The World Conference of Science Journalists WCSJ2019 announced that 100 Professional Fellowships have been awarded to science journalists from 53 countries. The biennial World Conference of Science Journalists, WCSJ2019 – co-organised by the science journalists’ associations of Switzerland, France and Italy, with the World Federation of Science Journalists – will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 1-5 July 2019.

The WCSJ2019 Fellowships Committee screened 646 applications for general Fellowships, submitted from 114 nations.

“With nearly every region of the world represented,” said committee Chair Jean-Marc Fleury, in a press-release “we are very excited to help make this conference truly global.”

The Fellowship grants enable science journalists who otherwise could not attend to join the conference by supporting travel to Lausanne, accommodation, and conference registration as well as workshop attendance for selected Fellows. WCSJ2019 awarded a total of about CHF 350’000 in fellowships.

“Attendance at WCS2019 can be a transformational experience,” said Conference Chair Olivier Dessibourg, “and we’re very grateful to our generous sponsors for enabling the Fellowship programme.”

Sponsors of the fellowship programme are the Fundación Ealy Ortiz/Inquire First, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, EurekAlert!, the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), the Jacobs Foundation, BPN Paribas Foundation, CNRS France and IRD France, the EU Joint Research Centre and the Mercator Foundation. Sponsors were recruited by the Swiss Association of Science Journalism (SASJ) and the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ).

Professional Fellows include science journalists, writers and editors, from print, broadcast, radio, online and other media. Serving with Fleury on the selection committee for Professional Fellowships were volunteers from around the globe: Wolfgang Goede, Chiara Palmerini, Pascal Fleury, Alexandra von Ascheraden, Federico Kukso, Ochieng Ogodo, Mohammed Yahia, Victoire Nsonde, Shigeyuki Koide, Harry Surjadi, Fabio Turone, Mićo Tatalović and Subhra Priyadarshini.

“Selection was not an easy task,” said Palmerini, “the quality of the applications was very high.”

“The whole conference committee joins me in congratulating the Fellows, and thanking the sponsors and volunteers who made this possible,” said Dessibourg.

The list of the fellows is available on the website of the Conference.

Conference registration opend on February 15.

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