NEWS - Media Literacy

NEWS — Media Literacy CREA-CROSS is a Creative Europe Cross-sectoral call for collaborative, cross-border projects that strengthen citizens’ resilience to disinformation and adapt media literacy practice to new digital formats and AI; applications are submitted via the Funding & Tenders Portal in a single-stage procedure. The topic has an indicative budget of €3.5 million, a maximum EU grant per project of €500,000 at a 70% funding rate, and projects should normally last up to 24 months. Consortia must include at least three independent legal entities established in three different eligible countries and demonstrate a robust needs analysis, measurable outcomes and plans for dissemination and sustainability. The planned submission deadline is 20 January 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time and the granting authority is the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

What it funds

Purpose and scope

Supports innovative cross-border media literacy projects across Europe (particularly non-educational settings) that develop tools, trainings, campaigns and activities to strengthen societal resilience to disinformation, foreign information manipulation and threats to media pluralism. Projects should scale best practices, involve media/creativity actors (journalists, creators, influencers, artists, gamers, etc.), address AI and changing media formats, and target underserved audiences.

Footnotes

1. 1Call document and budget overview published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (Creative Europe). See call fiche and call documents on the topic page for full eligibility, evaluation and financial rules.

Basic facts

Objective, scope and expected outcomes

Eligible activities (non-exhaustive list)

Eligibility and consortium requirements

Geographic eligibility and target countries

Funding, duration and financial rules

Application and evaluation process

Award criteria and scoring

Who should apply and target beneficiaries

Project maturity and expected activities

Financial and operational capacity checks, ethics and compliance

Applicants must demonstrate financial stability and operational capacity to implement the project. Coordinators normally undergo a financial capacity check unless exempt (public bodies, organisations receiving over 50% public revenue, or requests under €60,000). Ethical compliance, data protection and adherence to EU values are mandatory. Entities subject to EU restrictive or conditionality measures are not eligible to participate in any funded role.

Co-funding and cost-sharing

Application templates and structure

Practical submission notes and support

Assessment stages, number of stages and success chances

Application and evaluation timeline (summary)

Key compliance, ethics and AI considerations

Applicants integrating AI tools in projects must provide a description of the AI technology used (type of AI, licensing terms, cost structure, rationale). Proposals using AI must address compliance, ethics and data management, including data collection and security, risk classification, ethical impact assessment, human oversight and transparency in AI decision-making. All projects must respect high ethical standards and applicable EU, international and national law.

Contact, information sessions and help

Explicit lists and obligatory documents referenced in the call

Categorisation and extracted structured answers

Budget overview (indicative)

Footnotes

1. 1Full call documentation, conditions, templates and the call fiche are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: NEWS - Media Literacy CREA-CROSS — ec.europa.eu

Funding opportunity overview

NEWS Media Literacy is a forthcoming Creative Europe Cross Sectoral Strand call supporting innovative, collaborative and cross-border projects that improve citizens’ ability to understand, assess and use media safely and critically. The call places particular emphasis on non-educational settings, adults outside the formal education system, underserved groups, evolving digital media formats, artificial intelligence, social media, influencers, algorithms, disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference.

The opportunity is implemented as a CREA Project Grant under a budget-based Creative Europe Action Grant. Applications will be assessed through a single-stage submission and evaluation procedure.

Key facts

Strategic purpose

The call responds to the need for citizens and communities to navigate a rapidly changing information environment. It is intended to strengthen societal resilience and preparedness against information integrity risks by combining critical media understanding with practical skills for recognising, assessing and responding to disinformation and manipulation.

Projects should contribute to a diverse, independent and pluralistic media environment and support knowledge sharing and exchanges on media literacy policies and practices across Europe. Proposals should demonstrate clear European added value through cooperation across national, cultural and linguistic borders.

Expected results

Funded projects are expected to create or expand cross-border collaborations based on recent best practices, particularly in countries or regions facing significant media literacy challenges, exposure to disinformation or foreign information manipulation, and threats to media pluralism or independence.

Projects should develop and deploy practical tools, training, campaigns, events or other initiatives for clearly defined audiences. Priority is given to actions capable of reaching a broad audience or underserved groups with limited access to existing media literacy programmes.

Projects should also help media literacy professionals adapt their work to technological change, new media formats and changing consumption patterns, including the influence of social media, influencers, artificial intelligence and algorithmic distribution.

Eligible activities

Eligible activities may include the following, provided that they are connected to clearly defined objectives and a credible needs analysis.

Project design requirements

Each proposal should be based on a robust needs analysis covering the selected countries and target groups. The application should identify the specific challenges, map relevant existing initiatives and explain how the proposed activities will address the identified needs and reach the intended audiences.

Applicants should consider countries and regions with low levels of media literacy or heightened risks to media freedom and pluralism. Cooperation with European Digital Media Observatory regional hubs is encouraged to exchange good practices and avoid duplication with existing initiatives.

Strong proposals will connect activities to measurable changes in knowledge, skills, confidence, behaviour, participation or resilience. They should explain how resources and results will remain useful beyond the grant period and how methods can be transferred or scaled in other countries or communities.

Applicants and consortium structure

Applications must be submitted by a consortium of at least three independent legal entities established in at least three different eligible countries. The three qualifying entities must be beneficiaries and cannot be counted solely as affiliated entities.

Eligible consortium members may include public or private, profit-making or non-profit organisations such as media literacy organisations, public authorities, universities, educational institutions, media organisations, information integrity organisations, research and technology institutions and technology providers.

Eligible participants must generally be legal entities established in a Creative Europe participating country. This includes EU Member States, including their overseas countries and territories, and non-EU countries associated with or otherwise participating in Creative Europe under the applicable programme arrangements.

