Fully Funded Bertha Challenge Fellowship 2025

The Fully Funded Bertha Challenge Fellowship is open to all nationals.  The Bertha fellowship is open to those working to expose and counteract the effect of disinformation and corruption on the climate crisis. This Bertha Challenge paid fellowship is a unique international fellowship program for activists and investigative journalists by Bertha. This Bertha Challenge Fellowship 2025 seeks to explore those responsible for spreading the unquantifiable amounts of climate disinformation and expose how this false information is used to the advantage of corporations and politicians with an agenda related to corporate profit.

Bertha Foundation is very excited to launch the fifth Bertha Challenge. This sixth Bertha challenge is an opportunity for investigative journalists and activists to spend a year working on one crucial social justice challenge and to deliver an output of work at the end of this Bertha fellowship. Successful applicants for this international fellowship will receive non-residential paid fellowships. They will also get project budgets to work independently and together to investigate the reasons and solutions to the annual Bertha challenge question, increase their findings to a larger targeted audience, and connect with different stakeholders for the support, information, and sustainable impact through this 2025 Bertha Challenge Fellowship for Activists and Investigative Journalists.

The Bertha Challenge recognizes that activists and investigative journalists have different roles. This Bertha Challenge Fellowship 2025 will provide an opportunity to engage with the complications of the Bertha Challenge question while enhancing the relationships through shared work. Bertha Challenge Fellows will be expected to analyze new ways of working together and outside their traditional silos while maintaining their autonomy and integrity. Investigating stories that expose injustice is increasing work that cuts across professions and organizations. The Bertha Challenge provides a place for a group of mid-career leaders in their specific fields to create professional while compelling work on the subject matter. The Bertha Challenge Fellowship for Activists and Investigative Journalists also encourages debate and strengthens networks beyond the one-year project cycle.

The benefits of the Fully Funded Bertha Challenge Fellowship are:

• Each Bertha Fellow will get income for one year, that is USD $64,900 maximum and comparable with the applicant’s current salary at the host organization, which is ideally a media outlet for an investigative journalist and community organization, NGO, or social movement for an activist.
• Fellows will also get project funds of up to USD $10,000 for each Bertha Fellow to create a product that answers the question created by the Bertha Challenge and directed toward a specific audience. This can be a series of articles, podcasts, videos, games, or drama productions. Journalists and joint activist applicants can pool their funding to produce larger-scale projects.
• Fellows will get a connect fund of up to USD $5,000, this fund is specifically designed to encourage collaboration between Fellows.
• Fellows will do regular online discussions on various issues, from present debates around the Bertha Challenge question to methods of investigation, storytelling, ways of communicating findings through news media, popular education, and more.
• Fellows will also get peer and mentor support through virtual check-ins with Bertha staff and a Bertha Fellows cohort.
• Fellows will also get an opportunity for network development through the global cohort of 2025 Bertha Fellows and exposure to partners within and beyond the Bertha network.

The eligibility criteria for the Fully Funded Bertha Challenge Fellowship are stated below:

For activists:

• Applicants should have at least five years of experience working with social movements, activists, grassroots, social justice organizations, community organizations, or campaigns.
• Applicants should have strong connections to relevant groups in the Fellow’s country, city, or region, including community organizations, social movements, NGOs, journalists, academics, progressive government officials, etc.
• Applicants should have experience developing organizing tools or famous educational products, such as training courses, pamphlets, publications, films, arts, podcasts, theatre productions, etc.
• Applicants should have experience using media, research, and the law in advocacy.
• Applicants should have an affiliation with any appropriate host organization to increase work production during the Bertha Challenge.

For investigative journalists:

• Applicants in this category should be mid-career journalists with at least five years of experience and a record for doing investigative journalism.
• Applicants should have a strong interest and experience in creating work on the Bertha Challenge question and demonstrate a proven ability to work with affected social movements, communities, community organizations, academics, NGOs, scientists, etc.
• Applicants should have research and investigative journalism ability, an understanding of the political landscape related to the subject matter, and an understanding of political structures and law(s) that determine policy direction and power.
• Applicants should have the ability to work independently.
• Applicants should be affiliated with an appropriate host media organization that will publish the work they produce during the Bertha Challenge.