The applications have now closed: check out SciCommIdentities.org to meet the 2024 Fellowship cohort!

We’re excited to announce that SciComm Identities Project Fellowship applications are now open for the second year. Running from January to December 2024, this one-year professional development fellowship will bring together a diverse cohort of U.S.-based, pre-tenure faculty of color who work on water issues related to climate change. Applications for the 2024 cohort are due September 18, 2023. You can review the questions on the applications before applying by clicking here.

learn more

ABOUT THE SCICOMM IDENTITIES PROJECT: The University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute, Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, and the URI Science and Story Lab launched the SciComm Identities Project (SCIP) to prepare the next generation of science communicators from underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds. The ambitious five-year collaborative project, supported by a $2.8 million National Science Foundation grant, will address a significant gap in science communication research and training by centering the motivations, experiences, and priorities of racial and ethnic minority scientists. The SCIP team will develop and test a novel science communication training curriculum through a new one-year fellowship program.

ABOUT THE SCICOMM IDENTITIES PROJECT FELLOWSHIP:

The SCIP Fellowship is a one-year professional development opportunity for pre-tenure faculty at U.S. institutions who identify as underrepresented racial or ethnic minorities. Each of the three fellowship years will center around a theme relating to climate change, including water, and agriculture and food security. The 2024 Fellowship will focus on water, and is therefore open to all tenure-track associate professors who study some aspect of energy as it relates to climate change in the natural or social sciences or engineering. SCIP Fellows in these fields will gain science communication expertise and experience and build their professional networks in ways that may support new collaborations and research insights.

Fellows will be selected based on their stated interests and goals for leveraging the training through their work, for example, their research, teaching, advising, and/or public engagement. Selections will maximize the diversity of each fellowship cohort concerning race and ethnicity, geography, discipline, and gender. Fellowships will span one year, fromJanuary through December. Applications for the second fellowship year are due September 18, 2023. 

Ultimately, the outcomes of the SCIP fellowship and related research will be shared with science communication trainers via the SciComm Trainers Network and other partner organizations to integrate intercultural communication within the growing number of science communication training opportunities. In addition, SCIP research may inform efforts to attract, support, and retain underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines, enhance science learning through cultural relevance, and influence public perceptions about science.

The SciComm Identities Project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DRL-2115971 and DRL-2115522. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.