We are seeking innovative project ideas from media outlets, journalism institutions and other organizations that work directly with media or content creators in the Asia-Pacific region.
Please read the following sections carefully, as they contain important information on eligibility and the application process.
Overview
In 2024, countries across the Asia Pacific experienced scorching heatwaves and droughts and grappled with monsoon rains that triggered catastrophic floods and landslides.
According to the Asian Development Bank, climate impacts alone could lead to a 17% GDP drop across Asia and the Pacific by 2070 under a high carbon emissions scenario, which could rise to 41% of GDP by the end of the century.
And as the climate crisis accelerates, it exacerbates challenges across the region: claiming lives, threatening livelihoods and children’s educations, increasing the burden of poverty, food insecurity and disease, and further destabilizing ecosystems and biodiversity.
These interconnected global crises pose a grave threat to vulnerable nations, and existing funding commitments do little to meet the need for adaptation, mitigation and resilience.
To boost public awareness of these issues – and the urgent need for cross-sectoral solutions – the Earth Journalism Network is pleased to announce a new round of media grants through its Asia-Pacific Phase 2 project, which aims to boost the quantity and quality of environmental coverage in the region and amplify the perspectives of at-risk communities.
This project has received generous financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Eligibility
This round of grants will be focused on supporting media outlets, journalism institutions and other organizations that work directly with media or content creators in the Asia-Pacific region. Applicant organizations must be legally permitted to receive grants from foreign organizations.
Civil society organizations, community-based groups and research institutions will not be eligible for this round.
For the purpose of this call, we are only accepting applications from low-and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We are unfortunately unable to accept applications from Pakistan and Central Asian or Middle Eastern countries.
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.
Objectives
Proposed activities should seek to:
- Strengthen the capacity of journalists and media organizations to produce high-quality, evidence-based and engaging environmental stories on the consequences of human impacts on the environment and viable solutions to mitigate and respond to these impacts.
- Improve the quality and quantity of content and/or media coverage on key environmental themes to focus public attention on the interdependence of the health and well-being of humans and their environments.
- Direct public attention to the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on women, the poor, youth, Indigenous Peoples, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups and increase these groups’ access to high-quality, publicly available environmental information.
- Contribute to positive changes in environmental governance, policy actions, environmental standards in the private sector or consumer habits for a more sustainable way of life.
Project themes
For this round, we are particularly interested in proposals that focus on one or more of the following themes:
- Under-reported environmental issues and their linkages with health, organized crime, migration, conflict and other issues
- The interdependence of the health and well-being of humans, animals and their environments
- Environmental governance and natural resource management
- The energy transition and climate financing
- Viable environmental solutions for community resilience in the face of interconnected environmental crises
We welcome proposals that seek to:
- Incorporate the ethical use of AI as a tool to support journalists in their reporting on environmental issues.
- Work with social media content creators or include social media outreach to access a diverse and widespread audience online
- Work with marginalized groups, such as women, youth, Indigenous People, ethnic minority groups. people with disabilities, or poor households
Examples of activities or outputs that can be supported include, but are not limited to:
- Training workshops for journalists and/or content creators, to increase the quality and quantity of climate and environmental information in news outlets and/or social media
- Story grants and mentoring for journalists and/or content creators
- The development of reporters’ resources and/or e-learning tools to benefit environmental reporters and their audiences
- The development of innovative mapping, data visualization and/or fact-checking tools to support reporting and/or the distribution of environmental stories
- Transboundary, collaborative, investigative and/or data-led reporting projects that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and content sharing among media outlets based in different regions or countries
- The establishment of new storytelling platforms
- Partnerships and network-building activities such as the formation of an environmental journalists’ network or an investigative reporting collective
- Cross-sectoral collaborations and knowledge exchange between journalists, information providers, researchers and policymakers
Learn more about past and present EJN media grantees’ projects here and here.
Please note that we will not consider project proposals rooted in advocacy or political campaigning.
Grant amount and logistics
We expect to notify successful applicants in February or March 2025. Projects should be completed within 12 months. Extensions beyond this timeline will not be permitted. Applicants should consider this timeline when drafting their workplan.
This grant fund has US$100,000 available for awards this year, which would ideally be shared among 5-6 projects. The grant amount can range between US$15,000 to US$20,000 depending on the scope of the proposed activities.
All applicants are required to provide a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested. We ask that the budgets be reasonable and account for costs necessary for project implementation. Applicants may use a portion of the grant to purchase equipment but should clearly state how the equipment will contribute to the expected outcomes and it should make up no more than 10% of the overall budget.
Applicants are permitted and encouraged to raise co-financing for the proposed activities, but it is not required. If you have received any co-financing, please disclose the amount and the source in your application.
As part of EJN’s support to the grantees, the selected organizations will undertake a participatory Organizational Capacity Assessment. Based on the finding of the assessment, they may receive additional assistance to strengthen their organizational capacity (i.e. to build skills and knowledge on topics such as financial reporting, monitoring and evaluation, gender inclusion, etc.
One representative of each selected organization will be invited to join a virtual or in-person EJN Asia-Pacific Forum where they will have the opportunity to gain relevant knowledge and skills, and network with each other and EJN staff. As part of this activity, grantees will also participate in sensitivity and awareness training on gender and marginalized groups’ needs.
For projects that involve the publication of stories or other material, please note that Internews, EJN, its partners and the grant funder will be given rights to edit, publish, broadcast and distribute those materials freely.
Judging criteria
Grants will be awarded competitively through a judging process. The panel of judges will consist of Internews staff and experts in environmental reporting. Following a first-round review, potential grantees will be shortlisted. The jury may interview shortlisted applicants to seek further information on the proposed activity. The jury will then reconvene again after the interviews to make a final selection of the grantees.
The jury evaluates all eligible applications in a comparative context and makes funding decisions based on the availability of funds, the program objectives, and the following assessment criteria:
- overall quality of the proposal and effectiveness of the project design
- relevance of the proposed project in contributing to the objectives and priorities of this grant program
- potential of proposed project to bring about positive change
- innovativeness of the proposed activities
- financial viability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed project
- the ability of the applicant to carry it out;
- The long-term sustainability of the project and of the organization
- geographical spread of the grantees
How to apply
Click the 'Apply now' button at the top of the page.
If you have an existing account, you'll need to log in. If not, you must register by clicking “Log in” on the top right of the page and clicking the “Sign up” link at the bottom of the page that opens. Click here for detailed instructions on how to create an account, and here for detailed instructions on how to reset your password.
If you start the application and want to come back and complete it later, you can click 'Save Draft.' To return to the draft, you'll need to go back to the opportunity and click 'Apply now' again to finalize the application.
Applications should provide a detailed budget in an Excel spreadsheet with justification for the amount requested. Download the budget template now by clicking on this link.
Note: You'll be asked to upload these supporting documents once you start the application process, so please have them handy.
If you encounter difficulties with submitting your application or have questions about the grants, please email [email protected]. Do not contact any other Internews email regarding this opportunity, as we will not receive it.
Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
Banner image: People crowded in densely populated areas are at greater risk of heat stress, water insecurity and disease transmission. Pictured here are Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (Rohingya) in refugee camps / Credit: Rabiul Hassan for icddr,b via Flickr.