Whether you are a student, professional or organisation, numerous opportunities and awards exist to propel your journalism career forward. Below are scholarships, awards, grants and workshops available to journalists every year.
Some of these opportunities have past deadlines. However, the important thing is to take note of these scholarships and apply for them next year.
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1. Women in News (WIN) Leadership Development Program for African Female Journalists
The World Association of Newspaper and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is pleased to invite Senior Journalists or Editors working for the media in Botswana, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, especially those in newspapers or digital media, to apply for the much-sought-after Women in News (WIN) leadership development programme.
2. Reuters Photojournalism Grants for Photojournalists and Students
Reuters seeks to develop the next generation of photojournalists to tell original human stories from their locations and communities anywhere in the globe. We are offering up to eight, $5,000 USD grants to photojournalists or students of photojournalism interested in working on photo assignments and projects to advance their abilities and tell new stories.
3. RNTC Fully-funded Media & Journalism Scholarships for African & Developing Countries
The RNTC Netherlands training centre provides training for media professionals Sub-Saharan African and Developing Countries from journalists and programme-makers to social activists and communications professionals from non-governmental organisations. Whether you are a journalist, a blogger or a media manager, there are courses to fit your needs.
4. ICFJ Reporting Fellowship on Migration and Climate for Nigerian Journalists
Nigerian journalists are invited to apply for a reporting fellowship aimed at improved coverage of migration due to conflict or instability and the resulting impact on climate and economic prospects.
5. Harvard University Nieman-Berkman Klein Fellowship in Journalism Innovation
The Nieman-Berkman Klein Fellowship in Journalism Innovation brings individuals to Harvard University to work on a specific course of research or a specific project relating to journalism innovation.
6. Africa-China Reporting Workshop & Fieldwork Project for African Journalists
The Africa-China Reporting Project (the Project) at Wits Journalism is seeking applications from African and Chinese journalists to participate in the Africa-China Reporting Workshop & Fieldwork Project in Johannesburg in November.
7. Wits Journalism Africa-China Reporting Project for African Journalists
The grants are open to all French-speaking African journalists, and the objective is to enable journalists to investigate the current state of affairs on the ground in Francophone Africa.
8. Columbia University Ochberg Fellowship for Journalists Worldwide
The Ochberg Fellowship is the Dart Center’s flagship program for veteran and mid-career journalists who wish to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy.
ConDev’s Student Media Grants award up to $5,000 to current students interested in capturing conflict-related issues facing fragile and conflict-affected areas of the world through stunning photography.
10. Norbert Zongo Investigative Journalism Award for African Journalists
The Norbert Zongo National Press Centre, based in Burkina Faso, is accepting applications for its competition. The Norbert Zongo Prize for Journalism honors excellence in investigation and research on subjects related to the political, economic, social and cultural life in Africa.
In the realm of this project, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the GoetheInstitut Cairo are organizing a three-day workshop (“Schreiben über Wissenschaft) for ten science journalists or journalists interested in writing about scientific topics.
12. Poynter Institute International Fact-Checking Network Fellowships for International Journalists
The two fellowships, worth $2,500 each, are aimed at fact-checkers seeking to spend time embedded at a fact-checking organization in another country to be exposed to best practices they wish to adopt. The inaugural fellows worked on automation and fact-checking on television.
Are you a critically thinking journalist? Would you like to work on a cross-border investigative story? Do you want to investigate and fight transnational corruption? CiFAR is looking for young North African and European journalists to be part of a investigative journalism training programme.
14. CUNY Resilience Journalism Fellowship for Journalists Worldwide
This fall, up to 15 journalists will gather in New York City for six days of study and discussion as part of the new Resilience Journalism Fellowship at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
15. Merck More Than a Mother Media Awards for Journalists and Students in East Africa
The Merck More Than a Mother Media Awards will honor and reward outstanding journalistic coverage that enhances the public’s engagement and understanding of infertility stigma and the need to change the social perception of it in African communities.
16. Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award for Journalists in Developing Countries
Now leading into its fifth year, the Young Journalist Award is Thomson Foundation’s annual journalism competition, dedicated to finding and inspiring ambitious and emerging journalistic talent from across the globe.
17. International Labour Organisation (ILO) Labour Migration Journalism Fellowship
The programme is part of a comprehensive initiative to promote fair migration (including fair recruitment), and contribute to the elimination of human trafficking for forced labour across the Arab States region.
18. Naseej Prize for Journalists in Middle East and North Africa
As part of the NASEEJ project, SKEyes and CFI are launching a competition for awarding the best article or report on an issue surrounding cultural and religious diversity in the Middle East.
