The American Geophysical Union sponsors three journalism awards – the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for news writing, the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for feature writing, and the Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism (not offered in 2018). The awards are open to any journalist in any country, writing in any language, and entries are due by March 15, 2018.
The Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, offers a one-week medical journalism fellowship “comprised of a week of interactive discussions, hands-on learning and experiential activities designed to bolster the knowledge and skills that top professional journalists need to cover medicine”. There are 15 all-expenses-paid fellowships available to experienced medical journalists from around the world, to attend from May 13-18, 2018. Applications close soon, on 1 April 2018. Details are available here.
Applications for the nine-month fellowship program with the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT are due by February 28, 2018. The fellowships are offered to just ten science journalists each year from around the world, and enable participants to attend field trips, seminars and training sessions, develop a course of study, and produce a research project while residing in the Boston/Cambridge area from August-May. For more information, visit the fellowships application site, and you can also read more about applying for a fellowship in this article.
The international magazine Cancer World, published by the European School of Oncology, runs a journalism award that “encourages, celebrates and rewards journalists who deliver insights into the personal and social impact of the disease, and efforts to change policy, practice or advocacy.”
The award is open to print, online, radio, video or television, published between October 2016 and April 2018, in categories of patient and carer experience; research, science and treatment; policy, services and affordability; and prevention.
The prize in each category is €1500 and the overall winner will also be funded to attend the 2018 ECCO Summit in Vienna (7th-9th September 2018) to receive their award. Entries close 1 May, 2018, and more information is available here.
Entries are now invited for the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes – Australia’s ‘Oscars of Science’ – which include a prize for science journalism, sponsored by the Federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. The Eureka Prize for Science Journalism is awarded to an Australian journalist or team of journalists “whose work is assessed as having most effectively communicated scientific or technological issues to the public”.
The prize, worth $10,000, can be awarded to a single piece or a body of work, that must have been published or broadcast in the Australian media for the first time between May 4, 2017 and May 4, 2018. The entry window closes on May 4, 2018, and the entry details are here.
Applications are now open for the Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund’s annual grants for Australian writers, publishers and artists.
The IGNITE grants provide up to $5000 to an individual to enable them to “to acquire knowledge, to undertake mentorships, internships, residencies, leadership opportunities, and strategic promotional opportunities.” In 2017, I was fortunate enough to receive one of these grants, which supported me to attend the World Federation of Science Journalists conference in San Francisco (which you can read about here), so I would strongly encourage science writers to consider applying. Applications close 20 April 2018.
The CREATE grants, which offer $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000, are aimed at mid-career or established writers, and are intended to encourage the creation or development of new work. Applications close 18 June 2018.
The Cultural Fund also offers fellowships for authors – including one for non-fiction writing – to the tune of $80,000. Applications close 24 September 2018.
The Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center is offering fellowships to full-time online, print and broadcast journalists (including freelance) who report on the environment to attend a two-week course at the facility in June/July this year.
The course enables attendees to “learn from experienced litigators who have won major cases and from policy experts in climate change, energy and other key legal areas. After class, you can meet for on- or off-the-record conversations with these thought-provoking experts.” The fellowships, which appear to be open to international candidates, include a US$1,250 stipend, free housing, free books, and a tuition waiver. Applications for the 2018 program close on March 5. Details are available here.
The Open Notebook (which is a brilliant resource for science journalists, in case you haven’t already discovered it) has just featured a Q&A with the editors of some of the newer digital science journalism outlets, and online publications that include science coverage, namely Undark, Hakai, Buzzfeed, Axios and STAT.
It offers a fascinating glimpse into the funding models of this new world of online journalism, and there’s also some useful information there for freelances looking for new outlets to pitch to. Check out the article here.
The Marine Biological Laboratory at the University of Chicago is inviting applications for its Science Journalism Program fellowships for science, health and environmental journalists.
The environmental hands-on research program involves a ten-day program of “field and laboratory science immersion at the MBL in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a world center for marine, biomedical, and environmental science, and at an environmental field research site on Cape Cod.”
The biomedical hands-on research program offers “exposure to the fundamental techniques and concepts of cell and molecular biology that provide the basic elements underlying many approaches to modern-day biomedical research” at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Four individuals from each group will also be selected to spend four days at the University of Chicago and attend the Science Innovation Summit there. The fellowships cover travel, room and board, lab fees and all activities associated with the program. Applications close 1 March 2018, and details can be found here.
The World Federation of Science Journalists is offering five international scholarships for journalists to attend the Kavli Prize week in Oslo (1-6 September, 2018). The Kavli Prize has been awarded every two years since 2008 in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience. The prize consists of 1 million US dollars in each field, and a gold medal presented by the King of Norway.
The winners of the journalism scholarships will get the opportunity to interview the laureates and have access to all the events, including the award ceremony and the banquet. The scholarships cover travel, registration fees and accommodation, with support from The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Entries close Monday 15 January, and application details are available here.