Last year, a group of journalists formed the UK Investigations Fund, a launch that was closely followed by a separate project, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ).

The BIJ is gearing up to officially launch soon (more on that in the next few months), but the IF had gone a little quiet and I was starting to wonder what had happened to it. Now, the radio silence is broken and the group held an open meeting in London this week.

On the IF blog, one of the founders, Stephen Grey, reports:

The Investigations Fund will remain, for now at least, a separate initiative [to the BiJ] – existing primarily as a forum both to highlight and encourage all sorts of investigative work (the kind that sometimes, but not always, struggles to surface in the mainstream media).

We have in mind a series of alternative projects to fund good investigative work – and hope to encourage donations for these. First we’re going to consult – and seek ideas on the most promising avenue – from all those who’ve offered us support, and most of this discussion will be in the open.

So we intend this website to be an open access forum to discuss investigative reporting and its future. Please do join the debate.

[Disclaimer: I signed up as a supporter of the project].