
- Investigative Journalism: A working grant for investigative journalism allows the applicant to concentrate on one particular topic for a longer period of time.
- In-depth Journalism: The projects must go beyond regular reporting, daily journalism or correspondence. The subject or theme must be special, or else the approach or angle.
- Preliminary Research: When it is not clear whether the inquiries will yield the expected results, it is possible to apply for a grant to cover the expenses of the preliminary research.

Funding Information

There’s €80,000 available to be distributed over four rounds. Approximately €20,000 per round.

Eligible Expenses

A grant can cover two types of costs:
- Expenses (both for freelance journalists as for employed staff journalists). These can include travel, visa, accommodation, translation, fixers, access to pay-databases, FOI requests, legal screening, etc.
- Research time (only for freelance journalists).

Ineligible Expenses

Following expenses are not eligible for a grant:
- investments goods (such as IT equipment, cameras), office costs, production costs, food and beverage, per diems.

Eligibility Criteria

Both beginning (starters) and experienced journalist (seniors) can submit a project that cannot be realised through the normal channels of journalism, that has major news value and depth and that is also original, innovative and time-consuming.
The applicant must be a journalist (written or audio-visual press), or be able to prove that he/she is aspiring to a career in journalism. Personal references and/or references to earlier work are essential in that respect.
Only natural persons can apply for a grant.
Projects with regard to investigative and special journalism must deal with topics that are relevant for Flanders.
The project must be published in a Dutch-language medium in Belgium and a medium in the Netherlands. A letter of intent for publications from at least one professional news outlet on each side of the Dutch-Belgian border is required for journalists with more than 2 years of experience. For starters this is considered a plus.
All journalistic end products qualify for a grant: newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television documentaries and series, photo-reportages and books, podcasts and journalistic non-fiction books.

Selection Criteria