HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04: Sustainable Paths to Media Viability

Democracies are at risk when reliable and independent journalism is at risk. Journalistic newsrooms are under severe economic pressure, forced to compete for citizens' attention with infotainment that sometimes entails unverified opinions and low-quality or malicious sources. Applicants are invited to work together with news media organisations to enhance innovation across the news media sectors, focusing on: development of methods to recognise content produced with journalistic standards (trust indicators, browser plugins, metadata standards); identification of AI models that help media build attractive services and generate revenues; innovative methods for user-centric design; and roll-out of pan-European innovative platforms. Proposals are also encouraged to investigate the need for transparency and accountability mechanisms for influencers and content creators, and the evolving trust dynamics between human-curated journalism and AI-driven news delivery.