Apply for the 2025 granting round by August 31st.
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How to apply
If you are a journalist seeking resources to support and amplify work that centres on biodiversity issues and solutions in British Columbia, please apply by sending a three-page maximum letter (single sided) by August 31st, 2025. Before submitting, please have a thorough idea of your story and, optionally, an expression of interest from a media outlet. Partial funding for successful applicants will be made available by early November, 2025, with a final installment paid when the finished article or work is submitted to a media outlet. Your proposed piece should be completed and submitted to a media outlet by year’s end 2026. Previous winners of the grant are eligible to apply again.
what to include
In your application, please include the following.
Please keep to a maximum of three pages.
Your name, contact information, phone number, professional interest area, location, website, and 3 links to, or PDFs of, published material.
Purpose – what story/issue and which area/bioregion will you focus on with this funding?
Outlet – optionally, briefly detail the outlet(s) from whom you have received an expression of interest for this story. Although an email from a media outlet is not required, it may help us evaluate the probability of your story being published.
Impact – what impact do you hope this funding will have on your work (quantitative and/or qualitative)? How might you amplify your final work?
Need or plan – how exactly would you use this funding? Please include a rough outline of your estimated budget for this pitch.
deadlines, contact and selection process
Apply by August 31st, 2025. If accepted, you will be notified and receive half your funding by early November, 2025. Your application will be reviewed by a small but diverse external panel of experts. Send your application letter, budget, (optional) expression of interest, and reference materials as one attachment to info@sciencemedia.ca with Messengers of Biodiversity Grant in the subject line. We request that all funds be spent and your story completed, submitted to, and accepted by a magazine, digital publisher, or broadcast outlet by November 1, 2026. (We will request a brief reporting template and final expenditures report before that time).
An expert panel of adjudicators selected the winners from the talented pool of applicants. The panel included: Jim Handman, Executive Director of the Science Media Centre of Canada and former Senior Producer of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks, Francine Compton, Associate Director of the Indigenous Journalists Association and former producer for APTN and CBC Indigenous, Nancy Baron, a science communications expert, author, and Sitka board member, and Carolynn Beaty, the Executive Director of the Sitka Foundation.