The Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN) has created the Biodiversity Media Grant Opportunity to support journalism networks and media organizations throughout the world in increasing the capacity of media to cover critical issues of conservation and biodiversity.
The 2017 round of EJN’s Biodiversity Media Grant Opportunity is now open for applicants.
The Biodiversity Media Grant will support projects that:
- Build the capacity of journalism networks and media organizations to report on biodiversity and conservation issues
- Carry out biodiversity and/or conservation training activities for journalists
- Build internal capacity
- Organize local networks around these issues
We are especially interested in projects that focus on conservation in high-biodiversity regions of the world, such as the Amazon, Central Africa and SE Asia.
This grant opportunity represents a challenge to journalists throughout the world to increase the capacity of media to cover critical issues of conservation and biodiversity.
What types of projects does this grant opportunity support?Â
The Biodiversity Media Grant will support projects that generally focus on training and capacity building, with flexible spending guidelines that enable local networks to invest in strategic opportunities, build the capacities of their members, and respond to communities’ needs.
Projects funded by this grant should build awareness of the threats to biodiversity and conservation-based solutions by spreading quality news and information, with a focus on developing country audiences. Projects should also build the capacity of journalists and communicators to report on threats to biodiversity and on conservation-based solutions, by building their skills, knowledge and contacts.
While content production is an important aspect of any project, applications without some form of awareness-building, network-building or capacity-building component will not be considered. If special opportunities arise, we are open to supporting fellowships and travel costs for journalists to report specific stories or cover key events, so long as these projects facilitate the creation of networks and/or are part of a training process.
Please note that there will be a separate call early in 2017 for applications by journalists looking for support to produce individual stories on biodiversity or conservation.
Who is eligible to apply for this grant?Â
The Biodiversity Media Grant Opportunity is designed to support the awareness- or capacity-building around biodiversity and conservation, network building, content production around these issues, or creating digital or other media outlets. Applicants should 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.
As Internews is strictly a media development organization, please avoid any applications rooted in advocacy or political campaigning. Although we 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.
Where can this funding be used?Â
We are predominantly focused on the developing world, where the need is often the greatest and the pool of available resources is limited. However, we are open to proposals from anywhere. In this case we would be especially interested in projects in high-biodiversity regions of the world, such as the Amazon, Central Africa and SE Asia, or other biodiversity hotspots.
How much funding is available?Â
This grant fund contains US$30,000, which we would ideally share among three projects. The average grant size would therefore be US$10,000, with potentially a greater share of the total going to projects that demonstrate a critical need.
The deadline for applications is December 23rd, 2016.Â
Grantees are expected to give their full cooperation in monitoring and evaluating the results of the projects, and are encouraged to submit their own monitoring and evaluation plan along with their application. The final monitoring and evaluation plan will be agreed upon Internews’ Earth Journalism Network by and each individual grantee.
Deadline: December 23, 2016
Apply for the opportunity here. (Note:Â Applicants who are not yet members of the Earth Journalism Network should register for an account here before applying.)
