The Science Journalists Association of Australia 2025 grants program is destined to help support science journalists realise ambitious and independent science reporting projects. The SJAA grants program is only open to SJAA members, so if you aren’t signed up — you can do so here!
In 2025, we are offering a minimum of $8,000 in grant funding, split across four grants worth up to $2,000 each. There are four categories of grant funding to apply for: Student/early-career, independent reporting, professional development and travel.
The 2025 program will also offer an additional discretionary grant (also up to $2,000), for an exceptional application or to bolster an existing grant already awarded if it would benefit from extra funding, at the judge’s discretion.
YES! Applications are now open for the 2025 Science Journalism grants.
The application form is here. All the information about how to apply, judging criteria and our terms and conditions are below. Any questions should be emailed to contact@sjaa.org.au.
About the grants program
Categories
How to apply
Eligibility criteria
Judging criteria
Terms and conditions
Questions?
What are the aims of the grants program?
1. To foster the career development of Australian science journalists.
2. To encourage and support excellence in science reporting.
3. To build capacity in the Australian science journalism community.
What do the grants support?
The grants support SJAA members to undertake a science reporting project – print, audio, visual, or online – travel for a reporting project, or undertake a professional development opportunity that would otherwise be difficult for them to do because of financial or time constraints.
What are the grant categories?
Four grants will be offered in 2025, with the option of an additional grant to be allocated at the judging panel’s discretion:
1. Student or early-career reporting grant – one grant of up to $2,000
These grants are intended to support a student member or an early-career journalist (up to four years’ experience) to undertake a reporting project. The grant includes matching the grant recipient with an experienced science journalist who can provide mentoring, editorial advice and guidance with their project and its possible publication/broadcast.
2. Independent reporting grant – one grant of up to $2,000
This grant is intended to support a full or associate member to undertake an independent reporting project, with mentoring if desired. If the individual is employed full-time in-house, the grant can be used to support a reporting project that the recipient couldn’t otherwise undertake in their existing role, and which must be published/broadcast in an outlet other than the one they work for.
The grant includes the option of matching the grant recipient with an experienced science journalist who can provide mentoring, editorial advice and guidance with their project and its possible publication/broadcast.
3. Professional development – one grant of up to $2,000
These grants are intended to support career development opportunities for full, associate or student members. The grant can be used to support a career development opportunity such as subsidising involvement in a science journalism (or other) conference, attending a training course or workshop, enrolling in mentorship programs, or participation in longer programs to up-skill specific areas of journalism practice.
4. Travel grant – one grant of up to $2,000
This year, the travel grant is being separated into its own category. Applicants can apply for up to $2,000 in funding to support their travel needs, accommodation, visa processing or any other expenses related to travelling. Travel grants will be awarded only for travel with a valid link to independent science and STEM reporting and a budget of expenses is required to apply for this grant.
5. Discretionary grant – one grant of up to $2,000
This grant may be given to a worthy application, using the existing SJAA grants criteria, OR to bolster an existing grant already awarded if it would benefit from extra funding, at the judge’s discretion. The grant includes the option of matching the grant recipient with an experienced science journalist who can provide mentoring, editorial advice and guidance.
How to apply
Application requirements for student/early-career and independent reporting grants:
— A story pitch of up to 200 words.
— Details of how the grant will help you with the reporting project (up to 100 words).
— A list of possible or planned interviews.
— The outlet(s) where the journalist hopes to get the work published/broadcast.
— A short bio (100 words) and link to two examples of published work (or unpublished work for student journalists) or to an online portfolio.
Application requirements for travel grants:
— Explanation of the travel assistance required and what the applicant hopes to get out of that experience (up to 200 words, please include links to the opportunity if appropriate).
— If the opportunity is a selective one, the applicant must provide confirmation that they have been accepted for it.
— A proposed budget.
— If the travel is associated with reporting opportunities or freelance work, please state the outlet(s) where you plan to publish or broadcast the work.
