Climate Investigations Training Scholarship: Introducing the 2nd 2026 Cohort from the CIJ Big Give Earth Raise Campaign
In April, the CIJ embarked on its first-ever public fundraising campaign to sign up more journalists to benefit from our Climate Investigations Training Scholarship (CITS). Prior to this campaign and specifically in January, we had an open call for eligible applications towards the 2026 CITS with the aim of selecting 10 successful applicants. With 485 applications received from 70 countries and after a highly competitive selection process, we needed more support to give more slots to the journalists from Latin America, Africa or South Asia.
During Big Give Earth Raise campaign we aimed to raise £5,500 to get in 5 journalists. Our successful campaign enabled us raise £8k increasing the CITS beneficiaries to 7 instead!
Meet the 2nd Cohort of the 2026 CITS beneficiaries
From a waiting list of about 50 applicants to CITS, we are delighted to announce the 7 recipients from Chile, India, Nigeria, Tunisia, Venezuela and Zambia who will join the last 2026 iteration of our Climate Investigations Course in September and October.
The CITS beneficiaries will fully participate online in the 24.5-hour long hands-on Climate Investigations Course (CIC), which will run online on specific days between September and October. Specifically, they will gain access to the tools needed to conduct deep investigative research into climate change; learn from experts about 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; equip journalists with the skills, tools, and techniques needed to conduct deep investigative research into climate change.
About CITS and the CIC
In January 2025, we launched the Climate Investigations Course (CIC). This programme built on the work of our highly impactful 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 footprint as well as available tools and resources. Following the launch, 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 programme.
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 commenced CITS in 2025. The inaugural Scholars nominated by OCRI partner organisations, benefited by either participating in online CIC programmes or attending the CIJ Summer Conference (including the Climate Investigations Masterclass) in June. Consequently, the 13 journalists from 10 countries fulfilled requirements – six recipients from Côte d’Ivoire, Peru, Nigeria, The Gambia and India were in London for the conference while the remaining seven from Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, India and the UAE joined the full CIC online.
This year, we opened up access to applicants from the specific regions. Following the applications received, we announced the beneficiaries of the first 2026 CITS cohort in March and 7 recipients from Brazil, Kenya, India, Nepal, Paraguay, Sierra Leone and South Africa have fulfilled requirements by joining the CIC held between March and May bringing the total number to 20. At least 10 investigative articles have been published by the 2025 and 2026 (1st cohort) CITS beneficiaries following the completion of their training.
