BAI announces €616,000 funding in development programmes
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has announced details of its 2019 funding allocation under its Sectoral Learning & Development and Sponsorship funding initiative.
Of the budget, €342,850 will be awarded to 16 industry and representative organisations under the Network Funding strand of the programme.
Funding recipients include CRAOL (the representative body for community radio); Learning Waves (the training organisation for commercial radio broadcasters); Women on Air; Animation Skillnet & Animation Ireland; the Community Television Association; Aerthonnta and the Writers’ Guild of Ireland.
The authority has approved funding of €52,000 for two initiatives under the Innovation Scheme, which are the X-Pollinator and the Journalism Bursary Programme.
The X-Pollinator is a cross-disciplinary professional development programme for practitioners from in the creative arts to address gender imbalance in the audio-visual industry with an aim, toachieve a goal of 50/50 gender parity.
The Journalism Bursary Programme is a partnership pilot initiative between Learning Waves and the BAI, which will provide five journalism graduates from third-level institutions with the opportunity to become part of a radio station's newsroom for five months.
BAI Chief Executive, Michael O’Keeffe said: “The Sectoral Learning and Development and Sponsorship schemes are central to our strategic objectives of enhancing innovation and sectoral sustainability, and promoting diversity and plurality.
"They support a culture of lifelong learning and development within the broadcasting industry, enhancing capacity, and have enabled us to create innovative and strategic alliances across the sector.
“The standard of applications for funding has, once again, been very high and we are pleased to be in a position to offer funding to a large number of applicants, including to such innovative projects as X-Pollinator and the Journalism Bursary Programme. We would like to wish all funding recipients every success with the various events and projects.”
