The latest call for IJ4EU grant applications closed on March 31, smashing records as an unprecedented number of teams across Europe and beyond applied for financial support for cross-border investigations.
In the first call of the 2024/25 funding round, 235 teams submitted grant proposals, up from 186 during the previous call.
The teams had members based in a whopping 70 countries.
To be eligible, teams have to first satisfy IJ4EU’s core geographical requirements, which means having members based in at least two European countries that have signed up to the full cross-sectoral strand of the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme.
Those countries are all 27 EU member states and the following non-EU countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Ukraine.
In the latest round, only Iceland and Liechtenstein were unrepresented.
Assuming teams meet the core geographical eligibility criteria, they can include members from countries further afield. In the latest round, applicants included team members based in 35 additional countries.
Those countries were Afghanistan, Andora, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Sudan, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
Applicants under the latest round sought a combined €6.95 million in grants, compared with €5.5 million in the previous round.
IJ4EU’s two independent juries – one for the Investigation Support Scheme and one for the Freelancer Support Scheme – will meet later this month to select projects for funding. All teams will be notified shortly after that.
Best of luck to all!