Interested in applying for a Journalism Science Alliance grant? After the evaluation of the proposals in the 2025 call, we asked our jury members for their opinions, and they kindly shared their tips for future applicants. The 2026 call is now open.
Whether you already have a well-thought-out project or just a glimpse of an idea, check out these ten pieces of advice our jury members have shared with us before submitting your application.
Tips on the project idea
- Do pre-research to ensure there is a story to tell, and think very carefully about the angle of your investigation and your hypothesis. This is mandatory in science, and similarly important for a journalism-science project. Have a very focused question and a clear goal for your journalistic investigation.
- Integrate the scientists into the project and give them a key role – don’t treat them as an afterthought. Make the most of the scientists’ capabilities and what they can offer to the project.
- Identify the complementarities and synergies of the collaboration: what will you achieve together as a journalist-scientist team that you couldn’t achieve separately? What is the added value of your interaction?
- Be innovative with the topics. Climate change, war, and health were three areas where there were a lot of proposals in Call 2025. Thinking outside the box and looking for underreported topics might be a good strategy.
- Sit down with the researcher and build on something truly innovative in terms of collaboration, bearing in mind that this is about investigative journalism grounded in scientific evidence – not science journalism or a research project.
Tips on the application form
- Clarify who the scientific partner is and what contribution it brings. There must be an autonomous contribution from science to the project. This may be more challenging when social sciences are involved, but you must explicitly state the role of the scientific partner in the project.
- Avoid overwhelming the reader with excessive information as this makes it more difficult to understand your project. The application should clearly identify your goal, method(s) and expected outcome(s).
- Communicate your application as clearly as possible. This makes all the difference to the judging panel. Think carefully about how to present your story to someone who is reading about it for the first time, among dozens of other proposals.
- Be as specific and concrete as possible. For a jury member it’s easier to analyse your proposal if you aremore specific regarding key points and goals and provide relevant details. Avoid generic or overly broad formulations.
- Keep your application focused. Over-promising can undermine credibility regarding your ability to achieve the proposed objectives.
The Journalism Science Alliance thanks our judges Sanne Breimer, Adam Bychawski, Miguel Castanho, Adriana Homolova, and Daniela Ovadia for their time and support.
Learn MORE about our grants for investigative journalism backed by science and see details about the latest call for applications.
