The Science Journalists Association of Australia is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 SJAA Grants Program.
This year’s program features four winners across three categories, each receiving up to $1000 in funding, with the opportunity for mentorship. It was another difficult year for our judging committee, with the quality of entries exceedingly high. The SJAA extends its congratulations to this year’s recipients and can’t wait to see the work produced.
Freelance science and technology journalist Petra Stock has been awarded a travel grant to attend the annual ANZCCART conference in Christchurch, NZ, from 10-12 September. The conference, which delves into ethical, social, cultural and scientific issues relating to the use of animals in research, will provide Petra with an opportunity for reporting, professional development, and networking. She will use the grant to cover travel expenses and conference fees partially.
Perth-based writer and science communicator Michelle Aitken has been awarded an independent reporting grant to examine the push by an Australian mining magnate to make akoya oyster aquaculture a sustainable alternative to wild-caught seafood. The grant will support Michelle’s travel to Albany to report this story, which captures the tension between innovation, big business and the environment, in a West Australian community.
We also awarded two student and early-career grants this year. The judging committee made a specific note of the high quality of entries for these grants this year.
The first grant goes to Antimony Deor to develop a long-form story on the science behind trans healthcare, blending reporting with unique personal experience, while the second grant is awarded to Thomas Phillips for his pitch to make a short radio documentary that explores the progress of the Australian Acoustic Observatory, a network of more than 300 solar-powered sensors capturing the sounds of various ecosystems since mid-2018.
The SJAA Grants Program is now in its fourth year and has awarded over $20,000 in funding to support international travel, in-depth science feature writing and professional development programs. The program has been supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas and SJAA’s Champions of Science Journalism: the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science and STEM Matters.
We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to the judging committee, who took the time to provide feedback to all applicants and were impressed by the depth, clarity and quality of this year’s proposals. We’d also encourage those who missed out on this year’s grant funding to apply again in the future.
Get those pitches ready for SJAA’s Grants Program which we expect to open in April 2025.
If you’d like to support the SJAA, we’d love to hear from you! External support would help supercharge this program and provide opportunities to Australia’s vibrant science journalism ecosystem. Contact our executive team at contact@sjaa.org.au about how we might partner together.