Javier Pérez Barbuzano, Aisling Irwin, Ruairi Mackenzie, Jacopo Pasotti, Samuel Schlaefli, Vedrana Simičević, and Zuzana Vitková are the chosen candidates for the inaugural round of the FRONTIERS Residency Program. This ERC-supported initiative will finance journalists to spend 3 to 5 months at a European research institution.

Originating from Spain, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Croatia, the selected journalists will develop their journalistic projects, during their residencies in scientific institutions. The initiative will award a monthly grant of up to 6,000€ to each of the selected fellows, who are expected to be fully dedicated to their projects.

The first residencies will be hosted by European institutions in Spain, Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Croatia. Each residency presents a unique opportunity for the FRONTIERS Fellows to explore frontier research across various scientific disciplines. The awarded journalistic proposals include coverage of cutting-edge topics such as the impact of climate change on glaciers, agroecology, gene editing, rare diseases, technological innovation in timber materials, immunology and conspiracy theories surrounding climate change.

The first call of the FRONTIERS Residency Program closed on 5 March 2024. The selected journalists were chosen from a pool of 33 applicants, representing 20 nationalities from 5 continents. The FRONTIERS project congratulates all applicants for their submissions and invites new and unsuccessful applicants to apply for the second call of the program, which will open in June 2024.