19. UN Women Africa Capacity Building Training Program for African Journalists
The project, African Women Changing the Narrative is courtesy of a three-year grant from the Austrian Development Cooperation. It aims to highlight the contribution by African women to development through their leadership capacities and their central role in the design of innovative approaches to development.
20. Harvard University Knight Visiting Nieman Journalism Fellowships
The Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowships at Harvard offer short-term research opportunities to individuals interested in working on special projects designed to advance journalism in some new way.
21. Health Systems Global (HSG) Media Fellowship
The first Health Systems Global (HSG) Media Fellowships Programme is offering six fellowships to journalists undertaking cutting edge news and reporting on health systems and health policy topics across the world.
22. Travel Fellowships for Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Forum
The TEF Entrepreneurship Forum is be the largest gathering of African entrepreneurs and other ecosystem stakeholders from across the continent. African journalists will be funded to attend the Forum.
23. Reporters Without Borders Rest and Refuge Scholarship for Reporters in Crisis or War-Torn Countries
Reporters in Crisis or War-Torn Countries are warmly invited to visit Berlin. Reporters without Borders Germany and taz Panter Foundation offers them a time of refuge and rest up to three months.
24. CCMP Journalism Fellowships to Attend the UN Climate Negotiations in Bonn, Germany
Formed in 2007 by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN), Panos London and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the CCMP has brought developing country journalists to the annual UN climate summits since 2007.
25. MJ Bear International Fellowship (Fully-funded) for Early-Career Journalists
Each year, ONA recognizes three fellows— two in the United States or Canada and one international. The fellows are up-and-coming journalists who are just beginning to make their voices heard in the industry and working to expand the boundaries of digital news.
26. Uganda Press Photo Award (UPPA) Competition for Ugandan Photographers and Photojournalists
The overall winner of the Uganda Press Photo Award annual photo contest will receive the grand prize of a CANON EOS 7D MARK II DSLR camera sponsored by Canon. There will be other prizes for the runners up.
27. Banipal Visiting Writer Fellowship for Journalists from MENA Region
The Fellowship is based on the three cornerstones that have formed the core of Banipal magazine: that Arab literature is an essential part of world culture and human civilisation; that dialogue between different cultures needs to be continually deepened; and that the joy and enlightenment to be gained from reading beautiful poetry and imaginative writing is an integral part of human existence.
28. News Corp Media Fellowship for African Journalists
Interested in sharpening your digital skills while working alongside your peers in London? Eager to share your experience with award-winning colleagues abroad? Apply to the News Corp Media Fellowship for a chance to learn how some of the most prestigious news outlets in the world operate.
29. IWMF Howard Buffett Fund For Women Journalists
The Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, the first funding initiative of its kind, enables the IWMF to dramatically expand its support of women journalists. Established with a $4 million gift from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Fund will support projects including educational opportunities, investigative reporting and media development initiatives.
30. South African Media Innovation Program (SAMIP) Innovation Challenge
The SAMIP Innovation Challenge is for South African projects and organisations that are building news and information products that engage and inform local/underserved communities
31. Call for Applications: IWMF African Great Lakes Reporting Fellowships to Zanzibar, Tanzania
Applicants are asked to pitch stories relevant to the trip location and theme; stories must focus on in-depth and new narratives and be notably different from those reported on previous Fellowships. We will prioritize applications with creative, thoughtful, and original pitches.
32. StoryLab Academy Digital Skills Training Program for African Journalists and Newsrooms
The new StoryLab Academy will train newsrooms in 12 hub cities across Africa to leverage both software and hardware tools, such as camera drones, by partnering newsrooms with local experts.
33. Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship for Journalists from Developing Countries
The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships are aimed at providing fellows with experience in reporting, writing and editing that will enhance future professional performance; transferring knowledge gained during the program to colleagues at home; and fostering ties between journalists in the United States and other countries
34. Africa Fact-Checking Awards for African Journalists
Interested applicants who are working as reporters for Africa-based media organisations, should get in touch if they have published or broadcast a report between 1 September 2015 and 31 August this year, exposing a false claim on an important topic made by a public figure or institution in Africa.
The Journalist-in-Residence Programme of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM), Belgium, has arrived at its fourth edition. Talented print, broadcast, and online journalists from Africa, Asia and Latin-America are invited to apply.
36. Health Systems Global (HSG) Media Fellowship
The first Health Systems Global (HSG) Media Fellowships Programme is offering six fellowships to journalists undertaking cutting edge news and reporting on health systems and health policy topics across the world.
