RULES FOR APPLICATION
EFSJ climate investigation grant 2022

INTRODUCTION

Created in 2018, the climate investigation grant aims to support ambitious field investigations focused on understanding of the climate, adaptation to climate change, or on different mitigation strategies. It also aims to encourage transnational, collaborative and transmedia projects. It is exclusively reserved for professional journalists (print, radio, TV, web…), who must be a member either of a national association of science journalists, based in Europe, or of the EFSJ (or thereafter become a member). There is no linguistic restriction on the language in which the winning projects are subsequently published.

CLAUSE 1 – CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION

  • Conditions concerning the author and his or her potential co-authors

A project may be carried out by one author, but the jury favours projects carried out by various co-authors, especially from different countries. In such cases, a referent author must be designated for communications with EFSJ and its partners.

To compete for the climate investigation grant, the author or the referent author if the project concerns several co-authors, must be a European professional journalist.

The author can only participate in one application per edition. A co-author cannot withdraw or be withdrawn from a project admitted to pre-selection, and especially not once awarded.

  • Conditions relating to the project

The climate investigation grant can only be awarded to projects. It is not accessible to works which are already completed or being finalised. If the project is carried out by several co-authors, it is the subject of a single application on which all the co-authors must expressly appear.

Projects must be presented and addressed exclusively by the authors. Applications filed directly by a legal person (company, collective, association…) will not be considered.

The projects can be published in any language but must be submitted to the jury in English and consist of the required documents as defined in the call for applications.

A letter of support from a media organisation is strongly recommended.

CLAUSE 2 – PROCESS

  • Registration

Online registration is free of charge at efsj.eu/climategrant in accordance with the dates and deadlines stipulated in the call for applications, and in accordance with these rules. A form details the composition of the application file and the required documents. At the end of this registration process, an acknowledgment of receipt will be sent to authors and their potential co-authors.

  • Preselection

A pre-selection will be carried out by the EFSJ. Applications which do not comply with these rules, the recommendations in the call for applications, or that do not include the required information and documents will be rejected. This pre-selection is sent to the jury for deliberation. Candidates who have not been shortlisted will be informed by email.

  • Selection

Selection will be made by a jury composed of journalists and scientists. The jury’s decision is final, made by majority at the end of the deliberations. Decisions may not be contested. The jury may request additional information at any time during the selection process.

The jury

The composition of the jury, which is being finalised, will include 2020 EFSJClimateGrant laureates; one or two researchers on climate-related disciplines; Magali Reinert (science journalist, secretary of the European federation forscience journalism, EFSJ and Krijn Soeteman (science journalist, president of the European federation for science journalism, EFSJ).

The jury will consider: the originality of the subject, its importance, its scientific relevance, the envisaged journalistic approach, its feasibility, possible international collaborations, and the transmedia dimension of the project.

CLAUSE 3 – AWARD

The climate investigation grant is a capped sum, paid directly to the winner(s) by the EFSJ. The amount requested by the authors and their teams must be specified in the call for applications. The jury is free to decide to award the candidate(s) a lower amount. A part of the sum will be paid upfront to the candidate, the remaining share when the work is published.

In the event of difficulties arising during execution of the Agreement, ESFJ will have to be informed by being addressed an official letter sent with acknowledgement of receipt. All Parties will then have to decide whether they would like to define a new object of funding from ESFJ, or to refuse the funds.

The climate investigation grant can be combined with other professional support. In case of multiple authors, the grant is paid to the designated referent author. The payment of the grant is subject to the signature of these rules.

CLAUSE 4 – GUARANTEES

Applicants shall guarantee the EFSJ and the BNP Paribas Foundation against any recourse or action that may be brought against them on any basis whatsoever, during the competition as well as the operations envisaged in Clause 5 of these rules, by any person who participated or not in the development of the work, and susceptible to assert any right of any kind.

