Apply now for the CIJ Climate Investigations Training Scholarship 2026 for early-mid career journalists from the Global South

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Closing Date: 11 February 2026

Apply now for the CIJ Climate Investigations Training Scholarship 2026 for early-mid career journalists from the Global South

The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) is offering a Climate Investigations Training Scholarship in 2026.

CIJ is looking for 10 experienced journalists who want to upskill and use investigative techniques to produce deeper and more impactful climate-focused investigations.

Overview

In January 2025 CIJ launched the Climate Investigations Course (CIC). This programme built on the work of its Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI) under which CIJ taught practical investigative skills to over 700 journalists across 58 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

In 2025, the CIC completed three successful runs, helping 210 participants from EVERYWHERE – Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas to gain relevant skills needed to investigate the climate crisis, making it one of our most sought after training programmes.

Last year due to the urgency of the global crisis, and to ensure the continued inclusion of journalists from the Global South countries where OCRI has worked, CIJ provided Scholarships to 14 journalists from 11 countries, nominated by OCRI partner organisations.

In 2026, CIJ is opening up access to applicants from these regions.

The 2025 Scholars benefited from the inaugural edition by participating in online CIC programmes or attending the CIJ Summer Conference (including the Climate Investigations Masterclass) in June. Consequently, six scholarship recipients from Côte d’Ivoire, Peru, Nigeria, The Gambia and India were in London for the conference while the remaining 8 joined the full CIC online.

What to expect

This second edition of the Climate Investigations Training Scholarship will provide 10 eligible journalists who are selected during the application phase with the opportunity to participate online in the spring run of the CIC worth up to £2,638, running on specific dates from 11 March to 7 May, 2026.

The successful applicants will gain access to the tools needed to conduct deep investigative research into climate change; learn from experts how to investigate and expose wrongdoing; build techniques to research and quantify accurate pictures of the situation and the impact of other efforts; and develop their skills in crafting meaningful climate change/environmental stories to garner support for changes in policy, regulation, or economic actors’ decisions.

Time commitment & what is covered by the scholarship?

The scholarship entails full commitment towards the 24.5 hours hands-on training in 4 modules namely:

Climate Investigation Fundamentals
Investigating Climate Finance
Data-Driven Climate Investigations
ECOSINT: Environmental and Climate Open Source Intelligence.

The 10 selected scholarship recipients in this run will receive full access to the CIC training online. The scholarship is currently funded by the Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF).

Who can apply and essential eligibility criteria

Applicants must be an early-mid career journalist who lives and works in any country in the geographical continent of Africa, the Latin America region (the geographical entities within South & Central America and the Caribbean countries), the West Asia region (comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Türkiye, UAE, and Yemen) and South Asia region (comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka).
Applicants must be an investigative journalist, with at least some experience in working on environmental or climate issues. Applicants without the experience should have a demonstrable interest in environmental or climate reporting.
Applicants must have a good working knowledge of English i.e. at an Advanced or Professional Working Proficiency level in Reading, Listening and Speaking contexts.
Commitment to attending all modules of the CIC.