— A short bio (100 words) and link to two examples of work or to an online portfolio.
Application requirements for professional development grants:
— Explanation of the professional development opportunity and what the applicant hopes to get out of that experience (up to 200 words, please include links to the opportunity if appropriate).
— If the opportunity is a selective one, the applicant must provide confirmation that they have been accepted for it.
— Details of what amount is requested and an estimate of how it will be spent.
— The outlet(s) where the journalist hopes or plans to get the work published/broadcast.
— Details of what amount is requested and an estimate of how it will be spent.
— A short bio (100 words) and link to two examples of work or to an online portfolio.
Applications are now open for 2025!
The application form is here.
Eligibility criteria
Applicants must be current members of SJAA (full, associate or student). If you’re not yet a member, sign up now.
Applicants for a student/early-career grant must be current tertiary students (includes post-graduate/masters students) or have been working as a science journalist for no more than four years. (This has been raised from three years, in previous grant funding rounds)
The journalist must have no financial or employment ties to the subject matter and must declare any other conflicts of interest – real or perceived.
The project must be science journalism – not science communication.
The project should be of an appropriate size for the grant; for example, not a short news brief but equally not a documentary series.
Judging criteria
1. Journalistic merit: the story idea should be original, demonstrate a journalistic approach, offer new insights. (score out of 10)
2. Impact: how significant and important is the subject matter? (score out of 10)
3. Need: how would this grant help you to realise this project? (score out of 10)
4. Viability: assessing the viability and risk of the proposal (score out of 5)
Judging panel
The judging panel will consist of three members of the SJAA committee, but external judges may be invited to assist in the selection process.
In 2025, the judging panel includes Jackson Ryan, Sara Phillips and Lydia Hales.
The judges’ decision is final but we will endeavour to provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants if possible.
Terms and conditions
What can the funds be used for?
The reporting grants are a fixed amount that is paid in full (plus GST if the applicant is GST registered). The travel and professional development grants will be paid according to the amount requested.
The reporting grant money can be used to pay for the recipient’s time, to pay for access to an event, course, research materials, travel to and from an event, accommodation etc. It’s expected that reporting grants will result in publication within nine months (see below).
The travel grant money is solely for travel and accommodation. The professional development grant money can be used for travel and accommodation, fees, stipends or to cover the recipient’s time to undertake the opportunity.
The money cannot be paid to an employer to subsidise an employee’s salary or to pay for use of the employer’s facilities.
Publication
The work should be published or broadcast within nine months of the grant being awarded, in an independent outlet either in Australia or overseas. This can include self-publication in outlets such as Medium, but not personal blogs. In the event that grant recipients encounter difficulties in getting a project completed or published, SJAA will endeavour to assist them as much as possible but also acknowledges that sometimes stuff just goes south.
Where possible, the publication or outlet should include acknowledgement the work was produced with the support of the Science Journalists Association of Australia.
Mentorship
Successful applicants who would like mentoring will be asked to either choose from a list of available mentors or if they already have a specific mentor in mind, SJAA will endeavour to assist in setting up the mentorship.
The nature of the mentorship can be worked out between the mentor and mentee but SJAA can provide some guidelines/guidance to help this process. Mentors will spend their first session with the grant recipient making sure the project premise is sound, crucial interviewees are secured, and that there is a fall-back plan if the original plan changes.
The mentor must have no financial or employment ties to the subject matter, and will be paid a nominal fee for their involvement.
Acquittal
Grant recipients are asked to complete a short questionnaire at the conclusion of their reporting or professional development projects to describe their experience and how the grant helped them realise their story. Their responses may be used for an article in the SJAA newsletter.
Accounting
The successful applicants must invoice for the full amount, which will be paid within one week of the invoice being received. The nine-month count starts from the date of payment.
Other
SJAA is not liable for any legal issues which result from the project or story.
Questions?
Email us at contact@SJAA.org.au