New ideas and new radio promises wanted. This is the spirit with which the ministers of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti and the university colleague, Maria Cristina Messa, have recently defined and signed the decree to get the so-called “Megalizzi Fund” off the ground. One million euros in total to finance new projects presented by radio broadcasters in collaboration with universities. The Fund, as a note from the Mise recalls, was established in memory of the Italian journalist who was the victim of the Strasbourg attack of 11 December 2018, in order to guarantee a university radio information service. The measure is now at the Court of Auditors for registration. After publication in the Official Gazette, the Mise will issue a public notice with the deadlines for the presentation of project proposals.
Who can access
The beneficiaries of the funding are all radio broadcasters operating in any capacity and on any platform. An essential condition for accessing public funding is that the radios interested in presenting projects have already entered into a collaboration agreement or in any case an agreement with public or private universities for the launch of a radio broadcasting service.
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The accepted proposals
The projects, as foreseen by the Mise-Miur decree, must be carried out within a university and must aim at the cultural, training and educational development of the student community. The new programs and their new speakers must at the same time promote research and experimentation in the radio sector, and devote less than 25% of programming to commercial activity. In order to know the selection criteria that will be used, it will in any case be necessary to wait for the notice that will be published by the Mise and in particular by the Directorate General for electronic communication, broadcasting and postal services. Notice that will be made available on the institutional website of Economic Development.
The requirements of the proposals
In order not to be excluded from the outset, the proposals must be accompanied by an operational plan, with the progress of the activities and the distribution of funding, and must present minimum requirements such as implementation within a university, as well as promoting the research and experimentation in the radio sector, also through targeted dissemination and communication actions and the involvement of the student community. For the selection, the use of an economic contribution by the University, the aggregation of several broadcasters, the representativeness on the national territory and the percentage of non-commercial activity present in the programming are considered priorities.