Research group at imec & Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Stars4Media NEWS

An innovation exchange programme aiming at facilitating cooperation between media professionals, to accelerate media innovation and cross-border cooperation.

Project Description

Stars4Media is an innovation exchange programme aiming at facilitating cooperation between media professionals, to accelerate media innovationand cross-border cooperation.

Media professionals, media organisations and tech companies from EU countries have the chance to cooperate around bottom-up Initiatives to test ideas and technologies, develop new business models and produce journalistic content.

Partners of the project are the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Europe’s Media Lab (Fondation EURACTIV), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). The project is co-funded by the European Commission. Read more about the project team.

You can learn here about the first edition, which ran from November 2019 to October 2020, and supported 21 cross-border initiatives, involving 42 media organisations and 105 media professionals from all over Europe.

The objectives of the Stars4Media exchange programme are to:

  • Foster media innovation: editorial, technological and marketing innovation
  • Build new media partnerships and support mobility and virtual cooperation across Europe
  • Foster quality journalism and media pluralism
  • Boost the careers of future “stars” via a vibrant community of media innovators

Concretely, a Stars4Media initiative is a 4-month innovative collaborative project, in which at least two media organisations from two different EU countries cooperate on  innovative practices, at editorial, technological or organisational levels. Media organisations can participate with a multidisciplinary team, typically composed of three media professionals. Participants in a Stars4Media initiative do not have to suspend their usual work. The implementation of the cross-border cooperation can be carried out in parallel to the day-to-day activities of the media professionals.