L'UNION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONSDE JOURNALISTES SCIENTIFIQUES ASSOCIATION

Their core work

EUSJA is the umbrella federation representing national science journalism associations across Europe, based in Strasbourg. It acts as a collective voice for science journalists and serves as the primary channel connecting the research world with professional science communicators across the continent. In EU-funded research, EUSJA contributes its unique access to journalism communities — bringing media perspectives into projects that need to bridge scientific work and public understanding. Their H2020 participation focused on responsible science communication, building public trust in emerging technologies, and embedding co-development practices into how research institutions engage with society.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects ran simultaneously from 2015 to 2019, so there is no true temporal shift — the keyword differences reflect two parallel workstreams rather than a genuine evolution over time. NUCLEUS emphasized governance, transdisciplinary research, and institutional science-society relationships, while NANO2ALL moved toward co-development, inclusion, and building trust around an emerging technology with a wary public. If a directional signal exists, it points toward participatory and co-creation models — moving beyond broadcasting science toward involving publics as genuine partners in the process.

EUSJA's move from governance frameworks toward co-development and inclusion aligns with current EU priorities around citizen science and participatory research — making them a relevant partner for projects under Horizon Europe's missions that require broad public legitimacy.

How they like to work

EUSJA has joined every H2020 project as a participant, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a network amplifier rather than a research-executing body. Both projects placed them inside large, multi-country consortia, where their value was access to the journalism community rather than technical research output. This makes them a low-friction partner for dissemination and engagement tasks, but they are unlikely to drive project design or manage deliverable-heavy work packages.

Through just two projects, EUSJA accumulated 43 consortium partners spanning 19 countries — a breadth that reflects their federation model, where member associations across Europe bring their own national networks into shared projects. Their reach is inherently pan-European and skewed toward communication, media, and academic institutions rather than industry.

What sets them apart

EUSJA is the only EU-level body that aggregates national science journalism associations, giving it unmatched access to professional science communicators across member states — a community not reachable through research networks or industry bodies. For projects where public legitimacy, media uptake, or science-society trust are success criteria, EUSJA provides both credibility and distribution that a university communications office cannot replicate. Their small project footprint also signals selectivity — they are not serial EU applicants, which may make consortium inclusion more meaningful.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NANO2ALL
  Highest-funded project (EUR 59,656) combining science journalism expertise with a technically sensitive domain — nanotechnology — requiring EUSJA to bridge deep-tech opacity and public anxiety through mutual learning and co-development.
• NUCLEUS
  Addressed how universities structurally embed public engagement into their research culture, with EUSJA providing the external media lens that academic institutions typically lack when assessing their own communication.