FACTEUR - Database Grants
EFCSN funds certified European fact-checking organisations to connect their fact-checks to a shared European database and strengthen common data infrastructure.
Type of projects to be funded: The call supports fact-checking organisations in contributing their full-text fact-checks and associated data to a centralised European fact-check database developed by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) and its partners. Funded activities include setting up the technical infrastructure and workflows required to ingest fact-checks into the database, reviewing and correcting AI-generated metadata, granting the necessary data licensing rights to EFCSN under fair and reasonable conditions, and promoting the database.
Sectors / domain: Fact-checking, information integrity, counter-disinformation, media and journalism, data infrastructure and fact-check data sharing.
Individual or consortium: Applications must be submitted by a single applicant.
Specific eligibility requirements: Applicants must be a legal entity, either for-profit or non-profit, and must be a fact-checking organisation or a fact-checking team/unit within a larger organisation. Applicants must publish an average of at least four human-authored fact-checking articles per month. Their editorial work must have a substantial and demonstrable focus on a Council of Europe member country, Kosovo, Belarus or Russia. Applicants must also be EFCSN-certified fact-checking organisations. The applying organisation must be based in the European Union or a country associated with the Digital Europe Programme (DEP).
Specific topics or challenges: The call is focused specifically on building and populating a shared European fact-check database. The expected contribution includes regular ingestion of fact-check content, data-quality review of AI-generated metadata, technical integration and licensing of the contributed data for access by third parties.
Projects duration: 24 months. Successful applicants are expected to begin contributing full-text fact-checks from 7 September 2026.
Budget, funding rates and payment conditions:
Funding rate: 50%.
Budget conditions / limitations: Grants are provided as lump sums, with a maximum of €70,000 per project.
Payments: 40% upon grant signature, 30% following approval of the interim project report, and 30% following approval of the final project report.
Links
Closes
30/04/2028
Max funding per project
70.000€