Are you a reporter who wants to dig deeper? Who teams up to explore a story from various perspectives? Who feels that complex research doesn’t stop at borders?

The program “Reporters in the Field” promotes journalistic projects from all over Europe. It offers grants of up to 8,000 € to international teams, for a relevant cross-border story of their choice. Currently, we support nine new projects with 28 team members from 14 different countries.

Our program aims to foster international dialogue and understanding. Selected teams will receive not only the grant but also become part of our network. They will participate in a workshop in Berlin, where teams can meet up with invited experts and exchange with other teams and alumni. Reporters in the Field is a program by the Robert Bosch Stiftung hosted together with the media NGO and agency n-ost.

WHO can participate:
- International teams with professional freelance or staff journalists, photographers or visual storytellers who work for established media outlets (no matter if print, photo, broadcast, web, or cross-media) are eligible. No age limit applies.
- Your team and story must be based in at least two of the following countries:
- Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

WHAT it is about:
- Find a topic that works for cross-border journalism and is of relevance in Europe.
- Team up with international colleagues or contact us: if you have a convincing story but no team yet, we can help you to find one if you ask us in due time.
- Realize your story: You can use our grant to support both travel costs and remuneration. To connect expertise from different countries and spheres, you can spend it on research trips with your team. If you find that your topic requires research at home, team members can also spend grant money for research in their home countries.
- Publish your story in your preferred language.

EXPECTATIONS:
The program’s main goal is to enable relevant and innovative cross-border stories. This is difficult enough, so we don’t set up many conditions. However, our expectations are:
- Workshop: At least two team members must participate in our workshop from November 16-18, 2018. We think that collaborative cross-border journalism is a crucial way to foster international understanding and to face current challenges in media and society. That's why we invite everybody to a common workshop in the start. We find it equally important that you meet your team members throughout your research and share your experience with other teams – wherever possible.
- Language: Please note that the program and the workshops are run in English, and you need an advanced level of spoken and written English to participate. Whilst we expect the completed projects to be produced in the language of your chosen media, you will be required to submit English abstracts and translations for the workshops and the program in general.
- Publication: Your story should be published in an established media outlet. Please submit a publications-strategy to your application. Written commitments by media outlets, which are interested in publishing the results of your research are not obligatory but welcome and do improve your chances. You can publish in your preferred language but a short English summary will be required on your final results at the end.
- Financial Report: Your grant can be used for all research related costs, but keep in mind that we need a report on your expenditures. The maximum grant available is 8,000 € per single project, which should support but not necessarily completely cover the costs of your research activities.

TIMELINE:
- October 2018: Jury session and notification of the applicants
- Pre-research phase: teams prepare to present their story idea and the first results during the workshop.
- November 16- 18, 2018: Kick-off workshop in Berlin, where teams meet up with other fellows and the jury to work on story angles and plan a road-map forward. All costs will be covered by the program and need not be included in your budget plan.
- November 2018- May 2019: Research phase, in which the participants return to their home destinations and/or undertake their research trips to collect information for their crossborder stories.
- June 2019: Last date of publishing stories – of course you can publish your stories before