Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is pleased to announce its second round of travel grants for journalists interested in attending – and reporting from – conferences and global summits related to biodiversity issues that are taking place in 2023.
This opportunity is intended to enable journalists from around the world to cover biodiversity-related conferences and negotiations for their home audiences.
Conferences
Eligible conferences may include, but are not limited to:
International Congress for Conservation Biology — 23-27 July 2023 — Kigali, Rwanda
3rd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference — 13-15 March 2023 — Dublin, Ireland
EcoSummit 2023 — 13-17 June 2023 — Gold Coast, Australia
Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation — 2-6 July 2023 — Tamil Nadu, India
One Forest Summit — March 2023 — Libreville, Gabon
Funding Information
They expect to award scholarships of up to US$2,500 each. The amount may vary depending on whether international travel is needed for attendance at the conference. In general, applications with frugal requests will be viewed with more favor.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant must:
Be a professional journalist from or representing an established media house and reporting from a low- or middle-income country. They will also consider applications from Russia. They especially encourage women, Indigenous journalists and early-career journalists to apply.
Have previous experience reporting on environmental issues and clearly indicate the kinds of stories they might pursue while attending the conference.
Commit to attending all days of the conference they are proposing to attend.
Provide a letter of support from an editor or media outlet, committing to publish or broadcast any stories produced as a result of this scholarship. This is expected of both staffers and freelancers.
Submit samples of their work, which can be uploaded as documents or web links. Stories can be in any language as long as they are accompanied by a short English synopsis. Story clips related to biodiversity issues are preferred.
Allow copies of stories produced from the conference to be re-published on the EJN website and distributed via social media, with due credit being given to the original media outlet.
Note: You’ll be asked to upload these supporting documents once you start the application process, so please have them handy.
Judging Criteria
Criteria for evaluating applicants include demonstrated experience covering biodiversity and other environmental topics, clear reporting plans for the proposed conference — including a letter of support from the media outlet which will publish or broadcast reports from the conference — the audience reach of the proposed media outlet, gender balance and geographical distribution across the cohort.
