At The Uproot Project, we believe important environmental stories need to be told. We believe that underrepresented journalists bring critical and fresh perspectives to covering these stories.
The Uproot Project Fellowship offers funding to seven journalists to pursue reporting projects over the course of a year. Fellows will receive up to $2,000 to cover travel and other reporting expenses and will also receive support from Uproot to place their stories with a media outlet, if requested. Fellows’ projects should focus on stories related to one of four categories: (1) environmental justice, (2) climate solutions, (3) water, food, & culture, and (4) science. Projects should be aimed at highlighting how the climate crisis and key environmental issues of our time are inextricably linked with other forms of inequity.
Eligibility
The mission of the Uproot fellowship program is to help underrepresented, early-career climate journalists gain a stronger foothold in our industry. Our definition of “early-career” includes but is not limited to: journalists who are relatively new to the environmental/climate beat, freelancers who have not had full-time newsroom experience, recent journalism school graduates, and scientists without traditional journalism training but with strong writing clips and content knowledge.
Applicants must be members of The Uproot Project. (If you haven’t joined Uproot yet, you can apply for membership here. It’s free to join!)
Project Guidelines
Reporting projects should take an in-depth look at an environmental issue in one of four categories: (1) environmental justice, (2) climate solutions, (3) water, food, & culture, and (4) science. We’re particularly interested in funding stories that are undercovered in the news media or poorly understood by the general public.
The fellowship is open to stories in any medium — writing, audio, video, photography or some combination. Your reporting can take you anywhere, whether there’s a story you want to tell in your own backyard or across the world. Fellows will also be asked to provide a brief progress report at six months and a short summary of their experience at the end of their reporting process for Uproot to share.
Budget Guidelines
The funding for this fellowship should directly support fellows’ reporting. Such costs may include travel expenses, translation fees, records access, data analysis, data visualization, and more.
The majority of the funds must be used for reporting expenses, and funds should be spent within one year of fellowship selection. Fellows should not spend a large share of their budget on new equipment. Funds cannot be used as reimbursement for reporting that has already been completed. The jury may allow other types of reimbursement in special cases.
DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 11:59pm ET