The countdown begins for Europe’s leading prize in cross-border investigative journalism.
Ten outstanding investigations have been shortlisted for the 2025 IJ4EU Impact Award, Europe’s annual prize celebrating impactful collaborative journalism.
This year’s pool of eligible nominations reflects the power of cross-border collaboration in European watchdog journalism, with projects submitted by 36 teams representing a total of 58 countries—including all 27 EU member states and countries well beyond European borders.
The shortlist was selected through a pre-evaluation process carried out by independent evaluators at Leipzig University, convened by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), one of the IJ4EU fund’s core partners.
An independent jury chaired by Gillian Phillips will select three winning teams, each awarded €5,000. While the shortlist highlights exceptional entries, the jury retains the flexibility to choose winners from the entire pool of eligible nominations. The winners will be announced on 26 September 2025 at the closing ceremony of UNCOVERED, IJ4EU’s annual conference. This year’s edition will be hosted in Athens, Greece, by iMEdD International Journalism Forum.
Explore the 10 shortlisted investigations, listed in alphabetical order.
The Baku Connection
by a consortium of international media partners led by Forbidden Stories
“We call on all investigative journalists around the world to support us and continue our investigations where we left off.”
15 outlets, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, responded to that call — taking up the work of Azerbaijani journalists Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinc Vaqifqizi of Abzas Media, who were imprisoned alongside four of their colleagues by Azerbaijani authorities.
The investigation they continued exposed far more than local corruption: from the murky management of Azerbaijan’s prison system and environmental abuses at the Gedabek gold mine, to EU funds flowing into Azerbaijan’s prison system known for human rights violations. It also reveals how election monitoring was manipulated, and uncovers a financial network involving millions in embezzled funds moving through Luxembourg, France, and Azerbaijan just as Azerbaijan prepared to host COP29.
Deadly prices – How big pharma feeds inequality in Europe
by Investigate Europe, and its partners NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reporters United, and Eesti Ekspress
Why are life-saving medicines still out of reach for so many in Europe — and who profits from the pain?
Investigate Europe, with its partners NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reporters United, and Eesti Ekspress, exposes how pharmaceutical giants exploit opaque pricing systems, lobbying power, and intellectual property rules to keep drug costs high across the continent. With powerful reporting from across EU member states, the cross-border team uncovers how governments are often out-negotiated, patients left waiting, and public health budgets strained, all while Big Pharma’s profits soar. This is investigative journalism that demands answers from a system built to benefit shareholders over lives.
The Gaza Project
by a consortium of international media partners led by Forbidden Stories
Press vests have become targets.
Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on 7 October, Palestine has become the most dangerous place on earth for media workers with over 100 journalists having been killed in Gaza and the West Bank. In response to this deadliest conflict for the press in recent history, The Gaza Project brings together 50 reporters from 13 newsrooms, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, to investigate nearly 100 cases of journalists killed, injured, or allegedly targeted.
Unable to report from inside the Gaza strip, the team gathered more than 120 witness accounts, mapped GPS data, traced ballistic trajectories, and consulted 25 independent experts. The result: Compelling evidence that challenges Israeli government denials and exposes a chilling pattern of attacks on the press.
How an EU-funded security force helped Senegal crush democracy protests
by Andrei Popoviciu and José Bautista, Al Jazeera English and Fondación porCausa
Built to tackle border crime in West Africa, used to crush democratic dissent in Senegal.
The investigation by Andrei Popoviciu and José Bautista reveals how GAR-SI, backed by millions in European funding, was deployed to suppress protests sparked by the prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Dozens were killed, and many more injured or arrested, as Senegalese authorities used EU-supplied armored vehicles and gear to target demonstrators, often far from any border. Internal documents, footage, and a confidential evaluation expose not only the force’s domestic use, but also a pattern of corruption, poor oversight, and rights abuses. The investigation led members of the European Parliament to call for a formal inquiry into how EU-funded security projects are being used to undermine the same democratic values they’re meant to uphold.
Kremlin Leaks: How the Russian Red Cross became part of Vladimir Putin’s war and propaganda system
by Delfi Estonia, Expressen, Frontstory.pl, Meduza, iStories, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, Tamedia, VSquare, and ZDF
Exposing the Propaganda Machine’s Panopticon View
17 journalists from seven countries joined forces to verify and analyse a cache of documents leaked from Putin’s presidential administration.
Published in lead-up to the Russia’s presidential election, Kremlin Leaks offers a unique insight into how Kremlin stages a billion dollar performance of civic engagement, creating fake networks of opinion leaders, running a propaganda systems that tracks Russian citizen from birth to death, and spies on each step they take on the internet using sophisticated IT systems.
