Call for Proposals: European Digital Media Observatory

Deadline: 21-Nov-2024

The European Commission (EC) has launched the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) with the aim of supporting an independent multidisciplinary community to contribute to the fight against disinformation.

EDMO is composed of the national or regional hubs and a central platform and governance structure which supports and coordinates them.

Objectives

• The objective of this topic is to finance the work of independent national or regional hubs for analysis of digital media ecosystems in order to ensure the coverage of geographical areas covered by the EDMO hubs for which the funding is ending at the end of 2024 and in 2025. In this regard, a hub may cover more than one Member State with similar media ecosystems within an EU region. However, a Member State will be covered by only one hub, unless this can be duly justified by the media and information ecosystem.
• A hub involves organisations active in one or several Member State(s), that will provide specific knowledge of local information environments so as to strengthen the detection and analysis of disinformation campaigns, improve public awareness through media literacy and communication campaigns, assess online platforms polices against disinformation and design effective responses relevant for national audiences. The activities of the hubs are carried out in full independence from third-party entities including public authorities.

Scope 

• The EDMO hubs should cover at least all the following activities:
  • Reinforce the EDMO network by: 
    • actively participating in the EDMO governance structure, including electing hub representatives and ensuring smooth and agile communication with the EDMO network by appointing a single contact point for coordination activities among the hubs and the governance structure.
    • contributing to the planning and implementation of the EDMO network long-term strategy, and to an EDMO independence preserving scheme. This will entail to contribute to the development of a protection scheme for factcheckers and for other EDMO network members.
    • actively participating in relevant joint activities of EDMO in key areas; such as fact-checking, investigations, or research, media literacy, policy analysis, as well as in specific thematic collaborative activities.
    • contributing to the EDMO annual conference and ensuring a wide participation of the members of the consortia.
  • Detect, fact-check and disclose harmful disinformation campaigns at national, multinational and EU level, including disinformation created by using new technologies, such as deep fakes or generative AI. If the hub intends to use previously developed technological tools or to develop new tools, including AI based tools, to support its activities of fact-checking the proposal should clearly explain which new functionalities will be developed. The foreseen tools should be fully functional by the end of the project. The hubs are encouraged to develop these technological tools in cooperation with other hubs. Whenever possible the developed tools or functionalities shall be made available to other EDMO hubs.
    • A hub should contribute to joint across-hubs fact-checking projects identified by the EDMO network (as already done for instance with the EDMO Task-Force on European Parliamentary elections 2024). The hubs should also include their fact-checks in repositories of joint EDMO projects (as already done for example for the war in Ukraine) and contribute to the periodic EDMO fact-checking briefs. In addition, the hubs should include their fact-checks in the EU factchecking repository which will be set up based on the relevant commitments of the Code of Practice on Disinformation. The fact-checks produced by each hub should be published on their website or made accessible via the website and disseminate them proactively in various forms such as by fact-checking briefs, cooperation with media etc.
  • Analyse harmful disinformation campaigns at national, regional and EU level and their impact on society and democracy, in particular by:
    • analysing and exposing current disinformation narratives and trends.
    • monitoring the evolution of disinformation-related risks and harms on relevant audiences and new technologies such as deep fakes and generative AI etc.
    • detecting and analysing in an agile and practice-oriented way, emerging and prominent issues related to the disinformation landscape including for example relevant actors, tools, methods, dissemination dynamics and prioritised topics and targets of disinformation campaigns. Whenever relevant and possible, in particular regarding joint projects, hubs should contribute and use common methodology.
    • actively contributing to EDMO joint investigation or research projects that are relevant for the hub.
  • Conduct and support tailor-made and media literacy campaigns for the covered territory or linguistic area, including in cooperation with the EDMO network, the European Commission and Member States. Such campaigns should target the general public and vulnerable groups. They could also include activities dedicated to schools and education. The hubs should also foster the growth of local media literacy activities. Additionally, the hubs will leverage on the exchange of good practices and materials stored on the EDMO platform and contribute to the EDMO repositories with their own material. Hubs should explore possibilities of developing and implementing joint media literacy activities and campaigns.
  • Contribute to the monitoring of online platforms’ policies to tackle disinformation within the European legal and policy framework defined by the Digital Services Act, including the Code of Practice on Disinformation. The hubs’ work should be equipped with relevant expertise in this regard in order to contribute to related EDMO network investigation and analysis. Moreover, the hubs should be ready to contribute actively to monitoring activities based on emerging needs related to the EU policy framework in a flexible way, reacting to new developments and priorities.
  • Foster the growth of a strong national and regional multidisciplinary community by building cooperation with a wide network of relevant stakeholders within the geographical area of the hub, in particular independent fact-checkers, media practitioners, media literacy experts, and other disinformation specialists, beyond the organisations involved in the proposal. The applicants must have the ability to reach out to a large network of experts. To this end, the applicants must prove to have in place a broad network of experts and/or organisations they intend to cooperate with, which are not involved in the proposal. Such cooperation should also provide expertise in relevant areas of investigation and research (e.g. security, health, climate change, migration, economics, European policies or other relevant areas prone to disinformation. The applicants must include evidence in their proposal on how they cooperate and intend to expand such cooperation with such a network of experts.
  • Communicate and reach out through various channels to a broad audience (e.g. by traditional and online media outlets, podcasts, social media etc.) and carry out related communication campaigns about its activities.
    • This includes the dissemination of:
      • the fact-checks produced by the hub;
      • the results of investigation or research activities related to the analysis of disinformation campaigns as well as trends and risks related to the disinformation phenomenon;
      • media literacy related activities and material.
    • The communication activities should target the large public as well as specialists in the field, where appropriate by preparing targeted content for different audiences and for different media. Each hub should indicate in its proposal the type of collaborations intended for this purpose with independent media outlets operating within its territory or linguistic area.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 8 000 000.

