The program
The “HITS Journalist in Residence” program is geared towards freelance and staff science journalists with at least five years of experience and a focus on the natural sciences and technology. It is open to all media (print, online, radio, TV), one of its goals is to encourage dialogue between journalists and researchers, thus providing journalists with a better understanding of the way research works and how researchers think. Journalists are not expected to publish anything related to HITS in return. Instead, the program supports free and independent journalism.
A good command of spoken and written English is mandatory.
More information on the program, application requirements and FAQ, are available at
https://www.h-its.org/en/press/journalist-in-residence-program/.
To apply, please visit this page:
https://www.h-its.org/2025/07/21/jir-2026-call/
The Institute
HITS is a private, non-profit basic research institute where about 130 scientists from more than 30 countries work in 11 research groups. Research is conducted along three main topical threads: complex simulations across scales, data structuring and analysis, and enabling software and tools. The fields of research range from molecular biology to statistics and astrophysics. An essential characteristic of the Institute is interdisciplinarity, implemented e.g. in the
“HITS Lab”, an internal program that fosters cross-group and cross-disciplinary projects at HITS.
One aim of the institute is to raise public awareness of the importance of computer-aided, data-driven research. The institute is located in Heidelberg, Germany, a city with a leading university and many other top-tier research institutions.
Since 2012, there have been thirteen “Journalists in Residence”– from the U.S., Canada, Spain, Germany, Australia and India – many of them utilized their stay for long-term projects. For example, science journalist Volker Stollorz developed a concept for a German Science Media Center during his stay at HITS. In 2016, the
Science Media Center Germany was established. The current Journalist in Residence is
Jackson Ryan (Australia). He will stay at HITS until the end of October.
Hashtag on Bluesky: #HITSJIR2026