Category: Grants

Are you an experienced science journalist? Would you like to delve into new areas of research and deepen your technical knowledge? Or learn more about the methods and potentials of data-driven science in Germany? The “Journalist in Residence” program at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) offers a stay of three to six months. Acceptance into the program is compensated with €5,000 per month, the deadline for applications for two positions — one in 2020 and another in 2021 — is 10 September 2019.

The Program

The “Journalist in Residence” program is geared towards freelance and staff science journalists with at least five years of experience and a focus on the natural sciences and technology It is open to all media (print, online, radio, TV), one of its goals is to encourage dialogue between journalists and researchers, thus providing journalists with a better understanding of the way research works and how researchers think. Journalists are not expected to publish anything related to HITS in return. Instead, the program supports free and independent journalism.

A good command of spoken and written English is mandatory. More information on the program, application requirements and FAQ, are available at https://www.h-its.org/en/press/journalist-in-residence-program

Please send your application by e-mail to peter.saueressig@h-its.org. The HITS communications team will be present and ready for questions at the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, in early July.

The Institute

HITS is a private, non-profit basic research institute where 120 scientists from 20 countries are currently working in 11 research groups. Their fields of research range from molecular biology and carbon chemistry to statistics and astrophysics. HITS focuses on the processing, structuring, and analysis of large amounts of complex data and the development of computational methods and software. One aim of the institute is to raise public awareness of the importance of computer-aided, data-driven research. The institute is located in Heidelberg, Germany, a city with a top-100 university and many other high-class research institutions.

Since 2012, there have been seven “Journalists in Residence”– from the U.S., Spain, Germany, and India — many of them utilized their stay for long-term projects. For example, science journalist Volker Stollorz wrote the concept for a German Science Media Center during his stay at HITS. In 2016, the “Science Media Center Germany” was established.

Contact:
Dr. Peter Saueressig
Head of Communications
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)
+49 6221-533-245
peter.saueressig@h-its.org

Picture:
http://www.h-its.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/HITS_DSC_5520small.jpg
The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). Photo: HITS.

HITS communications team at the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Lausanne, Switzerland,1-5 July, 2019:
Isabel Lacurie, Twitter: @HITSabel
Dr. Peter Saueressig, Twitter: @petersaueressig

The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) was established in 2010 by the physicist and SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) and the Klaus Tschira Foundation as a private, non-profit research institute. HITS conducts basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, with a focus on the processing, structuring, and analyzing of large amounts of complex data and the development of computational methods and software. The research fields range from molecular biology to astrophysics. The shareholders of HITS are the HITS Stiftung, Heidelberg University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). HITS also cooperates with other universities and research institutes and with industrial partners. The base funding of HITS is provided by the HITS Stiftung with funds received from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. The primary external funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the European Union.