Sustainable paths to media viability

The HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04 grant, titled "Sustainable paths to media viability," is part of the EU's Horizon Europe program, focusing on enhancing democracy through innovation in the media sector. It operates as a Horizon Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA) and has a total budget of €12,000,000 for the year 2026, with expected funding for approximately three projects. Each project may receive between €3.5 million to €4 million.

Eligible applicants must include at least one news media organization as a beneficiary or affiliated entity in a consortia that also encourages participation from academic institutions, technology companies, and social sciences and humanities researchers. This call emphasizes cross-sector collaboration, focusing on improving the economic viability of journalism and supporting democratic engagement in a digital age characterized by misinformation and competition from social media.

The project stage targets innovation and commercialization, requiring participants to develop and demonstrate concrete solutions like AI-driven services, improved business models, and user engagement strategies. Proposals should aim to facilitate the digital transformation of the news media sector by ensuring content remains relevant and trustworthy amid a changing media landscape.

The application process features a single-stage submission, with proposals due by September 23, 2026. The call seeks to foster transparency, accountability in media production, and the effective use of innovative technologies to enhance the role of journalism in democracy. Success rates remain uncertain but are inferred to be around 10% to 20%, based on past participation levels. Co-funding is not mandated, but collaboration with various media ecosystem stakeholders is encouraged. Overall, the call aims to create sustainable media practices while empowering citizens to distinguish quality journalism from misinformation, ultimately supporting an informed democratic society.

This EU funding opportunity, HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04, falls under the Horizon Europe program, specifically the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society call for 2026. It is a Horizon Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA) with a lump sum grant agreement. The call aims to foster sustainable paths to media viability and has a single-stage deadline model. The planned opening date is May 12, 2026, and the deadline for submission is September 23, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of projects funded under this topic include:

Reinforced digital transformation of the news media industry by facilitating the development of new business models, contributing to more resilient and inclusive democracies.
Empowered citizens, particularly those facing systemic disadvantages, who are better equipped to make informed decisions. Enhanced role of news media as a contributor to a healthy, reinvigorated, and fair democracy.
Stronger engagement with emerging media creators (such as influencers and other online content producers) to promote transparency and accountability in their role in sharing information and to foster reliance on trustworthy media sources.

The scope of this funding opportunity addresses the challenges faced by democracies due to the risks associated with unreliable and non-independent journalism. It acknowledges the economic pressures on journalistic newsrooms and the competition they face from social media and other forms of infotainment, which often include unverified opinions and low-quality or malicious sources. The core objective is to enable citizens to distinguish between quality journalism adhering to professional standards and other forms of content, thereby promoting a well-informed democratic debate.

The call emphasizes the need for European media to embrace innovation to compete in the digital age. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with news media organizations from the outset to enhance innovation across the news media sectors. Specific areas and aspects for innovation include:

a) Development and adoption of methods to recognize content produced with journalistic standards, such as trust indicators and browser plugins. Categorization of such content through industry-led crawlers, common taxonomies, and metadata standards. Promotion of journalistic content through inclusive and transparent news-oriented algorithms and recommender systems that show multiple views and prioritize quality information. Technologies include trust indicators, browser plugins, industry-led crawlers, common taxonomies, metadata standards, news-oriented algorithms and recommender systems.

b) Identification of AI models that can help media build attractive services, such as chat bots, search tools, and aggregators, and other relevant models that can generate revenues, such as dynamic paywalls, advertising, and copyright revenues. Technologies include chat bots, search tools, aggregators, dynamic paywalls, advertising models and copyright revenue systems.

c) Innovative methods to ensure user-centric design and user engagement strategies, in compliance with journalistic standards.

d) Roll-out of these models and methods towards the development of truly pan-European innovative platforms and/or interoperable standards within the project lifetime.

e) Initiatives to federate media industries along a joint innovation agenda.

Innovation projects should focus on concrete ways to help journalistic content serve democracy by addressing aspects such as:

Ensuring that journalistic content remains economically viable in AI-intermediated information spaces.
Ensuring that journalistic content retains relevance and prominence in AI-driven search tools and future information ecosystems in Europe.
Ensuring that algorithms based on journalistic standards (such as accuracy and inclusion) are developed, enhancing professional journalism and preserving a trustworthy information ecosystem.
Making sure that citizens are presented with multiple views online to make well-informed decisions.
Development and integration of journalistic trust indicators in recommender systems, browsers, and/or European news aggregators.
Take-up of recommender systems that prioritize trusted sources and professional journalism.
Development of better digital advertising business models for news producers, through proprietary systems that offer more brand safety and sufficiently detailed feedback to advertisers through joint metadata and audience measurement tools.
Development of EU-level business case studies, explaining their impact on creation of advertising revenues, subscription revenues, etc.
Development and adoption of prototypes for recommender systems, proprietary crawlers, proprietary metadata generators, paywalls, advertising systems, or other revenue-generating systems that can strengthen the economic viability of journalism.

