United States: Media Fellowship Program

Media Fellows can play an important role in translating research findings and analyses for a range of audiences, combining data with stories that inform the public and engage policymakers in order to change attitudes.

The Nova Media Fellowship supports print, broadcast, and digital journalists proposing to immerse themselves in the health field and complete media projects that acknowledge and explore the many factors that promote well-being, prevent disease, contribute to healing, and increase an individual’s ability to flourish and live a fulfilling life. At this time, the Media Fellowship is not inviting book proposals.

The Media Fellowship program aims to give recipients the time, space, and resources to research, write, and speak about issues that validate and show the importance of an expansive health framework. Media Fellowships are one year in duration and full-time, allowing recipients to undertake their projects in a comprehensive and creative manner. The Nova Institute strongly prefers that Media Fellows take a leave of absence from any organization where they are currently employed during the fellowship period. Projects begin in fall 2024, ideally on September 16, although the start date can be flexible to accommodate individual Fellows.

The 2024 Media Fellowship award is $100,000 over 12 months, with up to an additional $7,500 reimbursed for travel expenses per Nova’s travel policies. The award is intended to support a Fellow’s living expenses, project-related expenses, conference fees, health insurance, etc. They will separately cover costs associated with attending Nova Institute-organized meetings, workshops, or events. The fellowship does not fund enrollment for degree or non-degree study at academic institutions.

Project Focus

• Mental Health and Emotional Well-being 
  • They are in the midst of a growing, global mental health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already significant mental health decline and a staggering increase in “deaths of despair” from suicide and drug and alcohol use. Psychological stress is rising in young people, with increasing pediatric mental health diagnoses and acute care hospitalizations. A loneliness epidemic underscores growing disconnection from themselves, the communities, and the natural environments. The climate crisis magnifies persistent inequities and threatens lives and livelihoods worldwide.
  • For these reasons, the Nova Institute has a particular interest in mental health and emotional well-being. They encourage proposals that address or examine mental health, using a science- and evidence-based approach, and how mental health and emotional well-being connect to personal, community, and planetary health.
• Health Inequities
  • Long-standing, inadequate, and harmful social, economic, and environmental conditions and systems have had an adverse impact on individuals’ health and created significant inequities. The Nova Institute welcomes projects that recognize and/or examine the political, historical, and social dynamics that have led to health inequities experienced by the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community and people who are medically underserved such as refugee, migrant, and immigrant populations; people with disabilities; etc.
• Transdisciplinary and Inter-Sectoral Approach
  • To understand the many factors that affect health and well-being, and the intertwined connections among them, they champion a transdisciplinary approach and encourage projects that tap the expertise of multiple disciplines. Compelling projects may also explore the current or potential role of various sectors—e.g., public, business, medical, and education sectors—in advancing or undercutting health.

Eligibility Criteria

• Experience
  • Ideal applicants are full-time journalists with established records of publication or broadcast in local, regional, or national markets or among targeted audiences or constituencies and have relevant full-time experience. Proposals may cover international issues and involve international travel, but in 2024 they are accepting applications from U.S.-based journalists only.
  • Society and the medical community have long ignored systemic racism, economic injustice, and other factors that affect health and hurt marginalized groups. They believe that these voices must be heard and should be involved in the work, and they strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, or other members of other historically marginalized communities.
• Time Commitment
  • Fellowships begin in Fall 2024 (ideally by September 16; the start date is flexible), and last for a period of 12 months. A Media Fellow must be able to devote at least 35 hours per week to the proposed project, and the project should be the Fellow’s only full-time work during the fellowship term.
  • They will hold bi-monthly check-ins with Media Fellows and expect Media Fellows to attend annual meetings, including one scheduled for September 29-October 2, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. They also strongly encourage participation in monthly online Scholars and Fellows meetings as well as other Nova events such as the “Nova Campfires” and annual conference, typically held virtually.
• Project Deliverables
  • They recognize the value of flexible support, designed to encourage unbounded curiosity and to allow Media Fellows to follow leads suggested by their research and reflection. Nevertheless, applicants must propose deliverables or products that reflect a year’s worth of full-time, ambitious work. In all cases, deliverables must aim to reach the targeted audiences via publication and dissemination during the term of the fellowship. They will not support projects that involve only research that simply lays the groundwork for future use.

For more information, visit Nova Institute for Health.