Climate Investigations Training Scholarship 2026
The CIJ is offering a Climate Investigations Training Scholarship in 2026.
We’re looking for 10 experienced journalists who want to upskill and use investigative techniques to produce deeper and more impactful climate-focused investigations.
In January 2025 we launched the Climate Investigations Course (CIC). This programme built on the work of our Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI) under which we taught practical investigative skills to over 700 journalists across 58 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Check out our global footprints here.
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, we provided Scholarships to 14 journalists from 11 countries, nominated by OCRI partner organisations.
In 2026, we’re 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 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.
See the full date and time schedule here.
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.
Full selection criteria are outlined in the application form.
Key dates
- Application opens: 12 January 2026
- Application deadline: 11 February, 23:59 BST (UK time)
- Offers to successful applicants made by: 25 February 2026
- CIC Spring training starts: 11 March 2026
- CIC Spring training ends: 7 May 2026
From Skills to Shifts: How Climate Investigations Get Results
Jan 29, 2026 3pm-4:30pm (UK Time) Over the last four years, we’ve learned a lot about how journalism can get results in pushing for climate progress and addressing injustice. Through the Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI) we’ve empowered hundreds of frontline reporters in 58 countries with cutting edge skills for investigative research and create engaging content.
Climate Investigations Course: All Modules
Open Climate Reporting Initiative
Climate change is a multi-faceted problem in which the issues at play are interlinked and complex, running across many different fields; scientific, financial and political. Finding solutions requires an understanding of these issues that can be facilitated through access to high-quality, trusted information and the ability to construct compelling narratives.