The European Commission has published the 2020 call for proposals for the “Media Literacy for all”. This call aims at boosting media literacy in Europe through pursuing innovation and collaboration across media literacy communities within the EU.

The outcome of this cooperation should be that citizens of all ages can become more familiar with the online world, acquire a better perception of trustworthiness of online information, learn to use tools to tackle disinformation and to adopt a responsible online behaviour that do not cause harm to other users and to society.

The general objectives of this Call are to:

• increase the level of media literacy in Europe;
• assess the scalability, sustainability and adaptability across linguistic, state or cultural borders of the actions developed through the earlier Calls of the Preparatory Action Media Literacy for All;
• pursue further methodological innovation and collaboration across media literacy communities within the European Union.

Media literacy practitioners should develop innovative strategies to inform citizens of the issues arising from disinformation and to promote a responsible use of communication channels offered by social media. To achieve this goal, the EU encourages effective cooperation among educational institutions, civil society organisations, media literacy organisations and online platforms to provide educational and training materials to school teachers and educators in out-of-school contexts, following the “train the trainers” approach.

ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

The following types of activities are eligible under this call for proposals:

• Creation of multilingual on-line material 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 the media and social media. Such actions should involve cooperation with relevant community organisations such as libraries, media outlets, online platforms, academic bodies with specific expertise on disinformation;

• Development of applications, tools and innovative methodologies to raise awareness about the danger of receiving and propagating disinformation, promote the use of fact-checking services and the reporting by social media users of possible instances of disinformation;
• Promotion of social media campaigns and other relevant activities aimed at helping citizens to interact with digital media in a critically evaluative way;
• Identification of best practice and efficient dissemination of the material created by the project. This can be achieved through the building of networks of practitioners who can act as multipliers of best practice;
• Community-led activities to tailor and make accessible the above-mentioned tools and materials to minorities, low-skilled people, immigrants or refugees, or people at risk of being socially marginalised.
• Training activities focused on media literacy practices, tools or materials addressed to trainers, educators and teachers, including sharing of best practices across linguistic, state and cultural borders.

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

Proposals may be submitted by any of the following applicants or combinations of  non-profit organisation (private or public); public authorities (national, regional, local); international organisations; universities;  educational institutions; research centres; profit making entities.

IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

The suggested start date of the project is latest by end March 2021. The proposed maximum duration of the project is 12 months.

BUDGET

The total budget for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is 500.000 euros. The EU co-financing is limited to a maximum co-funding rate of 60% of the total eligible costs.

DEADLINE & OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION

Deadline for submitting applications is 30 September 2020. Official documentation is available here.