In four weeks: deadline for the HITS “Journalist in Residence” program

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 2012 – 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 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. The current HITS “Journalist in Residence” is US-German science freelance journalist Andreas von Bubnoff. He will be at the institute until the end of September 2019.

Media contact:

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