MEDIA awards celebrating the best of science reporting have been resurrected, following a two year-long hiatus.
The Science Writers’ Awards – run by the Association of British Science Writers – were last organised in 2007, because of a previous sponsorship coming to an end. They had been running, uninterrupted, since 1966.
They are now back, courtesy of new sponsors, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development.
Says Natasha Loder, chair of the ABSW and science correspondent of The Economist: “Over the 41 years that the awards ran they became the ‘Oscars’ of science journalism, serving as a model for similar schemes throughout the world. I am delighted that the awards can run once more to recognise the skilled and dedicated journalists reporting on science in the UK and Ireland.”
The award categories are:
Best news item
Best feature
Best scripted/edited programme (podcast, radio, TV or online video)
Best investigative journalism
Best newcomer
An independent panel of scientist and journalist judges – chaired by Colin Blakemore FMedSci FRS Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford – will next month decide on a shortlist, with the winners to be announced the following month.
The closing date for entries is the 21st of this month.
The ABSW was founded in 1947.
