EFCSN Expansion Grants
The European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) is pleased to announce a call for Expansion Grants to grow and support fact-checking and information integrity work in Europe with a particular focus on underserved regions.
Objectives & Activities
These grants are designed to support:
- Reinforcement of fact-checking capacity in underrepresented regions or regions in danger of losing fact-checking coverage.
- Development of operational and organisational resilience in young or emerging fact-checking teams or organisations, understood as organisations that have been operational for less than three years, are volunteer-based and are looking to professionalise, or small organisations at a strategic inflection point at which they need to professionalise in order to survive.
- Expansion of fact-checking coverage in countries and languages that are currently not at all or only to a limited extent covered by the work of EFCSN-certified fact-checkers such as Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland or Malta.
- Support for organisations seeking EFCSN certification and long-term sustainability.
- Knowledge exchange with and mentoring by mature fact-checking organisations that have been operational for more than 5 years.
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 sincere intent to comply with the European Code of Standards for Independent Fact-Checking Organisations.
- Location: Organisations must be based in the European Union or DEP-associated countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine).
- Single applicants or consortia: The call is open for single applicants or consortia of organisations.
Budget, Funding, Payment Terms, Grant Duration
- Total Call Budget: €134,000.
- Maximum Grant Amount: €67,000 per project.
- Funding rate: 50%
- Form of grant: lump sums
- Number of Grants: max. 2 grants will be awarded.
- Payment Structure: 50% upon grant agreement signature, 50% following the approval of the final project report.
- Costs must be reasonable, not excessive, and needed.
- Exact amount must be calculated using this template table.
- List of eligible costs:
- direct personnel costs – employees or equivalent: editorial personnel, research personnel, technical personnel, administrative personnel, others; natural persons under direct contract; seconded persons; SME owners.
- direct purchase costs – travel and subsistence: accommodation, travels, subsistence; other goods, works and services: consumables, services for meetings and seminars, services for dissemination activities including website, publication fees, EFCSN application and membership fees, other.
- Indirect costs – 10%.
- Max. Grant Duration: 12 months.
Selection Procedure
The evaluation will be conducted in three distinct phases:
- Phase 1: Eligibility & Compliance: The EFCSN team will perform an initial check to ensure all applications are complete, meet the basic requirements and applicants are eligible.
- Phase 2: Independent Expert Review:
- External experts in fields such as disinformation studies, AI for information quality, and media literacy will assess and score applications.
- Applications will be assessed against the award criteria outlined below.
| Category | Description | Max. Points |
|---|---|---|
| Objectives | How relevant is the proposal with regards to the objectives and scope of the call? Is the project budget reasonable and sound? Can applicants demonstrate their needs succinctly? If mature organisations are part of the proposal, can they demonstrate that they have the knowledge and expertise to mentor and coach young, emerging organisations? | 10 |
| Impact | Does the proposal provide relevant KPIs that are adequate? How will the project strengthen young or emerging fact-checking organisations for the time after the project’s end? | 10 |
| Geographical focus | Does the proposal cover underserved regions or languages? If the proposal covers regions in danger of losing fact-checking coverage, can applicants demonstrate this danger sufficiently? | 10 |
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- An average score will be calculated; at least 17 high-scoring proposals will advance to the final stage.
- All external reviewers are vetted and must be approved by the EFCSN Governance Body.
- Phase 3: Final Evaluation:
- A selection committee, including Governance Body members and optional independent reviewers, will make the final determination.
- In accordance with Article 15.3 of the EFCSN Statute, any committee member with a conflict of interest (such as an application from their own organisation or a direct competitor) must be recused from the discussion and decision.The EFCSN Audit Committee will take the final selection decision based on the results of the expert evaluation and the available budget.
How to apply and timeline
To apply, please fill out this application form.
The call closes on May 8 at 23:59. Evaluations will take place in May 2026, results will be communicated in July 2026.
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/fund/. Disclosure will cover the name of the receiving organisation, amount, and grant duration.
Questions?
Please send questions about this call to [email protected] or register for our Q&A webinar on 21 April 2026 at 11:00 CEST here.
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.
