Winners of the sixth annual IJ4EU awards for cross-border investigative journalism will be announced on September 17.
Ten outstanding investigations have been shortlisted for the 2026 IJ4EU Impact Awards, celebrating collaborative journalism that drives real change across borders in Europe.
With a record 50 eligible entries this year, the nominations reflect cross-border collaboration in European watchdog journalism at its strongest yet. The nominated teams comprise nearly 600 journalists from 63 countries, including 26 EU member states, and span a geographical range from Iceland to Uganda.
Independent evaluators at Leipzig University carried out the pre-evaluation process that produced the shortlist. The process was convened by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), one of the IJ4EU fund’s core partners.
Three winning teams, each receiving €5,000, will be chosen by an independent jury chaired by Leila Bičakčić, one of Southeast Europe’s leading investigative journalism experts. The jury will consider all eligible nominations in reaching its final decision.
The winners will be announced on September 17, 2026 during IJ4EU’s annual UNCOVERED Conference, hosted in Budapest by Goethe-Institut Hungary.
The 10 shortlisted investigations, listed in alphabetical order, are
- Bad Practice
- Exporting Abortion
- DRC’s European Shadow Army
- Factories on the run: inside the global trade that moves PFAS downstream
- The Forever Lobbying Project
- The Great Firewall Export: China’s Censorship Technology Goes Global
- State Children: What Happened to Orphaned Children During the Evacuation to Turkey
- Killing for the Photo: Story behind the only Photographs of an Execution in the Yugoslav Wars
- In the Russian Penal Colony, They Called Him ‘Dr. Evil’
- Viktoriia Project
Discover the shortlist in detail here.