CABI News

SciDev.Net has won a share of EURO €1.17 million of grants from the European Journalism Centre which will be used to boost its science podcast offering.

Nearly EURO €300,000 has been awarded to SciDev.Net – the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development – for 12 episodes focussing on African Changemakers.

Each 30-minute programme will tell the unreported stories of individuals who have been inspired to transform their communities by tackling societal challenges such as gender inequality, poor health or under-nourishment in innovative ways.

The broadcasts, made possible thanks to the award from the European Journalism Centre’s and Solution Journalism Network’s Solutions Journalism Accelerator programme, will be 30-minutes in length.

They stem from SciDev.Net’s already successful Africa Science Focus and Sante, Science et Developpement podcast series and will also build upon its role model series where each podcast episode told the story of a successful female scientist or innovator.

The Solutions Journalism Accelerator programme, was launched in 2022 to deliver financial support, mentoring, coaching, resources, skills development and knowledge transfer across countries.

It sees solutions journalism as rigorous reporting about responses to problems – that investigates and explains, in a critical and clear-eyed way, examples of people working toward solutions.

SciDev.Net is one of nine projects who will benefit, under the second call for proposals of the Solutions Journalism Accelerator, which were selected by an external independent jury to inform the public about big societal topics and challenges such as global health and global development.

Ben Deighton, Managing Editor, SciDev.Net, said, “SciDev.Net’s goal is to improve people’s lives by raising public awareness about the value of research, and by creating linkages between researchers and policymakers.

“We are, therefore, excited to have this opportunity to sensitize and inspire new European audiences about the potential of innovative Africans to identify their own solutions to societal problems.

“In addition to this, we are hoping to contribute to a shift in public attitudes to development, and to encourage development policymakers to support the work of grassroots African innovators when designing interventions.”

Other winners in the Solutions Journalism Accelerator programme round of grants include BBC Future Planet who will produce Climate Guardians – a year-long project delving into climate solutions pioneered by women and indigenous communities in the Global South.

Additional information

About SciDev.Net

SciDev.Net is the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development.

Its mission is to use independent journalism to help individuals and organisations apply science to decision-making in order to drive equitable, sustainable development and poverty reduction. SciDev.Net is part of CAB International (CABI) – a not-for-profit organisation that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

SciDev.Net operates editorially independently from CABI with its content overseen by an independent Editorial Advisory Committee whose role is to ensure our editorial independence protocol is adhered to. The protocol is available on request.

About the European Journalism Centre

The European Journalism Centre (EJC) is a non-profit foundation based in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Founded in 1992, it has been working independently and successfully to support, strengthen and develop journalism in Europe.

The EJC believes that resilient, inclusive and progressive media not only delivers better journalism but also produces many forms of public benefit that make governments and societies function better and strengthen democracy. As one of the leading journalism support organisations in Europe, the EJC exists to help journalists and media to innovate and flourish. Reimagining journalism is key.