Outcomes and Deliverables

• Production of a continuous flow of fact-checks which will also be stored in the EDMO’s repositories.
• Deliver practice-oriented reports, studies and investigations on specific disinformation campaigns and/or linked to relevant disinformation phenomena.
• Deliver media literacy campaigns and/or events at national/regional level to increase citizens’ awareness and societal resilience.
• Supporting the monitoring of online platforms’ policies and in particular related to the relevant EU policy framework, including the Code of Practice on Disinformation, in the geographical area covered by the hub by targeted inputs and analysis as well as delivering overviews and reports providing insight about the (dis)information landscape of the geographical/linguistic area covered.
• Implementing a communication strategy building on the targeted use of various channels (e.g. traditional and online media outlets, podcasts, social media etc.) aiming to reach a broad audience (both professional audience and the general public). Organising relevant outreach and training activities.
• Delivering an annual report on the activities of the hub. which will include information on i) the cooperation with other hubs; ii) participation in the EDMO governance body and in joint projects; (iii) additional funds received by the hubs; and iv) the process and safeguards put in place to preserve the independence of the hub; V) efforts to foster the growth of a regional multidisciplinary independent community.
• Each Hub should have a website already up and running, whereby all information is published in the languages covered by the national/regional hub. The main menu should be also available in English.

KPIs to measure Outcomes and Deliverables 

• Each Hub should include at least the following KPIs:
  • Produce or contribute at least 200 fact-checks.
  • Conduct or contribute to practice oriented, agile research activities to deliver at least 20 reports, studies and/or investigations on specific disinformation campaigns and/or linked to relevant disinformation phenomena.
  • Deliver at least 10 media literacy campaigns and/or events at national/regional level.
  • Deliver 2 annual reports on monitoring online platforms’ policies, relevant in the context of relevant EU policies, including the Code of Practice on Disinformation.
  • Deliver 2 annual reports on the activities of the hub.
  • Demonstrate a wide reach of the hub’s communication, outreach and training activities, including reaching specialists and the general public, based on relevant KPIs (including the number of published media articles, podcasts and social media posts as well as the reach and engagement with such posts) based on a strong communication and outreach plan.
  • Define the number of new or updated online resources made available by the hubs.

Targeted Stakeholders 

• Targeted stakeholders are European fact-checkers, preferably recognised by reputable fact-checking networks such as EFCNS or IFCN. Media practitioners, media literacy specialists, experts and researchers working on disinformation, as well as other stakeholders which conduct relevant activities related to disinformation including open-source intelligence. A hub should involve a data scientist, as well as a communication specialist with expertise in collaborating with professional media outlets and in communication activities carried out through social media.
  • The members of the consortium must demonstrate their independence from public authorities.
  • Although the members of the consortium may receive funding from external sources, the proposal should include detailed information on how the hubs’ guarantees that the hub and all its activities remain fully independent and free from any external influence to ensure impartiality and maintain the integrity of its operations.

At least one of the consortium applicants must be an independent factchecking organisation or a fact-checking unit from an independent media organisation with proven fact-checking activities in the last 12 months. The consortium must have fact-checking services covering all the geographical area of the hub.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
    • non-EU countries
      • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme

For more information, visit EC.