The call for the Bridging Narratives Grant is closed. Due to the high number of pitches received, we have revised the timeline for the project below.
Are you a journalist or researcher passionate about reporting or analyzing critical perspectives on political economy, ecology, migration, and culture? Are you interested in exploring and co-creating a collaborative and transdisciplinary methodology combining academic research with journalism? We invite you to apply for the Bridging Narratives Grant call.
Bridging Narratives Grant: A Convergence of Journalism and Research Perspectives is an intersectional research and journalism project funded by the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, and invites pitches from independent journalists and social scientists (researchers, scholars, and early-career academics) from around the world. The project aims to combine the strengths of academic research and journalism by strengthening collaborative engagement.
The output of the Bridging Narratives Grant will be a series of critical, people-centered, in-depth publications resulting from the collaboration between researchers and journalists.
The stories would first be disseminated— entailing a textual, audio-visual, or illustrative form and will be mainly disseminated through The Contrapuntal digital magazine.
Selected authors will be invited to participate in a workshop on journalism-research collaborations and to reflect on their collaboration in short essays. Further information on the workshop’s aim, timeline, and location will be announced following the selection of pitches. The selected essays will then be gathered in an edited volume focusing on the challenges and opportunities of linking scientific research and journalism. This research aims to strengthen practice-based grounds-up participatory research.
Project Application Guidelines
We invite both individual and group applications for this project, which fosters collaboration between journalists and researchers. Please note that the application processes differ for individual and joint submissions, as outlined below.
1. Individual Applications:
We accept individual applications from journalists and researchers (including Academic staff, Independent Researchers, PhDs, and MAs). After receiving the pitches, we will pair each journalist with a researcher who specializes either in the relevant subject matter or geographic region. This team will then collaboratively develop the selected pitch into a final project.
2. Joint Applications:
We also encourage joint applications from journalist-researcher teams who wish to collaborate on a pre-selected theme.
Eligibility & Financial Support
Journalists and researchers, regardless of their career stage, are invited to apply for this project. We particularly encourage reportage on critical issues related to migration, ecology, political economy, and culture (other relevant themes also welcome).
The project will offer financial support of €400 per story, which will be shared between the journalist and researcher, principally for fieldwork related expenses such as logistics, travel, insurance etc. A total of eight stories will be funded under this initiative.
How to Apply
All applicants must provide
- A short CV of max. 1 page
- Submit a story/research pitch of up to 300 words. Applicants can submit up to two pitches, of which one will be selected for development.
Send your CV(s) and pitch to thecontrapuntal@protonmail.com with the title ‘Bridging Narratives Grant’ in the subject line. The application deadline is 20 November 2024, and the selection of pitches will be announced by the end of January 2025. Selected teams are expected to submit their work by 15 May 2025.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions here.
