JournalismAI Fellowship

If you are an editorial or technical person working in a news organisation, you are eligible to apply. You can apply either as a pair i.e. one editorial and one technical colleague, or, as an individual applicant. We recommend that you apply as a pair.

• Link to application for PAIRS of candidates

• Link to application for INDIVIDUAL applicants

All candidates must have some experience working on products and/or stories that involve the use of AI technologies.

Regardless of whether you apply separately, or in pairs, you must form a team with an equal split of editorial and technical candidates in order to be eligible for final selection. You may form teams of four fellows or six fellows with an equal split between editorial/strategic and technical fellows.

Fluency in English is required.

This is not a training programme for journalists that have no experience working with AI technologies. If you are fairly new to this field, you should consider applying for our Academy for Small Newsrooms or the JournalismAI Discovery.

We are looking for project proposals that focus on building GenAI-powered solutions that enhance news reporting or newsroom systems and processes. We particularly like ideas that innovate content and formats to better inform audiences. We are not interested in projects focused on purely business solutions.

Projects can be building on existing work or starting afresh. Browse previous Fellowship pages to learn what type of projects we selected in previous years:

• 2023 Fellowship

• 2022 Fellowship

This is not a reporting grant to develop a single investigation. Projects should be aimed at prototyping a tool or a methodology that can have a systemic impact on news production – for example by making the reporting of a specific beat more accessible or impactful.

1. APPLY:

There are two ways in which to apply to be a part of the programme:

We highly recommend that one editorial and one technical candidate from a news organisation submit a joint initial application

[OR]

Due to requests, we also welcome individual applicants this year. You may apply individually as an editorial candidate or technical candidate by filling in the individual initial application.

The deadline for submitting your initial application is January 26, 2024.

2. MATCH AND FORM TEAMS

Once we screen your initial application, we will move you to the match-making component of the selection process. During the process, candidates must form teams with an equal split between editorial and technical candidates. For example, if you are a team of four, two of you must be editorial or strategic candidates, and two technical. The maximum number of candidates permissible per team is six.

This will be a guided process that is slightly different from previous years. Only shortlisted candidates will be provided with the steps for forming teams.

3. SUBMIT A FINAL APPLICATION

Once you’ve formed teams of either four candidates or six candidates, you must submit a final application with your joint proposal that you will work on over the next seven months. The project must focus on building a GenAI-powered solution that enhances news reporting, or newsroom systems and processes. The deadline for the final application is February 18. We will inform candidates of the results by March.

The aim of the JournalismAI Fellowship Programme is to provide a safe space where fellows can explore and experiment with new ideas, away from the constraints of their day-to-day work.

Through project-based work, the programme aims to advance fellows’ AI expertise, benefiting their own professional development and enabling their organisations to accelerate AI adoption and implementation.

The JournalismAI Fellowship Programme is participant-driven. Each team will organise and develop its work independently during the seven months, with guidance from the JournalismAI team and regular check-ins with the rest of the cohort.

Each team will be provided with a coach/mentor, identified in coordination with the JournalismAI team, and will receive access to JournalismAI’s global network of experts, researchers, and innovators in the field of AI-journalism.

Over the seven months, the teams will be guided through phases of definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. The goal is to work together towards building GenAI-powered solutions that enhance journalism, its processes and systems.

At the end of the programme, participants will present their work – and what they have learned from it – at the fifth edition of the JournalismAI Festival.

First and foremost, we ask participants to embrace the collaborative nature of the JournalismAI Fellowship Programme, which is what distinguishes this programme from other fellowships. “You get what you give” is the unofficial motto.

If selected, you must commit to fully participating in the online sessions, sharing your expertise with the other fellows, and approaching the experience with enthusiasm, curiosity, and respect for your fellow participants.

You should plan to spend an average of 8 hours per week on the Fellowship Programme, including independent work with your team, and regular cohort activities. Participation in the kick-off activities is mandatory.

Thanks to the support of the Google News Initiative, the programme is entirely free for selected participants.

Yes. We have allocated around GBP 6,000 per project to support research and project development expenses.

The money is not a stipend or compensation (you are not expected to leave your job to participate in the Fellowship Programme).

Additionally, all mentors will receive GBP 500 for the eight hours they will spend supporting your work.

No, the JournalismAI Fellowship Programme was launched in 2022. You can find the projects of our first cohort of fellows here, and the second cohort here.

Glad you asked!

JournalismAI is a project of Polis – the journalism think-tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science – and it is supported by the Google News Initiative.

Our mission is to empower news organisations to use artificial intelligence responsibly.

Find out more about our activities on our website, and sign up for our newsletter.