In January 2004, EBU International Training launched its the second edition of the EBU Master School on Radio Documentary. 11 producers coming from 11 broadcasters in 9 countries were selected.    

Selected candidates  - Title of their personal project & synopsis 

	Tom Alban (BBC, United Kingdom)	"Behind the beat"	"To lose yourself in rhythm is one possibility"
	Tobias Barth  (ARD, Germany)	"My grandfather and the SS - a Family Story"	My grandfather died peacefully. I have known since about 1992 that he was in the Waffen SS but I don’t know exactly what he did there. I also didn’t ask him anything about this although I have always been dealing with NS-crimes as a radio journalist for years.
	Agnieszka Czarkowska (PR Bialystok, Poland)	"The Patron"	Aleksander Wolkowycki, teacher at Narewka, a county village near the Byelorussian border, was born in 1895 and killed on April 17, 1945.
	Anna Dudzinska (PR Katowice, Poland)	"The Coal Streets"	"My children go there as well. The whole street goes there and they’ll keep going there. You think it will calm down? Never, they will keep opening these wagons again and again. I often told, and keep telling my children: what can you expect, what sort of future will you have?"
	Jens Jarisch (RBB - radio Kultur, Germany)	"Lifestyle"	Philine finally decides to buy some very nice Adidas shoes. The shoes cost exactly fifty euros and have a name: they’re called 'Lifestyle'.
	Johanne Mygind (DR, Denmark)	"Recent rain has fallen"	A story about a living monument. "perhaps.. a kind of verification...acknowledgement of... that it wasn’t in vain after all.
	Carmen Petcu (ROR, Romania)	"The last inhabitants"	"In the mountains when a man dies a household disappears."
	Ann Marie Power (RTE radio1, Ireland)	"Suburban Hideaway"	"A twenty-three year old Dublin man was in Mountjoy Prison last night after geing charged with the rape and sexual assault of two young girls".
	Karina Schwann (ORF, Austria)	"Death in the Afican Village"	Cheibani Wague was born in 1969 in Mauritania. On the 14th of June 2003, he was dying after a mysterious tretment by the Austian police and the national ambulance.
	Helle Vaagland (NRK, Norway)	"The feminist and the pornographer"	"Stein Erik Mattsson is found not guilty for printing unscensored pornography. When his case finally appeared in cours, Mattsson had lost his job as an editor in Aktuelle Rapport".
	Frans-Jozef Willems (RVU, the Netherlands)	"Bericht aan de Toekomst!"	"This rocket will travel for thousands, maybe millions of years. It must be discovered by aliens. My rocket is so special, because these souvenirs contain emotion."

Coaches
Stephen Erickson, Independent Producer, Germany     
Lisbeth Jessen, DR, Denmark  
Helmut Kopetzky, Independent Producer, Germany   
Lars-Helge Myklebust, NRK, Norway          

Course presentation

The EBU Master School on Radio documentary is a long-term training during which the trainees will:
– learn, test and practise professional skills, 
– gain self-confidence, and
– produce a high-quality radio documentary.   

The content of the Master School has been designed to address current public service broadcasting as well as business needs. Spanning over 12 months, it combines: 

– Two practically oriented master courses:
Master course 1 – "Theses, topics & storytelling" 
(Deutschland Radio, Berlin, 7-10 March 2004)
Master course 2 – "Techniques & realization" (VRT, Brussels, 20-22 June 2004)   

– Intensive coaching by four senior feature makers:
Lisbeth Jessen, Stephen Erickson, Helmut Kopetzky, Lars Helge Myklebust chosen for their level of expertise and ability to transmit their knowledge. On-line and face-to-face coaching were delivered during the entire duration of the Master School, from Jan. to Dec. 2004.   

– Project development: 
Each trainee benefited from the unique expertise of EBU member professionals to individually develop step by step and produce their personal radio feature (approximately 30 minutes).     

>> order now the CD-Rom with the participants' production   

The final projects were presented at the prestigious 31st IFC 2005 (International Features Conference), Sinaia, Romania   

>> discover the pictures   

The 2nd edition ended on a high note as one of the participant was awarded the first prize of Prix Europa 2005 - the best Radio Documentary   >> more info

Background 

The EBU Master School is designed to integrate with the professional obligations of trainees. The EBU works in collaboration with the trainees' supervisors within their organization to maximize the impact of the training and promote broadcasting of the documentary produced during the Master School.    

The EBU Master school is a European platform where radio documentary producers from various countries can share practices and experiences, thus creating a unique European network.   

Radio documentary is a demanding and creative genre in which public radios have a tradition of excellence. Aware of the necessity to nurture a pool of young and talented radio documentary producers able to take over from their seniors, EBU International Training, launched in January 2002 the Master School initiative.    

The Master School is managed by Nathalie Labourdette, Head of EBU International Training, who is responsible for the structure, the programme and the content of training modules for each project. Edwin Brys, former Chairman of the EBU features & documentaries project group and Head of radio training department at VRT is the coordinator of the Master School.   

EBU International Training developed this project together with the EBU Radio department, in particular Raina Konstantinova, Director of Radio department.   

Fergus Graham, RTE, member of the 2002-2003 EBU Training Steering Committee helped the EBU to focus on the business needs of the broadcasters when designing the EBU Master school.