FRONTIERS is the science journalism initiative funded by the ERC to design a residency program for journalists wishing to experience an immersive period in a research institution.
The FRONTIERS project is set to run from 2023 to 2027. During this time, the FRONTIERS Team plans to enable up to 40 science journalists to spend time with research teams, working on their own reporting ideas at institutions of their choice.
Universities and research centres conducting frontier research in any field of knowledge are welcome to participate in the programme, recognising the importance of independent science journalism for society and for science itself.
FRONTIERS intends to finance the journalists’ stays, support the reporters and host institutions, and provide training on independent and ethically responsible science coverage, promoting mutual learning opportunities between journalists and researchers.
FRONTIERS will also propose a set of ethics principles, best practices and guidelines for journalistic fellowships, and develop a long-term sustainability model.
While backing independent science journalism, FRONTIERS hopes to contribute to the public’s trust in science, to tackling misinformation and to improving social resilience against disinformation.
Vision
FRONTIERS envisages a world where scientists and journalists work together, each with their own expertise, to bring accurate scientific information to the largest number of people.
The FRONTIERS project has been designed around three core principles:
Ethical Science Reporting
As a branch of journalism that specializes in communicating scientific work and discoveries to society, science journalism can play a major role in mediating scientific results to the public in an informative and valuable way, as well as facilitate the uptake of scientific results by relevant stakeholders such as policy makers and the public.
Journalistic Independence
The FRONTIERS’ bottom-up approach will allow journalists to apply for residencies in any European research institution covering any field of science, including social sciences and humanities. The journalistic independence will be kept during the full duration of residencies, and at no point the project’s team will interfere with the journalists work and product.
Coverage of Frontier Research
FRONTIERS journalist residencies will focus on ‘Frontier research’, which focuses on scientific questions on the edge of knowledge. Typically considered high-risk / high-reward research. “Frontier research” is often difficult to explain and hard to justify. But Fontier research is essential for uncovering the secrets of the universe in all its dimensions and who better than a journalist to tell us about it?
Timeline
April 2023
ERC selects FRONTIERS project
December 2023
1st call for applications opens
March 2024
1st call for applications closes
May 2024
Announcement of the 1st call’s results
25 June 2024
2nd call opens
25 September 2024
2nd call closes
March 2025
Start of the Residencies (round 2)
Residencies should start no later than March 2025