Fighting against Disinformation while ensuring the Right to Freedom of Expression

Deadline: 16-Sep-25

The European Commission (EC) is accepting applications for its programme to fight against Disinformation while ensuring the Right to Freedom of Expression.

In an era where misinformation proliferates rapidly, safeguarding the integrity of information while upholding freedom of expression has become paramount. Recognizing this critical balance, the European Commission has initiated a funding program aimed at combating disinformation without compromising democratic values.

This initiative seeks to support projects that address the challenges posed by disinformation, particularly in the digital realm, while ensuring that measures taken do not infringe upon individuals’ rights to free speech. By fostering a resilient information environment, the program aims to enhance public trust and promote informed civic participation.

Eligible applicants include non-governmental organizations, media outlets, academic institutions, and civil society groups committed to developing innovative strategies to detect, analyze, and counteract disinformation campaigns. Projects may encompass activities such as media literacy education, fact-checking initiatives, and the development of tools to identify and mitigate the spread of false information.

Interested parties are encouraged to submit proposals that demonstrate a comprehensive approach to tackling disinformation while respecting fundamental rights. The European Commission emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts that bring together diverse stakeholders to create sustainable solutions to this complex issue.

Scope

Mis- and disinformation and information manipulation can thwart political and societal responses to external challenges, such as climate change, public health, or migration. Solutions to such challenges, to be successful, must be based on evidence.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that involves the right to hold and express one’s opinions, as well as the right to receive and impart information and ideas, without prior authorization (censorship) or other forms of interference from the government or any other form of public authority. Therefore, freedom of expression is crucial to democracy and a key value of the European project, and it is closely linked to the role of the independent (news) media, a key pillar for checks and balances in a democratic system.

Proposals should investigate how the functioning of the media systems (in particular the data-driven information systems, that use data as a core component of their operation, decision-making processes, and overall functionality) favours disinformation, including gendered disinformation and anti LGBTIQ rhetoric, by creating an optimal environment for its creation, diffusion and proliferation.

Proposals are encouraged to look into the market incentives for media that promote mis- and disinformation and information manipulation, such as decline in viewers and incentives to focus on content that promotes engagement over factuality. This trend is driven by the need to catch audience attention in a competitive media landscape, which often prioritizes sensationalism and emotional reactions over accuracy.

Funding Information

The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

-public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and

-cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (low value grant).

Eligible Activities

The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:

Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.

Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.

Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’).

Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation.

Expected Outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

EU institutions, national decision-makers, practitioners in relevant sectors, civil society organisations and other societal actors are better equipped to confront and prevent different forms of mis- and disinformation and information manipulation, while protecting and respecting the freedom of expression and academic freedom.

EU institutions and national decision-makers have a better understanding of the categories of stakeholders opposing policies and initiatives aimed at combating disinformation and information manipulation, including understanding the drivers behind their narratives, and are better equipped to engage with them.

EU institutions and national decision-makers understand how digital media shape’s public opinion and regulate it without compromising citizens’ rights to information, media freedom, privacy and data protection, and protection from harm.

In addition, projects should contribute to at least one of the following expected outcomes:

Media, education and security practitioners are increasingly knowledgeable about tools and legal remedies to counteract the narratives of those opposing policies and initiatives designed to combat disinformation, and to recognise and counter their drivers.

EU institutions and national decision-makers have a better understanding of the role of independent media and the role and importance of “media dissemination hubs” and professional “mediators” who facilitate citizens’ access to professionally produced content and analyse the crucial aspect of access to information (such as availability, accessibility, affordability, comprehensibility, transparency, inclusivity, privacy and data protection, and security).

EU institutions, national decision-makers, and practitioners in the media sector have a better understanding of astroturfing, its use in spreading mis- and disinformation and information manipulation, and are equipped with tools and policy recommendations to recognize and counter this phenomenon.

EU institutions, national decision-makers, practitioners in the media sector, and other relevant societal actors have adequate educational materials to understand how to design and implement initiatives to combat mis- and disinformation and information manipulation without harming freedom of expression.

Eligibility Criteria

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from no associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.

A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.

Specific cases:

Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.

Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any specific call/topic conditions.

Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.

EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.

Eligible Countries

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:

the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:

Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).

countries associated to Horizon Europe

Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.

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