The Emergency Response Support Grants are designed to enable fact-checkers to respond rapidly and effectively to disinformation during crisis events across Europe, as well as to build crisis capacity through preparation activities. These grants are part of FACTEUR: Fact-Checkers for European Resilience Against Disinformation, a project implemented by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) with seven partner organisations: Pagella Politica/Facta, Faktograf, Newtral, Fact Review, Greece Fact Check, Fact Check Cyprus and Science Feedback.
Background
Information crises are characterised by the emergence of an “information vacuum”, a critical window where the demand for reliable news far outpaces the supply of verified facts. It is within this vacuum of high uncertainty that disinformation thrives, often overwhelming the regular response capacities of media and fact-checking organisations.
We define an information crisis as the disruption of the information system characterised by a surge in the volume and intensity of disinformation within public and digital spaces.
This involves the deliberate spread of false or misleading content intended to deceive the public, cause harm, or achieve political, economic or security gains, and triggering further social and political escalations in the information space including hate speech, inciting public panic, increased societal polarisation and institutional mistrust, threats to collective safety, and both online and physical attacks against specific social groups.
An information crisis is often, but not always, determined by a crisis event. We divide these crisis events into three main categories: predictable, semi-predictable and unpredictable. For more information, refer to the Crisis Events Taxonomy.
While unpredictable information crises leave little room for manoeuvre, predictable events allow organisations to utilise the available lead time to pre-emptively build resilience and prepare their response strategies.
The FACTEUR project has established a standardised taxonomy of crisis events, allowing teams to assess their technical, human and financial readiness and to formulate strategic plans for foreseeable crises.
Acknowledging that not every crisis event will inevitably escalate into a full-scale information crisis, it is highly recommended to monitor the information ecosystem closely and prepare for potential escalation whenever such events occur.
Furthermore, the FACTEUR project recognises that an information crisis may emerge in one country without necessarily manifesting in another, as the potential for a situation to escalate into a full-scale information crisis often depends on specific national contexts and societal resilience. However, national-level crises are frequently exploited by disinformation actors to establish or reinforce specific disinformation-based narratives that then become cross-European. In this context, coordinated Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) operations, as long-lasting structured activities with dedicated infrastructure, can act as a powerful amplifier, strategically weaponising crisis events to boost their impact and scale narratives across borders. At the same time, FIMI operations possess the capacity to generate crises at both national and international levels.
Activities
Fact-checking organisations can request support for the following grants:
1. Emergency Fact-Checking Grants are aimed at:
- Crisis fact-checking, debunking and investigative reporting, which includes hiring additional journalists and fact-checkers.
- Advancing technical capabilities to monitor and react to disinformation, which includes procurement and upgrading of AI and other monitoring and verification tools.
- Publishing counter-narratives and analysis of information crises, which can include production costs, translation and other costs.
- Enhancing crisis communication, engagement and the reach of fact-checking activities, which can include the creation of multimedia content and cooperation with other media and content creators.
- Other activities related to specific crisis event needs which are clearly demonstrated in the application.
2. Emergency Capacity-Building Grants are aimed at:
- Improving organisational security and legal protection within the scope of preparation activities for crisis events.
- Enhancing crisis preparedness and the development of organisational protocols, trainings and mentorship.
- Improving technical capabilities to monitor disinformation campaigns and FIMI operations.
- Analysing the disinformation ecosystem that can be activated during crisis events.
- Strengthening cross-border cooperation in order to enhance responses to crisis events that are common to a certain region or cultural and political context.
- Strengthening the capacity to detect and debunk AI-generated content during crises.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must meet the following requirements:
- Legal entity: applicants must be a legal entity, whether for-profit or non-profit.
- Certification: applicants must be EFCSN certified fact-checking organisations, or fact-checking organisations that can demonstrate that they respect in practice the European Code of Standards for Independent Fact-Checking Organisations, including but not limited to transparency of funding, staff and governance.
