Reporting on Covid-19? Here Are Some Grant Opportunities Programs are sprouting up around the world to support coronavirus projects great and small — from international reporting collaborations to community-focused newsletters.

As the world combats the spread of Covid-19, science journalism’s role in maintaining a safe, well-informed public has never been more vital. A number of organizations around the world have responded by announcing grants to support independent journalists and newsrooms in their efforts to cover the pandemic and its social impacts. There are grants for projects great and small — from international reporting collaborations to community-focused coronavirus newsletters. To help connect journalists with those funding sources, the Knight Science Journalism Program has compiled the following list of grant programs that are currently accepting applications:

• The Facebook Journalism Project’s COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund is offering grants to support coronavirus coverage by local news organizations in the United States. Publishers may apply for grants varying from $25,000 to $100,000; funds can be deployed to create new journalism products related to COVID-19, support freelancers, and cover organizational costs, among other possible uses. Applications are being accepted until April 24, 2020.
• The Facebook Journalism Project is also collaborating with the European Journalism Centre to offer a European Journalism COVID-19 Support Fund. Grants of 5,000 euros will support local media, freelancers, and groups of freelancers undertaking short-term or one-off COVID-19 related projects that engage local communities. Grants of 10,000 and 25,000 euros will go to newsrooms to help address immediate business needs related to the pandemic’s financial fallout. And grants of 50,000 euros will go to publishers to “facilitate innovative and useful journalistic coverage of the COVID-19 or technical news organisation projects with potential to scale.”
• The Africa-China Reporting Project, based in the Journalism Department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, is offering public health reporting grants of up to $1,500 to support stories “investigating current ground-level responses, capacity, successes/failures, shortcomings, services and collaborations” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Potential focus areas for reporting include the economic implications of the pandemic, pandemic preparedness in Africa, and pandemic-triggered xenophobia and stigma. The grant competition is open to all journalists, and applications must be submitted by April 30.
• The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has announced a Coronavirus News Collaboration Challenge, a grant program that looks to fund innovative, collaborative approaches to reporting on the novel coronavirus. The grants are designed to foster “collaboration among journalists and newsrooms across state lines or national borders” in the U.S. and abroad. Previous awards for the Pulitzer Center’s international reporting/travel program have ranged between $5,000 and $10,000, but projects of any scope and size will be considered. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis.
• The Fund for Investigative Journalists is offering financial support to U.S. freelance journalists working on coronavirus stories that expose wrongdoing in the public or private sectors, including corruption and abuse of power. Awards of up to $10,000 will be given to cover out-of-pocket reporting expenses. Foreign-based story proposals are eligible, but must have a strong U.S. angle and be published in a U.S. media outlet. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis.
• The National Geographic Society’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists will provide grants ranging between $1,000 and $8,000 to support local coverage of “the preparation, response, and impact of [the Covid-19] pandemic as seen through evidence-based reporting.” The fund will prioritize reporting that serves underserved populations. Writers, photographers, videographers, audio journalists, cartographers, filmmakers, and data visualization experts are encouraged to apply, and applicants may hail from anywhere in the world. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis.
• The nonprofit Economic Hardship Reporting Project is offering grants to independent journalists covering stories at “the intersection of the coronavirus and financial suffering in America,” with an emphasis on journalists who are themselves experiencing hardship. Successful story pitches for written stories are funded at approximately $1 per word. The organization prefers for applicants to provide a letter of commitment to co-publish from a large media outlet, though it is not a requirement.

Please check back here for updates as new Covid-19 grants are announced and added to this list. If you know of any grant opportunities we’ve missed, email us at knight-info@mit.edu. For another helpful source of Covid-19 related funding for journalists, see the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s compilation of Covid-19 journalism grants.