The Open Notebook (TON) Early-Career Fellowship Program 2026 for early-career science journalists ($4,000 Stipend). – Opportunities For Africans

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Application Deadline: October 31, 2025.

Applications are actually open for the 2026 Open Notebook (TON) Early-Career Fellowship Program. The Open Notebook affords a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-career science journalists. During the course of this fellowship, fellows work with a mentor to plan, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook and develop into part of the TON editorial workforce. This one-year program affords fellows the chance to discover their profession pursuits and passions and to sharpen their abilities as part of a gifted, supportive, numerous neighborhood of previous and current fellows and mentors. 

Requirements

• The fellowship is open to early-career science journalists.
  • If you reside outdoors the U.S., you might be welcome to apply.
• Some coaching and/or expertise in writing for most of the people is a requirement for this fellowship.
  • You don’t have to have in depth expertise or coaching, however you do have to have some.
• Science journalists (or aspiring science journalists) will need to have fewer than three years of normal skilled science writing expertise.
  • Internships and scholar work don’t rely towards the fewer-than-three-years requirement.
  • Exceptions to this requirement may additionally be made for circumstances during which an applicant has greater than three years {of professional} science writing expertise however some or all of that have will not be in English.
• Applications, together with writing samples and letters of advice, have to be in English.
  • Materials translated into English from one other language are acceptable.

Selection Criteria

Priority might be given to candidates who display:

• A powerful intention to work primarily as an expert science journalist. (Note: This fellowship is meant for folks whose primary objective is to do journalism, versus different types of science communication.)
• Some coaching and/or expertise writing about science for most of the people (it doesn’t must be in depth)
• Some understanding of the science journalism career, the challenges science journalists generally face, and the methods during which you wish to develop as a science journalist
• Familiarity with The Open Notebook and the sorts of matters we are likely to cowl
• An skill to generate good story concepts appropriate for The Open Notebook
• A dedication to delivering your greatest work and being conscientious about deadlines
• Strong writing skill (If English will not be your first language, we do take this into consideration and don’t count on flawless writing. However, for a profitable expertise on this fellowship you have to have a reasonably excessive stage of proficiency in English.)

Required Application Materials

The application kind for this fellowship consists of the next:

• Responses to questions on:
  • Why you have an interest on this fellowship and what you hope to study
  • Your prior coaching and/or expertise in writing tales about science for most of the people
  • Any explicit abilities, pursuits, or views that you’d deliver to this fellowship
  • Your general plans for in the course of the fellowship interval (for instance, will you concurrently be ending a dissertation? Freelancing? Seeking full-time employment someplace? Doing one thing else?) 
• Short proposals for two TON options or multimedia tales that you just suppose could be appropriate for publication at The Open Notebook. These can take the type of behind-the-story author interviews; reported options on some aspect of the craft of science writing; roundtable discussions; or another artistic, feature-length challenge centered on the craft of science writing. Please familiarize your self with the sorts of tales that The Open Notebook publishes. (Note: These are temporary, 100-word proposals, not full-scale pitches.)
• A resume or CV
• One letter of reference. This will be from a professor, editor, mentor, supervisor, or different colleague—whoever you suppose can greatest communicate to your abilities and qualities as they relate to science journalism and to this fellowship expertise.
• Up to 2 writing or multimedia samples of labor aimed toward most of the people (not scientific/tutorial writing). If you might be sharing audio or multimedia clips, you may merely put the URLs for the work right into a PDF to add on this part. (Samples have to be in English. Translated supplies are acceptable.)
• Optional: Additional details about you. We strongly encourage writers from all sorts of backgrounds to apply. If you’re a member of any group or neighborhood that has traditionally been marginalized or underrepresented in U.S. journalism, we invite you to tell us. This is completely elective, and any data you disclose might be stored confidential

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Open Notebook (TON) Early-Career Fellowship Program