Journalist Association - Journalist Association Scholarships

What the Journalist Association scholarships give you

The Swedish Journalists’ Union (Svenska Journalistförbundet) awards several million kronor each year. The money is divided into numerous individual grants for people who produce published texts, photographs or infographics. Each grant is intended for a specific purpose and is not paid out as a regular monthly income. These include:

• Training and qualification grants (up to 60,000 SEK, approximately 5,300 EUR)
• Language courses (English in Brighton, French in Aix-en-Provence)
• Creative retreats (for example, on Öland or in Athens)
• Safety allowances for reporting from conflict zones
• Travel allowances and cover of hotel costs for Fojo courses (Fojo is a Swedish institute for journalism training)

The money comes from copyright levies. Schools, businesses and public authorities pay these levies in order to be allowed to legally copy and distribute published content, and a portion of this revenue goes towards these grants.

Who can apply

• What you do: You have created copyright-protected texts, photographs or infographics over the last three years. You may be a journalist, photographer, graphic designer, researcher, editor or author.
• Where it was published: Your work has been published in Swedish print or online media based in Sweden, or your photographs have been reproduced in Swedish books. Your name must be clearly identified as the author, for example in the byline or in the caption.
• Membership: You do not need to be a member of the journalists’ union.
• Nationality: Applicants of all nationalities are welcome to apply. The key requirement is that your work has been published in the Swedish media.
• Radio and TV: The production of moving images and audio content is not usually taken into account. You may nevertheless apply if your texts or images have been published on a Swedish broadcaster’s web platform (e.g. sr.se or tv4.se) with your name credited as the author.
• Not eligible: Members of associations for writers, artists, illustrators or photographers (Författarförbundet, KRO, Svenska Tecknare, SFF). These members should submit their applications via their respective associations instead.
• Waiting time: If you have already received a grant, you will usually have to wait 1.5 to 2 years before you can apply for the next one. Exceptions to this rule are grants for security and the Fojo Hotel.

How to apply

You can apply online at sjf.se for the individual scholarship of your choice. Please include proof of authorship (working links, PDF files or screenshots showing your name, the publication date and the publication channel) as well as a brief statement of reasons. Each scholarship has its own rolling application deadline; please therefore check the current calls for applications. You can apply for the Fojo Hotel Scholarship at any time.

How realistic are your chances?

The grants are highly sought-after, but the pool of applicants is limited to those who can clearly demonstrate that they have recently appeared as authors of articles in the Swedish media. A well-documented application, in which your name is clearly listed in the byline, will already give you an advantage. First-time applicants are given priority, and the union also aims to achieve a balance in terms of geographical representation and gender. If you meet the authorship criterion and have not received a grant recently, your chances are good.