Applications open for Sharon Begley Science Reporting Award

Benefits

• The Sharon Begley Award comprises a career prize, recognizing the accomplishments of a mid-career science journalist, and a grant of at least $20,000 to enable the winner to undertake a significant reporting project.

Eligibility Criteria

• Candidates should have been working journalists for at least 8–10 years, including significant experience in science journalism, or provide equivalent evidence of commitment to the field. Time spent as an editor counts toward eligibility.
• CASW aims to consider a highly competitive and highly diverse pool of candidates and encourages all mid-career science journalists to consider entering. Toward that end, there is no entry fee, and applications will be accepted online.
• Staff and independent journalists living and working anywhere in the world are eligible if they have published in news outlets that are available to international audiences. Although the award can be won only once, there is no limit of the number of times one can enter.
• Current CASW board members, staff, and contractors, as well as members of their households, are ineligible.
• Journalists who have served on the Sharon Begley Award Advisory Committee become eligible three years after their service ends.

Project mentoring and requirements

• CASW will provide the award winner with a mentor to support the project. Ideally, the mentor will be a senior science journalist who has successfully completed a project of similar scope and type and has worked in the same medium. An awardee may decline mentorship.
• In signing the grant letter, the awardee will agree that:
  • The grant will be used to support a science journalism project to be undertaken within six months of signing the award letter.
  • Any publication resulting from the grant will acknowledge that it was supported by a Sharon Begley Science Reporting Award from CASW.
  • The awardee will notify CASW when the project is under way. This notice will include a description of any changes to the original project plan, to confirm that the grant will be used for a project that falls within the bounds of science journalism.
  • The awardee will notify CASW when the work is published.
  • Tax consequences of the award are the responsibility of the recipient.

For more information, visit CASW.