The Open Notebook Early-Career Fellowship Program 2026 ($6,600 stipend) – YOA

Deadline: October 31, 2025

Applications are open for the Open Notebook Early-Career Fellowship Program 2026. The Open Notebook presents a paid, part-time fellowship program for early-profession 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 group.

This one-yr program presents fellows the OPPORTUNITY to discover their profession pursuits and passions and to sharpen their abilities as part of a proficient, supportive, various neighborhood of previous and current fellows and mentors. This fellowship is made attainable by the beneficiant assist of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which has supported this program since 2013.

The Fellowship Experience

During this distant, part-time fellowship, every fellow will pitch, report, and write articles for publication at The Open Notebook—a mixture of “story behind the story” interviews and reported options. They can have weekly telephone or video conferences with a mentor who’s an skilled science journalist and who will assist them form story concepts, present reporting and writing steering, edit fellows’ article drafts, and supply basic craft and profession-improvement recommendation and steering.

Fellows and mentors additionally take part in a Slack dialogue group composed of different present and former fellowship contributors and TON editors. During the fellowship, fellows will take part in cohort-based mostly actions within the fellowship Slack neighborhood. Membership on this neighborhood will proceed after the fellowship ends.

Benefits

• A stipend of $6,600 is offered for chosen fellows.

Eligibility

• The fellowship is open to early-profession science journalists.
  • If you reside outdoors the U.S., you’re welcome to apply.
• Some coaching and/or expertise in writing for most people is a requirement for this fellowship.
  • You don’t must have in depth expertise or coaching, however you do must have some.
• Science journalists (or aspiring science journalists) will need to have fewer than three years of standard skilled science writing expertise.
  • Internships and pupil work don’t depend towards the less-than-three-years requirement.
  • Exceptions to this requirement might also be made for circumstances wherein an applicant has greater than three years {of professional} science writing expertise however some or all of that have is just not 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 will probably be given to candidates who exhibit:

• A powerful intention to work primarily as knowledgeable 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 people (it doesn’t need to be in depth)
• Some understanding of the science journalism career, the challenges science journalists generally face, and the methods wherein you want to develop as a science journalist
• Familiarity with The Open Notebook and the forms of matters we are inclined to cowl
• An potential to generate good story concepts appropriate for The Open Notebook
• A dedication to delivering your greatest work and being conscientious about deadlines
• Strong writing potential (If English is just not your first language, they do take this into consideration and don’t anticipate flawless writing. However, for a profitable expertise on this fellowship you could have a reasonably excessive stage of proficiency in English.)

Application

The application kind for this fellowship contains the next:

• Responses to questions on:
  • Why you have an interest on this fellowship and what you hope to be taught
  • Your prior coaching and/or expertise in writing tales about science for most people
  • Any specific abilities, pursuits, or views that you’d carry to this fellowship
  • Your general plans for through 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 2 TON options or multimedia tales that you simply suppose can be appropriate for publication at The Open Notebook. These can take the type of behind-the-story author interviews; reported options on some factor of the craft of science writing; roundtable discussions; or another artistic, function-size undertaking centered on the craft of science writing. Please familiarize your self with the forms of tales that The Open Notebook publishes. (Note: These are transient, 100-phrase proposals, not full-scale pitches.)
• A resume or CV
• One letter of reference. This may 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 geared toward most people (not scientific/educational writing). If you’re sharing audio or multimedia clips, you possibly can 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. They strongly encourage writers from all forms 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, they invite you to allow them to know. This is completely elective, and any data you disclose will probably be saved confidential.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to TON Early-Career Fellowship.