Since its inception in 2010, more than $240,000 has been awarded in the Idea Grants program.

Special thanks to our Idea Grant committee members who have crafted from scratch a program that rewards the creativity and initiative of science writers and has helped create projects and programs that benefit the field and the writers in it. It is their hard work and management of the initial charter funds that allow the Idea Grant program to become an annual part of NASW's budget and commitments. A big hats off to Program Committee chair Robin Lloyd and members Melissa Blouin, Peggy Girshman, Rob Irion, Rosie Mestel, and Jeffrey Perkel.

More than $240,000 has been awarded as of January 2013! The November 1, 2012, applications are currently pending. Stay tuned to nasw.org for information about future application rounds. And read this project journal from one awardee, EXPLORE Utah Science.

Projects awarded to date

Click on the links for more information, updates, and other information.

• $4,800 in November 2012 to The Story Collider, Inc., to produce Open Studio: The Best Science Media Online, 2013

• $25,000 in November 2012 to Double X Science, evidence-based science writing for women

• $35,000 in September 2012 to Science Online, Inc. to produce ScienceSeeker

• $10,000 in August 2012 to the Christie Aschwanden and the Aschwanden Group to produce two workshops: one at Ghost Ranch (New Mexico) on long form writing and one at Red Cedar (Missouri) on career-building strategies

• $10,000 in June 2012 to the Open Notebook, LLC, in June 2012, to fund ongoing expansion of the project (Submitted by Siri Carpenter and Jeanne Erdmann) Second Award

• $1,200 in June 2012 to the New England Science Writers to produce a video Web archive of their regional workshop Building Online Communities

• $4,560 in June 2012 to the Northern California Science Writers Association for support of a Data Journalism Workshop

• $3,000 in June 2012 for support of the D.C. Science Writers Association Professional Development Day

• $35,000 in February 2012 to EXPLORE Utah Science, a project to bolster scientific literacy among Utahns, provide jobs to freelance writers and train new science writers (Proposal submitted by Julie Kiefer, Kim Schuske, Ross Chambless, and Jennifer Napier-Pearce) Project journal.

• $10,000 to Science Writers in New York, The Hastings Center and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism in December 2011 to fund a one-day spring 2012 Bioethics Bootcamp workshop (Proposal submitted by Carol Milano)

• $10,000 to ScienceOnline2012 to fund travel scholarships and 450 complementary copies of A Field Guide for Science Writers for ScienceOnline2012 attendees (Proposal submitted by Anton Zuiker and Bora Zivkovic)

• $10,000 to University of Wisconsin-Madison in August 2011 to fund Science Writing in the Age of Denial workshop for Spring 2012 (Proposal submitted by Terry Devitt, Sharon Dunwoody, Deborah Blum, and Jill Sakai)

• $43,000 to SciLance Writing Group, LLC, in July 2011, to fund writing and editing of a guide to freelance writing. (Submitted by Kendall Powell and Thomas Hayden) Read the proposal. Update

• $20,000 to the Open Notebook, LLC, in May 2011, to fund expansion of the project (Submitted by Siri Carpenter and Jeanne Erdmann) Read the proposal.

• $2,500 to High Country News in March 2011, to fund customized, in-depth training in investigative reporting techniques for the publication’s editors (Proposal submitted by Michelle Nijhuis)

• $6,000 to DCSWA in April 2011, to fund travel expenses and defray registration fees and A/V support for annual regional day-long Professional Development Day conference (Submitted by Elia Ben-Ari and Andrea Widener) Read the proposal

• $900 to NESW in February 2011, to fund video archive costs for a regional health and science blogging event (Proposal submitted by Carol Morton) Watch the video here.

• $10,000 to ScienceOnline2011 for live streaming of the conference (Proposal submitted by Anton Zuiker and Bora Zivkovic)