The Earth Journalism Network is launching its third round of small grants to invest in strategic opportunities for media development around the world. As in previous years, these grants aim first and foremost to build the capacities of local environmental journalism networks, and thus in turn respond to the needs of the grant recipients’ local communities and environments.

We are predominantly focused on the developing world, where the need is often the greatest but the pool of available resources limited; however, we are open to proposals from anywhere. Projects aimed at building networks – existing or prospective – of environmental journalists are especially encouraged to apply. Projects that draw on innovative methods to build these networks or distribute environmental news will be viewed particularly favorably.

Last year, the Earth Journalism Network supported the creation of an SMS-based environmental news service in the Philippines, the development of training materials for the use of Web 2.0 tools in environmental journalism in Argentina, the establishment of a network of environmental journalists in South and Central Asia, the training of radio journalists and distribution of stories across a network of stations in the Central African Republic, and the introduction of an environmental section to an existing aggregator of citizen journalism in Tunisia.

Generally speaking, the Earth Journalism Grants Fund will be focused on capacity building, but if special opportunities arise, we are open to supporting fellowships and travel grants that support specific story ideas or coverage of key events, so long as these projects involve collaboration between multiple journalists. While content production is an important aspect of any project, applications without some form of network- or capacity-building component will not be considered. As Internews is strictly a media development organization, please avoid any applications rooted in advocacy or political campaigning.

Applicants should fill out the form below and the attached simple budget sheet, and may additionally submit a brief concept note to the Earth Journalism Network to help us assess the project (optional). When drafting a budget, please note that we have a total of US$50,000 available for the coming year to be divided among at least 5 projects.