FRONTIERS · Fellowship Residencies Offering science News professionals Tools and training for Independent and Ethical Reporting on Science

The overall objective of FRONTIERS is to establish a program supporting science journalists’ residencies in European research institutions through a financial support to third parties mechanism. The program aims to and contribute to tackling the challenges of science journalism, specifically in the highly challenging area of Frontier research, as well as increasing the opportunities of interaction between research institutions and science journalists. The residency program will be established based on the principles of journalistic independence and the need for coverage of frontier (as oppose to other types of) research. To ensure a smooth and successful operation, we will develop a coordination and support office (CSO) that will oversee the development and implementation of the residency program and the ongoing management and monitoring. The CSO will also provide support and complementary services including a general and frontier science helpdesk for journalists, researchers and staff from hosting research institutions, matchmaking services to help journalists find hosting institutions. Our project activities will be supervised and accompanied by a strong advisory board consist of actors from the areas of science and science journalism, ensuring the independency and credibility of the program. Resident journalists and researchers and research staff participating in the program will also benefit from training activities and content contributing to the creation of meaningful journalists-researcher collaboration and the generation of high-quality and credible science journalism products. During the project, we will also benchmark the FRONTIERS residency program to other available programs offering fellowships to science journalists, and implement best practices to ensure the quality of the program. Finally, we will explore paths towards sustainability the residencies through additional funding channels.