- Fact-checking: applicants must be fact-checking organisations, or fact-checking teams or units within larger organisations. Fact-checking is defined as the use of an evidence-based method to verify the accuracy of claims made in the public sphere. Applicants must publish at least four human-authored, original fact-checking articles a month on average.
- Location: organisations must be based in the European Union or DEP-associated countries (please consult this document for the most updated version).
- Single applicants or consortia: this call is intended for both single applicants and consortia of organisations. All members of the consortium must comply with all eligibility criteria. Any organisation can receive funding for Emergency Capacity-Building Grants only once during the call duration. Any organisation can receive funding twice for Emergency Fact-Checking Grants during the call duration. An exception may be made for unpredictable crisis events affecting multiple countries, allowing an eligible organisation to receive a third grant.
Budget, Funding, Payment Terms, Grant Duration
- Total budget for emergency response support: €450,000 (€225,000 for Emergency Fact-Checking Grants and €225,000 for Emergency Capacity-Building Grants)
- Maximum project amount: €30,000. The exact amount must be calculated using this template table.
- Funding rate: 50%
- Maximum grant amount: €15,000
- Form of grant: lump sums
- Eligible costs:
- Direct costs: salaries and compensations, volunteer costs (in line with the daily rates listed here), consultants, mentors, equipment, online and IT tools, travel and accommodation, translation, legal costs, production costs (graphic design, multimedia content creation and similar) and other costs related to activities.
- Indirect / administrative costs: indirect costs cover organisational overhead directly related to managing this support request (for example staff time spent coordinating, administration). These are capped at 10% of total direct costs.
- Number of grants: approximately 30 (15 for Emergency Fact-Checking Grants and 15 for Emergency Capacity-Building Grants)
- Payment structure: 50% upon approval of the request, 50% following the approval of the final report.
- Retroactive costs: if a grant is approved, costs that are presented in the budget are eligible from the time of application submission.
- Maximum grant duration: 8 months
Selection Procedure
The evaluation will be conducted in three phases.
Phase 1: Eligibility and Compliance. The EFCSN team will perform an initial check to ensure all applications are complete, meet the basic requirements, and that applicants are eligible.
Phase 2: Expert Evaluation. Requests will be evaluated by the consortium experts based on need, urgency, regional vulnerability and the applicant’s capacity to absorb the support. EFCSN will oversee the process, ensuring transparency, financial safeguards and equitable distribution. Applications will be assessed against the award criteria outlined below.
| Category | Description | Max. points |
|---|---|---|
| Need | Clear evidence of a crisis event occurring during or after the project, and organisational needs related to unpredictable crisis events. | 10 |
| Urgency | Time-sensitive circumstances where the absence of support would meaningfully worsen the outcome. | 10 |
| Regional Vulnerability | Context of the operating environment: political, economic or press freedom constraints that amplify organisational risks in case of crisis events. | 10 |
| Absorptive Capacity | Organisational ability to receive, manage and account for the funds in a timely manner. | 10 |
Phase 3: Approval. All grant applications that receive at least 30 points will be reviewed and approved by the WP4 Consortium Decision Body.
How to Apply and Timeline
This call is open from 10 August 2026 on a rolling basis, but no later than 31 December 2027 or until funds are depleted.
To apply, please fill out this application form on the EFCSN Grants Platform. Note that you will need to register an account if you have not already.
Please note that all budgeted costs should reflect market rates. Requests will be evaluated within 3 working days for unpredictable crises and 30 working days for predictable and semi-predictable crises.
Rejected applicants may appeal within 5 working days. The Governance Body delegates the final review, which must be resolved within 15 working days.
Reporting
An outcome report is expected from all grant recipients no later than 30 days after completion of the project (maximum 8 months).
Transparency Notice
This call has also been published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Funding granted through this call will be disclosed on https://efcsn.com/funding-opportunities/. Disclosure will cover the name of the receiving organisation, the amount, and the grant duration.
Please note: if a grant recipient operates in a high-risk environment or handles sensitive data, they may request that their identity remains confidential during the implementation phase and be disclosed after the end of the funding cycle.
Questions?
Please send questions about this call to [email protected].
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