The investigation also uncovers how Russia’s propaganda machine extends to unexpected institutions, including even the Russian Red Cross (RRC). Documents show its involvement in “re-education” of children deported from occupied Ukraine and routine engagement in Russia’s patriotic military camps, where young children are taught to handle rifles and train in close-combat.
Passportgate
by Belarusian Investigative Center (Alina Yanchur, Stanislau Ivashkevich, Maksym Savchuk) and 15min.lt (Jūratė Damulytė, Gabriele Navickaite, Jurgita Šimelevičienė)
New passports, same oligarch
This series of investigation, BIC and 15min.lt shows how one man’s monopoly has quietly shaped the business of state control: Viktor Chevtsov, a powerful oligarch known as “Lukashenko’s moneybag” profits from a company called Golograficheskaya Industria, which has held a state-granted monopoly on producing security holograms and crystallograms state-mandated on a wide range of consumer products, securing a steady flow of public money into private hands.
But the story doesn’t end there: Reporters also uncovered ties between Chevtsov and Lithuania’s longtime passport producer, Garsų pasaulis, the very company chosen by Belarusian opposition leaders to create the “New Belarus” passport–a document meant to give safe, legitimate identification to Belarusians in exile. Unbeknownst to Belarusian opposition, Garsų pasaulis and Chevtsov co-own a company registered in Lithuania.
Poison PR
by Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde, The Guardian, Africa Uncensored, The New Lede, The New Humanitarian, ABC News Australia, The Wire, Premium Times, and the Continent
US taxpayer money channelled to a secret campaign to promote pesticides
A consortium of outlets coordinated by Lighthouse Reports brought to light how the US government funded a covert campaign by the PR company v-Fluence to downplay the risks of pesticides, discredit opponents, and undermine Europe’s Green Deal. The taxpayer money was channelled, among others, to an exclusive social network named “Bonus Eventus”, exposing private data of hundreds of pesticide critics including scientists, politicians, campaigners and UN experts, to its members including US government officials.
The investigation also revealed that v-Fluence worked actively using influence and misinformation campaigns to undermine the EU Green Deal and a conference on the health risks of hazardous pesticides in Kenya, leading international funders to withdraw their support from the event.
“Say Privet”
by Delfi Estonia, OCCRP, Paper Trail Media, Der Standard, Re:Baltica, and ZDF
“Just say hi to us.”
That is exactly what journalists from Delfi, OCCRP, Paper Trail Media, ZDF, and Der Standard did to gain access to a covert Telegram channel linked to the Wagner mercenary group, for their undercover investigation. Behind this simple greeting lies a disturbing recruitment pipeline: young men with pro-Russian views are being targeted and encouraged to “join the fight against Ukraine’s Western allies.”
These channels, which Western experts believe are backed by Russian intelligence services, offer payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for acts of sabotage, espionage, arson, and even murder. The goal is clear: Spread fear and chaos, and weaken support for Ukraine from within Western societies.
Shady Green Finance
Stefano Valentino and Giorgio Michalopoulos, Freelance journalists / Voxeurop
Image credit: Pavel Constantin
Was green finance meant to fix the environmental crisis or to hide it?
What was once introduced as a tool to steer money away from climate-damaging industries is now being hijacked to legitimise them. A year-long investigation reveals how companies involved in oil and gas, coal mining, aviation, fashion, and even arms manufacturing are cashing in on green investment schemes, by exploiting regulatory loopholes, using vague language, and leaning on weak voluntary standards to issue so-called green bonds often with no binding climate conditions. These funds allow them to finance their business as usual behind their official climate commitments, and spread misleading messages about the supposed sustainability of their brands.
With Europe’s support, North African Nations push immigrants in the desert
by Lighthouse Reports, Enass, Inkyfada, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais, Irpi, and Tagesschau
Europe complicit in Desert Dumps
Across North Africa, tens of thousands of Black people are forcibly removed and abandoned in barren desert zones, left at risk of starvation, violence, and death. These expulsions are carried out with European funds, masked by the sanitized language of “migration management.” And often, not without Europe’s knowledge.
The investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Enass, Inkyfada, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais, Irpi, and Tagesschau reveal that EU-backed resources, including money, vehicles, and surveillance technology, directly enable these “desert dumps,” which systematically target Black communities through racial profiling and forceful expulsion in Morocco, Mauritania, and Tunisia, even after their legal status and livelihood in these countries have long been established.
