Call for "Journalist in Residence" (m/f/x)

Das ist der Job

Are you an experienced science journalist?

Darum lohnt es sich

Would you like to delve into new areas of research and deepen your technical knowledge? Or learn more about machine learning and methods 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.

The “HITS 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. Acceptance into the program is compensated with € 6,000 per month, the deadline for the 2027 applications is 15 October 2026.

More information on the program, application requirements and FAQ, are available at HITS Journalist in Residence Program. HITS is a private, non-profit basic research institute where about 150 scientists from more than 30 countries work in 11 research groups.

Research is conducted along three main topical threads: complex simulations across scales, data structuring and analysis, and enabling software and tools. The fields of research range from molecular biology to statistics and astrophysics.

An essential characteristic of the Institute is interdisciplinarity, implemented e.g. in the “ HITS Lab”, an internal program that fosters cross-group and cross-disciplinary projects at HITS. 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 leading university and many other top-tier research institutions. Since 2012, there have been fourteen “Journalists in Residence”– from the U.S., Canada, Spain, Germany, Australia and India – many of them utilized their stay for long-term projects.

For example, science journalist Volker Stollorz developed a concept for a German Science Media Center during his stay at HITS. In 2016, the Science Media Center Germany was established. Angela Michel Head of Communications Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) +49 (0)6221 533 329 angela.michel[at]h-its.org