Research Grants and Support for Journalism
10 OCT | 11:30

Hand holding the strap of a black backpack against a yellow background, symbolizing journalists in search of research grants and opportunities in journalism. Design: Napperon © Goethe-Institut Portugal

10.10 | 11:30 | Auditorium | This session will be in Portuguese

In an era of mounting economic, political, and social pressures on journalism, it is more urgent than ever to reflect on the mechanisms that uphold the production of independent, rigorous, and publicly accountable reporting. Ensuring time, resources, and editorial freedom is essential for fostering critical journalism — the kind that investigates, questions, and contributes to a more informed and equitable society.

This roundtable opens space for an honest dialogue on the vital role of research grants and funding programs in supporting contemporary journalism. Featuring recipients of the Germany–Portugal Journalism Fellowships and the CLAD Research Grants, the discussion will explore their experiences and the challenges faced by journalists working both inside and outside traditional newsrooms.

A conversation with journalists who won the research grants Bolsas de Jornalismo Portugal Alemanha and the European project Citizens and Libraries against Disinformation (CLAD): Frederico Raposo (Mensagem de Lisboa), Joana Ascensão (Expresso), Sofia Craveiro (Gerador), Sofia Marvão (CNN Portugal), Tiago Carrasco (freelancer) and Tilo Wagner (freelancer).

Speakers

Journalist at Mensagem de Lisboa, a digital newspaper focused on city life. Passionate about urban issues such as accessibility, sustainable mobility, public transportation, and the right to housing, as well as urban strategies for climate change adaptation. Member of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) and winner of the 2024 Proximity Cyberjournalism Award from the Observatório do Ciberjornalismo (ObCiber) – University of Porto. Previously worked with Fumaça and the magazines Smart Cities and Edifícios e Energia.
Joana Ascensão was born in Coimbra in 1995. She studied Journalism and Communication at the University of Coimbra and completed a postgraduate degree in Social Communication at the School of Communication and Media Studies in Lisbon. She currently lives in Porto and works as a journalist for Expresso, where she strives—whenever possible —to escape the rush of breaking news and write slowly, with time, attentive listening, and words chosen like a cobblestone worker selects stones to fill the cracks in the earth. Among other honors, she received the Portuguese League Against Cancer Award (2022) for her report Cancer Has No Gender and was a finalist for the True Story Award (2024) with Only Children of the Land, a piece about the depopulation of Portugal’s interior regions.
Sofia Craveiro is a journalist for the independent platform Gerador. She holds a degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidade da Beira Interior and a Master's in Branding and Design from IADE/UBI. She also completed a Postgraduate program in Portuguese Language Journalism at ISCTE, supported by a Google scholarship. She has collaborated with various national, local, and independent media outlets, including Público, Mensagem de Lisboa, Shifter, Amnesty International, Turning Point, Eurozine, VoxEurop, among others. Her report Safe Abortion in Portugal, published on the 15th anniversary of the decriminalization of voluntary pregnancy termination, won the Health Journalism Award in the digital category, a distinction granted by the Journalists' Club and Apifarma. She is a member of the General Council of the Journalists' Union and a trainer at the Association for Media Literacy and Journalism.
Born in Porto, she grew up with the curiosity of someone who wanted to understand the world in order to tell its stories. She began her journey in audiovisual studies at the Escola de Artes Soares dos Reis Art School in Porto, before earning a degree in Communication Sciences from Fernando Pessoa University. Her journalism debut came in 2018 at Jornal de Notícias, where she joined the JN Direto team. In 2021, she won the newspaper’s Best Report award for an investigative piece on the non-consensual sharing of intimate content online. Today, she works as a multimedia journalist at CNN Portugal and is pursuing a master’s degree in International Studies at ISCTE. She is dedicated to giving voice and image to the facts. Her reporting mainly focuses on politics, human rights, and social issues, always seeking new ways to reach audiences who no longer consume news in traditional formats. Writing and filming are inseparable parts of her work.
Tiago Carrasco chose to become a journalist at the age of nine. He won the Gazeta Multimedia Award and is the author of three books – two of which explore Africa and the Middle East. He has covered conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and Libya, followed the refugee crisis, and reported on the rise of European populism. He splits his time between Portugal and Germany and writes for media outlets such as Expresso, Sábado, and Público.
Tilo Wagner studied History, Economics, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic in Mainz, Madrid, Beirut, and Berlin. For over 20 years, he has worked as a freelance correspondent in Lisbon. He reports for Deutschlandfunk, ZDF, ARTE, SRF, and other German-language media on a wide range of topics from politics, society, and culture.