DEADLINE: GRID-Arendal Investigative Environmental Journalism Grants

GRID-Arendal invites applications for the 2024 round of investigative environmental journalism grants, open until December 4.

GRID-Arendal awards grants to investigative journalists working on various issues related to environmental crime in developing countries. There is a pressing need to put environmental crime in the spotlight of international attention, and this is where investigative journalism can make a difference. The grant money is intended to support investigative journalists by covering costs related to an investigation (travel, document retrieval, interviews etc.).

The first grants were awarded in 2015, creating awareness on specific environmental crime issues through stories posted in international media. In 2021, four investigations were supported and published by GRID-Arendal's Investigative Environmental Journalism Grants programme. Investigations covered topics such as deforestation in Papua, coal mining in Zimbabwe, environmental activists in Colombia, and the export of charcoal and rosewood from Nigeria.

In 2022 and 2023, GRID-Arendal awarded six grants of 20,000 NOK each.

In 2024, we are offering a total of six grants, each representing 20,000 Norwegian kroner (approximately €2,000 / US$1800).

This year, themes we are interested in funding include (but are not limited to):

• Illegal wildlife trade and poaching, in particular, illegal trade taking place online and at the international level
• Illegal logging and timber trade, including fraud in the carbon offset market or “greenwashing”
• Illegal mining, particularly minerals used for “green energy”, and improper disposal
• High-seas crimes and deep-sea mining
• Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fisheries
• Water management involving land use injustices and transboundary collaboration implications
• Waste crimes, mainly related to the illicit trade and dumping of plastic waste, E-waste and electronics consumption
• Impact of armed conflicts on the environment
• Criminalisation and silencing of environmentalists’ defenders

Will be given priority to stories:

• Highlighting environmental justice issues and illicit financial flows.
• With innovative format (multi format, audio, story-map) and data presentations (visual, graphical), especially when using AI, remote sensing technologies and open source information.

Open to professional journalists with experience in investigative journalism. Can be a staff member at a media organization or a freelancer with a record of publishing work in respected media organizations. Reporting projects must focus on one or more countries on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) list of Official Development Assistance recipients.

Journalists from anywhere in the world are welcome to apply. We encourage applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds.

More information.