Creative Europe launches call for journalistic collaboration

The European Union Creative Europe programme (cross-sectoral strand) has launched the 6th yearly call for cross-border collaborative proposals between news media organisations focusing on innovative business models and/or journalistic projects across Europe. The competition is open to organisations from Georgia and Ukraine. 

The call aims to help European news media become more sustainable and resilient, specifically by supporting cross-border media collaborations.

Through this call for proposals, transnational consortia of media organisations are called to join efforts to foster media transformation, trustworthy reporting, and skills for news media professionals, for instance by developing media production standards, new business models, new types of newsrooms and journalistic formats, sharing of best practices, etc.

The available budget this year is €6.9 million. Each project will be granted a maximum of €2 million. The maximum co-financing rate is 80% of the total eligible costs. This means that applicants need to co-finance their projects. 

Consortia may include non-profit, public and private media outlets (including written/online press, radio/podcasts, TV, etc) as well as other organisations focusing on news media (including media associations, NGOs, journalistic funds and training organisations focusing on media professionals, etc). Natural persons are not eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons).

Projects are expected to start towards the end of 2026 and last 24 months.

The deadline for applications is 4 February 2026.

Creative Europe is the European Union’s programme that supports the cultural, creative, and audiovisual sectors. Its goal is to protect, develop, and promote European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage, while increasing the competitiveness and economic potential of the cultural and creative industries, including the audiovisual sector. The total EU budget for the 2021-2027 period is €2.44 billion, and the programme currently operates in 40 countries.

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