During the Media4Europe conference, recently held at Europe’s MediaLab (Fondation EURACTIV) in Brussels, the Stars4Media results were unveiled. The project, run by a consortium of media professionals and experts, supports innovation in the media sector, through training and cross-border cooperation. For this first Stars4Media edition, in Spring, the jury members selected 21 Initiatives out of 41 applications, involving 105 media professionals from 42 media outlets in 17 countries.

Based on results achieved, the jury has now assigned five prizes focusing on Trust, Cross-border cooperation, Data, Diversity, and Reacting to the Coronavirus, while Stars4Media certificates were awarded to all 105 participants. This project is co-funded by the European Commission, based on a ‘rising stars’ budget earmarked by the European Parliament. During the conference, media stakeholders and MEPs considered the continuation of the underlying ‘rising stars’ programme, and agreed that Creative Europe should be increased, including more support to media transformation.

Prof. Luciano Morganti, from VUB, coordinating the Stars4Media consortium, said: “We managed to implement this first pilot surprisingly well, despite both the media crisis and the virus. This is to be credited to the flexibility of all partners and chiefly to the resilience and creativity of the 105 participants. Congratulations!”

Read the full press release here.