Application are open for the The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute invites proposals from individuals and organizations that wish to partner with them on innovative projects that strengthen democracy through better journalism.
Successful projects often include designing new strategies to seize an opportunity or solve a problem, create new tools for news organizations, transform an idea into a proven prototype in the market or promote a prototype to be ready for investment or full launch of the product.
Whatever your idea, your benefits should be extended to other news organizations and the people who depend on them.
There are three formats for the RJI scholarships:
Residential
The residential scholarships are designed for people, inside and outside the media industries, who wish to collaborate with RJI in the search for solutions to a particular journalism problem. Residential fellows spend eight months on the campus of the Missouri School of Journalism, leveraging the intellectual and technological resources of RJI and the school and interacting with Missouri teachers and students. Examples of resources include access to programmers and application developers, financial support for market research and paid students to produce multimedia content.
The solutions, in the form of strategies, products or services, developed from these ideas would be shared with many news and organizations related to the news. Must reside in Columbia, Missouri, for the duration of this scholarship.
Non-residential
The non-residential scholarships are designed for entrepreneurs with a great interest in journalism and issues related to digital communications. Your scholarship may be about something you are interested in pursuing on your own or something that could benefit a current employer. Successful ideas, products or strategies should serve as a model for the news industry or help the industry become smarter, faster and more agile. You do not need to live at Columbia, but you will have to make occasional visits to consult with RJI leaders and staff.
Institutional
Institutional scholarships are designed to unlock some of the thoughtful and meaningful ideas within newsrooms, advertising departments, boardrooms and break rooms that, for various reasons, can not gain any momentum. RJI will collaborate with a leader of a company or institution that will identify an employee who can develop an idea or lead a team that can do so. The employee will be appointed as a member of RJI, but will continue to work in his job. The stipend for this scholarship will be paid to the company or institution that will be used for the salary relief for the part-time fellow, or for another purpose that the company or institution determines will best guarantee the success of the scholarship project.
