In May, the Knight Science Journalism Program made the difficult decision to defer its academic fellowships during the 2020-21 academic year, due to uncertainties and risks posed by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result of that decision, the program will not be accepting applications for the 2021-22 academic fellowship class this winter. We hope circumstances permit the academic fellowships to resume next year. In that case, applicants who were selected during our most recent submission cycle but required to defer their fellowships due to the pandemic will become the class of 2021-22. In order to accommodate continued uncertainties and possible further pandemic-related changes to the program, the announcement of the individual fellows will not be made until the spring.
At this point, we also expect the usual fellowship application process to be renewed next year. If so, a call for applications for the class of 2022-23 will be announced in December 2021.
While the academic fellowships are on hold, the Knight Science Journalism Program is continuing its mission of advancing science journalism in the public interest by supporting 18 remote project fellows during the 2020-21 academic year. Further updates on the program’s plans for future academic and project fellowships will be provided in the spring.