International organisations are eligible and are not subject to the standard eligible-country requirement. Self-employed persons may qualify where they operate as sole traders without a separate legal personality. Ordinary natural persons are not eligible beneficiaries.

All beneficiaries and affiliated entities must be registered in the Funding and Tenders Portal Participant Register and validated by the Central Validation Service before proposal submission. EU bodies, except where specifically permitted by the call rules, cannot participate as consortium members.

Associated partners, subcontractors and third parties providing in-kind contributions may participate in suitable roles, but associated partners do not receive EU funding and do not count toward the minimum consortium composition.

Financial parameters

The available call budget remains subject to final adoption of the 2027 EU budget. The granting authority may decide not to allocate the entire budget depending on the quality and number of proposals received.

Eligible cost categories

Volunteer unit costs are not available for this call. Financial support to third parties is not an eligible cost category. Free in-kind contributions may be accepted but are cost-neutral and cannot be declared as project costs.

Project duration and implementation

Projects should normally last no longer than 24 months. Extensions may be approved only where duly justified and through a grant agreement amendment.

The project start date and duration will be fixed in the Grant Agreement. The normal start date is after grant signature. A retroactive start may exceptionally be authorised for duly justified reasons, but never earlier than the proposal submission date.

The mandatory work package structure includes project management, at least one substantive activity work package and follow-up and dissemination. Additional work packages may be added where necessary.

The grant agreement requires beneficiaries to maintain records supporting the work performed and costs declared. The coordinator receives payments on behalf of the consortium and is responsible for overall coordination and communication with the granting authority.

Evaluation and award criteria

Admissible and eligible proposals will be assessed by an evaluation committee assisted by independent experts. Proposals will be ranked according to the following criteria.

Where proposals receive the same total score, priority is given first to the higher Relevance score, followed by Dissemination and then Quality of content and activities.

The award process remains competitive. Passing the overall threshold does not guarantee funding because eligible proposals are supported only within the available budget and following the final ranking and legal checks.

Indicative timetable

A dedicated EACEA online information session is scheduled for 29 October 2026 at 14:00 CET and is intended to explain the Creative Europe MEDIA and Cross Sectoral 2027 opportunities and application process.

Application requirements

Applications must be submitted electronically through the Funding and Tenders Portal. Paper applications are not accepted. The submission system must be used to complete and upload the required application components.

The application consists of Part A, completed online with administrative information and the summary budget, Part B, containing the technical description and uploaded as a PDF, and Part C, containing additional project data and programme indicator information. No mandatory annexes are currently specified in the call document, but the system may request documents during validation and grant preparation.

Part B is limited to a maximum of 50 pages for this call. Additional pages will not be considered by evaluators. The proposal must be readable, accessible and printable and must use the templates provided inside the submission system rather than relying on informational templates available elsewhere on the topic page.

All participants must create EU Login accounts and register in the Participant Register to obtain a Participant Identification Code. The coordinator must have authority to submit on behalf of all applicants. Before grant signature, each beneficiary and affiliated entity must confirm its information and eligibility through a declaration of honour.

Applications may be submitted in any official EU language, but the project abstract or summary should be in English. Using English for the complete application is strongly recommended for efficient evaluation.

Artificial intelligence and ethics

Projects using artificial intelligence must describe the underlying technology, the type of AI, licensing terms, cost structure and reasons for selecting the solution. The proposal should also address data collection and security, risk classification, ethical impact assessment, human oversight and transparency in AI-supported decision-making.

Applicants remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, legality and reliability of any content prepared with generative AI tools. Any use of such tools in preparing the proposal should be reviewed and validated, with relevant sources, limitations, possible bias and intellectual property risks addressed appropriately.

Projects must comply with the highest ethical standards and applicable EU, international and national law. Activities may not include pornographic or racist material or advocate violence. Projects involving personal data, vulnerable groups, AI systems or potentially sensitive information should include proportionate safeguards and an ethics assessment where relevant.

Financial and operational capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient financial resources to implement the project and provide their share of the costs. Financial capacity checks normally focus on coordinators, although they may also cover affiliated entities and other participants where necessary.

Financial capacity may be assessed using accounts, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, business plans, audit reports and other documents requested through the Participant Register. Public bodies, international organisations, certain cultural and creative sector entities receiving more than 50% of their annual revenue from public sources, and coordinators requesting no more than €60,000 are normally exempt from the standard financial capacity check.

Applicants must also demonstrate operational capacity through relevant experience, qualified personnel and adequate human, technical and organisational resources. The application should provide profiles of key staff and a clear description of each consortium participant and its contribution.

The granting authority may request additional information, impose enhanced financial responsibility arrangements, require prefinancing guarantees, reduce or withhold prefinancing, request replacement of an applicant or reject a proposal where capacity is insufficient.

Important contractual conditions

Applicant positioning and recommendations

The strongest applicants are likely to be cross-border partnerships that combine complementary expertise in media literacy, journalism, information integrity, community engagement, research, technology, public communication and audience development.

Overall assessment

This is a substantial but highly competitive European cooperation opportunity for organisations able to deliver measurable media literacy outcomes across at least three participating countries. The maximum grant of €500,000 and 70% funding rate require a credible consortium contribution of approximately 30% of eligible costs, together with strong financial planning and evidence of organisational capacity.

The call is particularly suitable for projects that combine content, training, community engagement, professional development and dissemination. Proposals focused only on technology development, isolated national activities or generic awareness raising are likely to be less competitive unless they clearly demonstrate innovation, European added value, targeted needs, practical outcomes and credible transferability.

The authoritative application information, final templates and any updates should be checked on the official topic page before submission. 1

Footnotes

1. 1The call is subject to final adoption of the 2027 EU budget and the topic page or call documentation may be updated. Applicants should use the version and submission forms available in the Funding and Tenders Portal submission system at the time of application.