Candidates are solely and fully responsible for the content of the work; as such, they undertake not to use any element likely to infringe on the rights of third parties, notably copyrights or their personality rights, and declare that they have obtained the prior authorisation of any third person whose protected work, image, voice or name appears in the work. In particular, contestants guarantee that their work does not contain any content that may be against the law or other regulations, notably those relating to defamation and insult, privacy and counterfeiting.

The EFSJ and its partners reserve the right to cancel an application or even the awarding of the climate investigation grant in the event that the provisions of this clause are not respected, i.e. in all cases where the responsibility of the candidate is engaged on behalf of the name or rights held by a third party in any capacity.

The awarded projects must be published by July 2023.

CLAUSE 5 – AUTHORISATIONS

The winners (names of authors, titles of projects and short summaries) will be published on the website of the EFSJ or its communication media. The winners of the climate investigation grant expressly authorise the EFSJ and the BNP Paribas Foundation, to carry out the following operations, free of charge:

  • the publication of titles, names of authors, press materials (author’s photograph, biographies, short summaries…) on all media relating to the promotion of the work and the prize list, and communicated to the EFSJ and to the BNP Paribas Foundation for this end;
  • the keeping of a copy of the completed winning work in order to make it available to the members of EFSJ and the BNP Paribas Foundation;
  • translation in English and dissemination of the work once published, in its entirety or as an excerpt, for example at the forthcoming World Conference of Science Journalists and European Conference of Science Journalists, and where appropriate at other free events organised by the EFSJ or the BNP Paribas Foundation;
  • dissemination on the site and social networks of the EFSJ, the ECSJ, the BNP Paribas Foundation and associations members of the EFSJ of one or more extracts of the work once published.

CLAUSE 6 – OBLIGATIONS

The beneficiaries undertake to regularly inform the EFSJ (secretary@efsj.eu) of the progress of the funded work. The beneficiaries undertake to publish the work in the media or media of their choice and in the language of their choice. They expressly undertake to inform the EFSJ of the first publication of the work.

The mention “With the support of the EFSJ/BNP Paribas Foundation climate investigation grant” must appear on any medium of dissemination, exploitation, or publication of the work.

CLAUSE 7 – INCOMPATIBILITY

Members of the jury and the pre-selection working group may not be candidates as principal or co-author. Work which involves one of the jury members in any way whatsoever cannot be awarded grants.

CLAUSE 8 – ACCEPTANCE OF THE RULES

Participation in the selection process implies full and unreserved acceptance of these rules. The rules are deemed as accepted at the end of the online registration process, once it is validated by the candidate.

The EFSJ and its partners reserve the right to modify or cancel the conditions for the awarding of climate investigation grants, and shall not incur any liability in this respect. They shall inform candidates as soon as possible.

WHO ARE WE ?

The European Federation for Science Journalism is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote independent, high-quality science journalism across Europe by organising meetings and conferences, setting-up cross-border investigative reporting grants, and running awards. The EFSJ supports and stimulate journalists to critically examine, challenge and assess scientific information in a social, cultural, political, ethical and economic context. The EFSJ helps develop and support new business models for independent science journalism and stimulate the debate about the role of science journalism and science communication.

The BNP Paribas Foundation, under the aegis of the Fondation de France, has been a major player in corporate philanthropy since 1984. It also coordinates the international development of the BNP Paribas Group’s patronage, wherever the Bank is present. The BNP Paribas Foundation places its actions in a multidisciplinary patronage approach, favouring innovative projects dedicated to culture, solidarity, and the environment. Attentive to the quality of its commitment to its partners, the BNP Paribas Foundation strives to support their projects over time.
Since 2010, the BNP Paribas Foundation has been supporting research on climate change and biodiversity loss through its Climate & Biodiversity Initiative programme: increasing knowledge about interactions between climate and biodiversity, about climate system dysfunction and evaluating the consequences on our environment and societies, will allow all the players to change their behaviour.