One week before the European Science Journalist of the Year 2022 award ceremony in Leiden, the Netherlands, we are happy to present five fantastic science reporters who were shortlisted for this year’s edition of the most important scientific journalism award on the continent.

The award ceremony where the winner and the runners-up will be announced will take place on 12 July as the final event of the European Conference of Science Journalism.  The award is supported by ABSW and Elsevier.

Please meet, in alphabetic order, the five best European science journalists and their shortlisted pieces.

Martin Amrein, editor of the science department at Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, in Switzerland

Maartje Bakker, science desk journalist at newspaper De Volkskrant, in the Netherlands

Ángela Bernardo, senior journalist for healthcare at Civio investigative newsroom, in Spain

Jelena Kalinić, freelance science journalist for publications including Voice of America, and blogger at Quantum of Science, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Amelia Vale, journalist, director and producer for media company Factual Eyes, UK

Martin Amrein was nominated by the Swiss Association of Science Journalism (SASJ). He is a 2021 laureate of the Prix Média, awarded by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences to recognise excellence in science journalism and the crucial role played by science journalists at the interface of science and society. Amrein has been covering science for 15 years and he reports on biology, but also on research policy and interdisciplinary research.

Here are his three pieces entered for the award:

Herdenimmunität: Die Virus-Varianten machen uns einen Strich durch die Rechnung

Ungeschützt in den Corona-Herbst: Die Impfung für Kinder kommt wohl nicht vor 2022

Defekte Hör-Implantate von Sonova: Hunderte müssen erneut operiert werden

Maarje Bakker represents the Association for Science Journalism and Communication Netherlands (VWN). She recently won the VWN Publication Award for best Dutch science journalism production of the year. She has a background in biology, but she covered politics and international affairs before specializing in science.

She won a AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2021, for her article about test monkeys Chips and Dip, who participated in a corona vaccine trial.

Here are her three pieces presented for the award:

Voor elk coronavaccin worden proefapen gebruikt

Valt Gouda nog teredden?

Ziek van het geluid van de wiek

Ángela Bernardo was nominated by the Spanish Association of Scientific Communication. She has a background in biotechnology and bioethics. She is a former president of the Spanish Federation of Biotechnologists and a founding member of the Spanish Association of Biotech Communication. Multi-awarded science journalist, she has recently published her first book “Acoso. #MeToo en la ciencia española” (Harassment. #MeToo in Spanish science, in English).

You can read her articles in English at Civio website:

“Pay up or put it off: how Europe treats depression and anxiety”

The slow, uneven wane of the institutional psychiatry model in Europe

Spain, Czechia, Denmark and Belgium are the meccas of reproductive tourism

Jelena Kalinić is one of the most active mid-career science journalists in the Balkan region, and one of only a few tackling complex issues of science and its impact on society in the countries of former Yugoslavia. She currently works for Voice of America Bosnia and Herzegovina, and despite the media landscape still being dominated by nationalist politics, corruption scandals and pseudoscience, she has managed to carve out a niche as a rare reporter in the country who is seriously writing about science. Besides writing, she also spends a lot of time and effort educating and inspiring other journalists and students about how to report on science better. She was nominated by the Balkan Network of Science Journalists.

Here are her three pieces presented for the award:

The silence of the evidence: ivermectin (ab)use in North Macedonia

Cryo-Save: misterija nestalih matičnih stanica

Antivakserski napadi na naučne novinare

Amelia Vale is a journalist, director and producer for Factual Eyes. She entered a film, not a writing piece for our competition, and we are very happy that the jury appreciated her work. Science is reported in many different ways, and we want our award to recognize it, too. Her documentary Life saver HIV – virus therapy against gene defect (original title Lebensretter HIV – Virustherapie gegen Gendefekt), on gene therapy and gene editing was broadcast in three German-speaking countries last year.

You can watch it online in German.