IMPACT AWARD 2026

Europe’s most prestigious award for cross-border investigative journalism is back! The IJ4EU Impact Award 2026, managed by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), will once again shine a spotlight on cross-border investigations that make a real difference in Europe.

Each year, an independent expert jury selects three outstanding investigations, awarding €5,000 to each winner. The winners are announced at the IJ4EU UNCOVERED Conference each autumn, a key event for Europe’s investigative journalism community.

Do you think your team’s work has the impact, rigor, and collaboration to be recognised across Europe? Keep your eyes on this space, nominations open soon!

Mark your calendars:

Nomination period: 26 February (09:00 CET) – 23 April (23:59 CET) 2026

Eligible investigations: Published between 1 January and 31 December 2025

General Eligibility

The award is open to cross-border investigations published between 1 January and 31 December 2025 via any credible medium, including print, broadcast TV or radio, online, documentary film, multimedia, and podcasts.

• Nominations must include any significant challenge to the honesty, accuracy or fairness of an entry, such as published letters, corrections, retractions as well as responses by the relevant newspaper or website.
• Nominated investigations must involve journalists 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, which provides core funding for IJ4EU.
• Nominated investigations need to highlight issues of common interest for European countries, and be seen to have strengthened European media.
• Nominated investigations may have been published in any language. However, for investigations not published in English, a translation in English of the core investigation/summary must be provided.

Application requirements

The IJ4EU Impact Award nomination process is designed to be simple, secure, and efficient. When nominations open, submissions must be made in English via the Good Grants platform, a free-to-use secure platform for submission and storage. It is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and GDPR-compliant, with multi-factor authentication, encrypted data, multi-tier backups, and a secure multi-server architecture in VPC.

Each person making a nomination needs to create a personal user account to ensure the application can be submitted securely and so as not to jeopardize the proposed investigation or those involved. The nomination form can be saved and is accessible until ready for submission. Once the application is submitted, it can no longer be edited.

Only nominations received via the Good Grants platform by the stated date and time will be considered. You will receive an email confirmation of your submission. Brevity in supplying the information requested will be appreciated.

Nominations for the IJ4EU Impact Award must include:

• Name and contact details of the person nominating the project
• Name and contact details of the lead nominee
• Country where the nominee is based
• The title of the project or story (in English)
• Publication type (e.g., print, broadcast TV, broadcast radio, online, documentary film, multimedia, podcast)
• Date of first publication
• Link to the publication
• A brief summary of the project (the core findings of the investigation)
• A brief summary of the process of investigation
• A brief summary of the project’s cross-border effectiveness
• A brief description of any obstacles faced by the nominee in carrying out the work
• An estimate of how long it took to carry out the project
• Full names of all team members, with countries they are based in and their contact details
• The name of the outlet(s) in which the project or story was first published
• Names of other media and platforms in which the story has been published
• Summary of the impact of the project (political, institutional, structural changes, actions and reactions, impact in the journalistic community, acknowledgements via awards and mentions, and potential to create further impact)
• A brief explanation of why the proposer thinks the investigation deserves this award
• A summary of any critical responses following publication of the project

The following supporting information is required:

• Evidence of any impact that the story/project has had
• Links to the project or PDFs of published material
• Copies of any significant criticism of the project that led to corrections, retractions, or responses by the media outlet(s)

Pre-Evaluation Process

All eligible nominations will undergo a pre-evaluation process conducted as part of a BA course in Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University. The purpose of the pre-evaluation is to provide a structured shortlist of 10 nominated investigations, serving as a reference for the award jury in their independent decision-making.

The pre-evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

• International scope: Reach and collaboration across borders
• Impact: Measured by political, institutional, and structural changes and reactions, influence within the journalistic community, audience engagement, recognition through awards and mentions, as well as the investigation’s potential for further impact

The jury has access to all eligible nominations and maintains full independence in selecting the three equal winners of the IJ4EU Impact Award, whether from the shortlist or beyond.

Selection process

The jury will be fully independent in its decision-making but will be provided with a set of criteria to guide the process. The jury’s decision will take into account, but is not limited to:

• Impact of the nominated investigation
• Journalistic quality of the nominated investigation
• Innovative use of cross-border journalism to cover a topic of public interest
• Newsworthiness / added value of the nominated investigation to public discourse in the EU
• Storytelling techniques
• Potential of the nominated investigation to inspire similar cross-border journalism and contribute to the sustainability of investigative journalism in the EU

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony during IJ4EU’s annual UNCOVERED Conference in autumn 2026.

Save the date and get ready! Nominations open 26 February 2026 at 09:00 (CET).

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For further questions, remarks, and suggestions, feel free to contact us at impact-award@ecpmf.eu.

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