Furthermore, proposals are encouraged to investigate the behavioral dimensions of news consumption, focusing on reader habits, trust, and perceptions, and to explore the evolving trust dynamics between human-curated journalism and AI-driven news delivery. The need for transparency and accountability mechanisms for influencers and content creators who rely on media content is also emphasized.

Projects should involve relevant parts of the news media ecosystems, including public, private, and sectoral media, and collaboration across segments and borders is encouraged. The participation of research and academic actors from relevant disciplines, such as information science and media studies, as well as tech companies (e.g., ad-tech or other) to build workable prototypes, and SSH, is strongly encouraged. Applicants should leverage data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Clustering and cooperation among selected projects are also encouraged.

The general conditions for this funding opportunity include:

Admissibility Conditions: The proposal page limit for Part B of the Innovation Action application is 50 pages. A detailed budget table must be submitted.
Eligible Countries: As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific provisions may exist for non-EU/non-Associated Countries.
Other Eligible Conditions: Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. Consortia must include at least one news media organization as a beneficiary or affiliated entity.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: As described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Evaluation and award: The award criteria, submission and evaluation processes, and indicative timeline are described in Annexes D and F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
Legal and financial set-up of the grants: Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum. The granting authority may object to a transfer of ownership or exclusive licensing of results for up to 4 years after the end of the action.

Specific conditions for this topic are described in the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation forms, model grant agreements, and additional documents are available in the Submission System and the Funding & Tenders Portal.

The budget overview indicates that the total budget for this topic (HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04) is 12,000,000 EUR, with an estimated contribution of 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 EUR per project. It is anticipated that approximately 3 projects will be funded under this topic.

This funding opportunity aims to bolster the news media industry in the face of digital transformation and the spread of misinformation. It seeks innovative projects that can create sustainable business models for journalism, enhance citizens' ability to discern quality information, and promote transparency and accountability in media content creation and distribution. By encouraging collaboration between news media, research institutions, and technology companies, the EU aims to foster a resilient and inclusive democratic information ecosystem.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly defined, but the call encourages the participation of a wide range of actors within the news media ecosystem. This includes public and private media, sectoral media, research and academic institutions (particularly those in information science and media studies), and technology companies (such as ad-tech firms). The call specifically mentions the need for consortia to include at least one news media organization, defined as entities with a core activity in the regular production and dissemination of professional news content. Influencers and content creators are also encouraged to participate.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant, as indicated by the type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA): HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]. The call falls under HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA).

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required. The call emphasizes the importance of involving relevant parts of the news media ecosystems and encourages collaboration across segments and borders. Furthermore, consortia must include at least one news media organization as a beneficiary or affiliated entity.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide, suggesting it primarily targets EU member states and associated countries. However, the text mentions that a number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.

Target Sector: The primary target sector is media, specifically the news media industry. The call focuses on the digital transformation of news media, sustainable financing models for journalism, combating misinformation, and promoting quality journalism. It also touches on artificial intelligence (AI), information science, behavioral science, and advertising technology (ad-tech).

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but the call is part of the Horizon Europe program, which generally targets EU member states and associated countries. The call encourages collaboration across borders, implying a focus on European countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is innovation action, which suggests projects should be at the demonstration or validation stage, with a focus on developing and implementing new solutions and business models for the news media industry. The call mentions the development and adoption of prototypes, roll-out of models and methods, and development of pan-European innovative platforms, indicating a need for projects to go beyond the research phase.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific HORIZON-CL2-2026-01 topic. For the HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04 topic, the budget is EUR 12,000,000, and the indicative contribution per project is EUR 3,500,000 to EUR 4,000,000. The indicative number of grants for this specific topic is 3. Other topics under the same call (HORIZON-CL2-2026-01) have different budget allocations and indicative contributions, ranging from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 6,000,000.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, meaning applicants submit a full proposal at once.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned. However, the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight into the potential success rate, which would depend on the number of proposals received.

Co-funding Requirement: The text does not explicitly mention a co-funding requirement. However, Horizon Europe actions often imply that the lump sum grant covers eligible costs, suggesting that applicants are not necessarily required to provide additional funding from their own resources, but they must manage the project within the allocated lump sum.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, under the Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society pillar, aims to support the digital transformation and sustainable financing of the news media industry. It seeks to reinforce democracy by promoting quality journalism, combating misinformation, and empowering citizens to make informed decisions. The call encourages collaborative innovation actions involving news media organizations, research institutions, and technology companies to develop and implement new business models, technologies, and strategies that ensure the economic viability and societal relevance of journalistic content in the digital age. Projects should focus on areas such as AI-driven services, trust indicators, recommender systems, and user engagement, with a strong emphasis on ethical considerations and the preservation of a trustworthy information ecosystem. The funding is provided as a lump sum grant, and consortia must include at least one news media organization. The call is open to a wide range of actors within the European media landscape, with the goal of fostering a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic media environment.