Open Call: Media and Information Literacy for Societal Resilience

Deadline: 28-Apr-23

The European Media and Information Fund has announced the call for proposals on Media and Information Literacy for Societal Resilience to support initiatives that enhance digital media and information literacy skills in Europe.

The key aim of the Call Media and Information Literacy for Societal Resilience is to support initiatives that enhance digital media and information literacy skills in Europe. Only organisations in a consortium located in the EU, EFTA and UK are eligible.

Objectives

• The key aim of this Call is to support initiatives that enhance digital media and information literacy skills in targeted European countries or regions by improving all technical, cognitive, social, civic and creative capacities that allow citizens to access the media, to have a critical understanding of it and to interact with it.
• As citizens increasingly access news through social media and other online platforms, in addition to traditional media, this Call is specifically aimed at projects that can demonstrably empower citizens by strengthening their ability to think critically, assess the trustworthiness of information accessed or shared through social media, fully understand the mechanisms that shape online interactions amongst social media users, and take part in the public discourse in a responsible and meaningful way.
• Grants provided under this Call will fund initiatives aimed at:
  • Identifying and testing robust and innovative pedagogic approaches, built on best practices, or
  • Scaling up previous experiences with a successful track-record, notably by extending their scope to new geographies or demographic groups
  • Leveraging outcomes of on-going initiatives to maximise societal impact and benefits, and longer-term perspectives for a given geography or demographic group.
  • Applicants are invited to present proposals that can achieve a strong multiplier effect, which may involve:
    • The design and delivery of appropriate, replicable trainings/training materials to schoolteachers and/or educators active in non-formal education contexts, based on critical analysis of the diverse pedagogic approaches being implemented across Europe to improve societal resilience against disinformation, the identification of effective and less effective approaches and the implementation of best practices across linguistic, state and cultural borders;
    • The development of multi-lingual educational materials targeted at specific age, linguistic and/or cultural groups, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable segments of the population, based on a rigorous analysis of best practices and updated insights about the dynamics of disinformation,
    • The implementation of media literacy programmes with a proven successful track record to new segments of the population or new geographies, or over an extended timeframe if necessary to maximise their societal impact within a given geography or demography;
    • The development of innovative pedagogic tools, including gaming and creative uses of remote learning methodologies, to be used by trained teachers and educators, in particular in non-formal educational contexts;
    • The development of campaigns, strategies, tools (including software applications) and effective methodologies to help citizens to identify disinformation on digital media, promote the use of fact-checking services and reporting by social media users, while raising public awareness about the danger of receiving and propagating disinformation;
    • In-depth studies designed to map and/or synthesise media literacy initiatives at a European level, describe their actions and methodological approaches, evaluate their success in enhancing societal resilience against rapidly evolving disinformation threats, with a view to developing clear theoretical frameworks and measurable indicators of media literacy among the public, or setting out recommendations for future programmes and/or policies.

Funding Information

• Maximum grant per project: € 400 000.
• Maximum duration per project: 18 months.

Eligible Projects

• The projects funded under this Call are expected to:
  • Develop scalable and sustainable actions, which are adaptable and transferrable across linguistic, state or cultural borders, and so designed as to effectively increase the level of media and information literacy in Europe, and/or at level of individual European countries;
  • Establish clear theoretical frameworks on which to ground future media literacy projects or policy recommendations;
  • Implement advanced pedagogic approaches that spur methodological innovation within and across European media literacy communities of practice;
  • Improve public knowledge on how disinformation is created and spread in Europe and/or at level of individual European countries;
  • Help users of online platforms’ services to better understand the functioning of algorithms, recommender and content ranking systems, as well as the use of their personal data, with a view to strengthening their ability to search for, and find content online which is relevant to them and match their interests;
  • Foster a critical and responsible use of digital media, including social media, by citizens of all ages, such as to foster civic online behaviour and well-informed democratic participation;
  • Create value in terms of societal impact by contributing to enhance diversity and inclusiveness within and across communities of social media users;
  • Foster knowledge-sharing between researchers, media outlets, fact-checking organisations, civil society, and online platforms;
  • Help reduce the impact of disinformation campaigns;
  • Identify best practices and efficiently disseminate the material created by the project.

Eligible Activities

• Activities may be developed at local, regional, national, or international levels across the territory of the EU, EFTA and the UK. Cross-border activities within the EU, EFTA and the UK territories are eligible.
• Proposals shall comply with the objectives of this Call as set out.
• The following types of activities are eligible:
  • Production, distribution and adaptation to different linguistic and cultural contexts of original educational materials, including fact-checked news repositories and interactive educational tools, to improve the capacities of citizens to acquire a critical understanding of, and ability to interact with media and social media;
  • Training activities, as well as awareness-raising campaigns or actions, including conferences, seminars, events;
  • Development of innovative information/ pedagogical tools improving the understanding of systemic risks of digital media ecosystems and fostering a critical use of digital media;
  • Identification of best practices and efficient dissemination of the material created by the project;
  • Promotion of social media campaigns and other relevant activities aimed at helping citizens to interact with digital media in a critical way;
  • Actions aiming at the creation and improvement of networks, exchanges of good practices, and uptake of innovative methodologies and relevant technologies.
  • Eligible activities shall be those that will be developed in addition to the applicant’s current activities and that will contribute to raise the level of media and information literacy in Europe, reduce knowledge gaps across different segments of the population, and/or promote more uniform media literacy standards across different European countries.
  • Proposals should include concrete deliverables, sub-divided into work packages, and set clear, objectively verifiable, and quantifiable performance indicators for the interim report and the end of the project. The estimated reach should be substantiated by an outreach plan identifying appropriate means of communication and dissemination, including links to EDMO’s website.
  • Activities deriving from cooperation with news media, educational institutions, online platforms, research and/or civil society organisations not directly involved in the projects are viewed positively as they may be effective means to gain relevant insights or to extend the outreach of the funded activities.
  • All actions will respect the autonomy of educational organisations, universities and research organisations, as well as the editorial independence of the media involved in the consortium, while allowing the grantees to select those interventions they find most appropriate, taking into account the specificities of the information environment in the targeted geographic area.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, any proposal must be submitted by a group of legal entities (partnerships or consortia) abiding by recognised ethical and professional standards. These include national codes of conduct for educators and teachers, the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity or the specific standards applicable to relevant field of activities (e.g., Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network, deontological Codes for the Journalistic Profession applicable in their country of establishment).
• Should an applicant not be a signatory to any code, it should explain how it ensures de fac to adherence to the ethical and professional standards applicable to the type of activities carried out by its organisation.
• The following types of organisations may apply and be funded as Lead Applicants or members of the consortium:
  • Non-profit organisations, including public service media
  • Universities
  • Educational institutions
  • Research centres
  • Non-governmental organisations
  • Media literacy organisations
• For-profit organisations of any status and size operating as fact-checkers, news media organisations, technology providers, or research companies, on condition that the consortium integrates one or more entities.
• Only applications submitted by legal entities established in the EU, EFTA or the UK are eligible. Organisations based in other countries may be part of a consortium, but their activities are not funded.
• Specific tasks may be subcontracted out to entities or natural persons irrespective of their place of establishment.
• Natural persons may be part of a consortium, but a natural person cannot lead the project. Activities and expenses pertaining to natural persons shall be allocated to the Lead Applicant.
• State-controlled organisations – other than universities, research centres, educational institutions, and public media organisations with editorial independence – are not eligible to receive funding and cannot lead a consortium, but they may take part in the action/project at their own costs.
• Consortia cannot be solely composed of entities affiliated with the Lead Applicant.

For more information, visit Media and Information Literacy.