37. ICFJ Reporting Fellowship on Early Childhood Development
Interested in becoming an influencer and leader for children’s development in your country? If producing high quality reporting and solution-orientated stories about nutrition and early childhood development issues is one of your passions, then apply to this year-long fellowship, which will include two international reporting trips as well as continuing mentoring and several virtual webinars.
38. ICFJ Global Health Reporting Contest for African Journalists
Now in its fourth year, ICFJ’s 2017 Global Health Reporting Contest seeks to continue building on the program’s previous years’ successes by catalyzing local networks of leading health reporters in Brazil, China, India, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. This year, the program will offer reporting grants to former contest winners with the aim of spurring additional high-quality storytelling on health topics.
39. United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Journalism Award
The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) invites media worldwide to submit entries for its annual UNCA Awards for the best print, broadcast (TV & Radio) and online, web-based media coverage of the United Nations, U.N. agencies and field operations. The UNCA will give a total of Four (4) Awards to outstanding journalists.
40. International Reporting Project (IRP) Journalism Fellowship in Africa
The International Reporting Project is accepting applications from professional journalists to report on issues related to peacebuilding and conflict resolution across the African continent.
41. United Nations (UN) Al-Farra Memorial Journalists Fellowship Program
The annual Reham Al-Farra Memorial Journalists Fellowship Programme is a unique opportunity for journalists from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The Programme is held for four weeks at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
42. United Nations/Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Awards
The United Nations Ranan Lurie Awards invites political cartoonists of print publications, electronic media, and on-line media throughout the world to participate in said Competition for the Year 2016
43. Bloomberg/Ford Foundation Community Media Fund for African Media
The CMF seeks to award grants to key civil society organizations, community media and non-governmental organisations in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to strengthen citizen journalism, enhance the financial literacy of citizens, improve their access to relevant data and build the capacity of community media to improve governance and accountability through analysis and reporting.
44. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Individual Assistance to Journalists
The Assistance Desk of Reporters Without Borders, in cooperation with other NGOs, provides financial and administrative assistance to prosecuted journalists because of their reporting.
45. CUNY McGraw Business Journalism Fellowship for Business Journalists
The McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism offers a fellowship program to support in-depth coverage of business and the global economy. The fellowship provides editorial and financial support to journalists who need the time and resources to tackle complex, time-consuming stories.
46. IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship for Female Journalists
The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is accepting applications for the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, named for the 1998 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner and Boston Globe correspondent who was killed in Iraq in May 2003.
47. Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowships at United Nations Assembly
Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists is offering Journalism Fellowships, an Opportunity for African/developing countries’ journalists to experience and report United Nation Assembly in New York USA 2017
48. BBC World News Komla Dumor Award for African Journalists
The BBC World News Komla Dumor Award will be made to an outstanding individualliving and working in Africa, who combines strong journalism skills, on air flair, and an exceptional talent in telling African stories with the ambition and potential to become a star of the future.
49. IJP Journalism Exchange Program for Young Journalists in Africa and Germany
The Southern African-German Journalists‘ Bursary is intended to enable young journalists to gain insights into the political, economic, cultural and social fabric of the host country.
50. Columbia University Spencer Fellowship for Education Reporting
The Spencer Fellowship for Education Reporting is open to journalists, educators and education policy researchers who want to develop an ambitious, long-form journalism project to advance the understanding of education.
51. ivoh Restorative Narrative Fellowship for Media Practitioners
ivoh’s fellowship is an extension of the organization’s work around Restorative Narrative — a genre of stories that show how people and communities are making a meaningful progression from a place of despair to a place of resilience. (You can read more about Restorative Narratives, and find related examples, here.)
52. Women’s Leadership Accelerator for Women in Digital Journalism
Online News Association’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator is a weeklong forum aimed squarely at developing strong leadership skills for women working in digital journalism.
53. Heinz-Kühn-Foundation Journalism Scholarships for Junior Journalists in Developing Countries
Heinz-Kühn-Foundation scholarships are intended to enable junior journalists to further their professional development and continue training in new surroundings, and to gain a first-hand and in-depth knowledge of the customs, opinions and way of life in other countries.
54. Erasmus Mundus Scholarships in Journalism, Media and Globalization
The Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Journalism, Media and Globalisation welcomes applications from graduate students around the world. You can apply for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, or as a self-funded student.
55. John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University
The John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship program at Stanford University aims to foster new ideas in journalism through innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. Each year it brings up to 20 journalists and journalism innovators from the United States and around the world to spend the year at Stanford.
