JournalismAI Fellowship Programme

We are looking for project proposals that focus on building AI-powered solutions that enhance the reporting capabilities of their newsrooms, innovating content and formats to better inform their audiences. We are not interested in projects focused on purely business solutions.

Projects can be building on existing work or starting afresh. Browse the 2022 Fellowship page to learn what type of projects we selected last year.

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.

Since collaboration is at the heart of all JournalismAI activities, our Fellowship Programme includes a collaborative component too – on a double level:

• Rather than individual fellows, we invite pairs of colleagues from the same organisation to apply (one person with an editorial/strategic role and the other one with a technical role).
• Then, after the initial application, each pair will have to find another pair from a different organisation to form a team that will work on the same project.

Pairs of colleagues – one person with an editorial/strategic role and the other one with a technical role – will be selected to take part in the programme.

Through a guided match-making process, each pair of fellows will team up with another pair from a different organisation to form a team.

Teams will choose which project they want to work on during the Fellowship. The project must focus on building an AI-powered solution that enhances the reporting capabilities of their newsrooms, innovating content and formats to better inform their audiences.

The JournalismAI Fellowship Programme is participant-driven. Each team will organise and develop its work independently during the six 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 six months, the teams will be guided through phases of definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. The goal is to work together towards building AI-powered solutions that enhance reporting and storytelling.

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

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.

By the end of the programme participants will have:

• Improved their understanding of the potential offered to journalism by AI technologies
• Learned new methods and skills to experiment and prototype new ideas
• Developed their thinking about the role of technology in journalism
• Experienced the power of international collaboration
• Built trust between editorial and technical teams in their own organisation
• Gained new perspectives from a multicultural, interdisciplinary environment
• Learned about a set of AI-powered tools available for news organisations
• Developed an international network of like-minded news innovators
• Built a prototype of their AI-powered solution
• Shared their learnings with the global JournalismAI community

We invite applications from pairs of journalists and technologists working in news organisations who have experience working on products and/or stories that involve the use of AI technologies.

Fluency in English is required.

This is not a training programme for journalists without experience working with AI technologies. If you are  fairly new to this field, you should consider applying for our JournalismAI Academy for Small Newsrooms or the JournalismAI Discovery.

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 of the first two weeks – from 5 June to 16 June, 2023 – is mandatory.

Let’s start by saying this is not your usual application process. The collaborative component of the JournalismAI Fellowship Programme starts already here. Here’s how it works:

Fill in this form to express your interest in participating in the programme. It’s a short application form, but note that you already have to fill it in with the colleague you plan to pair up with for the Fellowship. (One joint submission, not two.)

Apply as soon as possible because applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. The sooner you apply, the more time you will have for the match-making process (more on this soon), which will directly impact your chances of getting selected.

In the form, you will be asked to share an idea for a project you’d like to work on during the programme. This is at the core of the match-making process, as you will have to find another pair of candidates with similar goals to team up with, and jointly submit your final Fellowship application by Wednesday, 17 May, at 11:59 PM GMT.

(The link to submit final applications will be provided to candidates who pass the initial screening.)

Keep in mind that each pair of candidates will pitch a project idea. To form a team, you have three options:

• Find another pair of candidates with a similar project idea and merge them together in your final application;
• Find another pair of candidates that like your project idea enough to discard theirs and agree to join you;
• Browse other candidates’ project ideas and find one that you like enough to discard your own idea and join them.

If you pass the first screening through the initial application, you will be added to a Slack channel where you can meet other candidates and find who to partner with. Your initial application, including your project idea, will be visible to all other candidates – and you will be able to browse through everyone else’s submission.

The five best project ideas submitted by 17 May will be selected by the JournalismAI team to take part in the Fellowship Programme. 

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

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

This is not a stipend or compensation (you are not expected to leave your job to participate in the Fellowship Programme). It is a fund to be used solely for project expenses (costs directly related to the creation and presentation of their projects), if needed.

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

If you have any questions about the JournalismAI Fellowship Programme, please contact our Fellowship Manager Lakshmi Sivadas at lakshmi@journalismai.info.