For the 300 million people living with a rare disease, this is an age of innovation. Early detection and treatment has yielded astonishing advancements, signaling the possibility of broader impact through revolutionary testing methods and customized therapies.
To help international journalists tell stories of these possibilities and the challenges that remain, the National Press Foundation is providing a week of free online training for professional journalists in any medium. This fourth in a series of journalism fellowships, made possible with support by Fondation Ipsen, will consist of on-the-record briefings and question-and-answer sessions with top experts, including topics such as childhood disease therapies, AI-driven drug development and venture capital for rare disease research. Journalists will also hear from leaders of global patient advocacy groups and veteran journalists in the field.
In addition, NPF will offer up to $2,000 in reporting grants to 20 journalists to cover travel expenses and time in executing a rare diseases project of their choosing.
All accepted fellows will receive the training. Only 20 fellows will receive grants.
Fellows who require and qualify for a reporting grant will receive $1,000 upon completion of the training and another $1,000 upon submission of their work, which must be published no later than March 1, 2026.
For fellows who receive a grant, their work will be published first in the journalists’ chosen outlets, then reprinted in a compilation book produced by Fondation Ipsen, a Paris-based nonprofit that focuses on rare diseases, detection, inclusion and disability. The compilation book of the 2023 NPF fellows’ work is available for free download here.
This is a competitive fellowship open to professional journalists based in any country, but attendance of all sessions is mandatory. Sessions will run from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET Nov. 17-21. Journalists may work in any medium (print, broadcast, online, social) and any language but must have fluency in English as the training will be conducted in English.
Theapplication deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 12, 2025. Employed journalists will need a letter of support from their editor, including a commitment to allow four hours off from work, Nov. 17-21, to accommodate the fellowship hours. This is to ensure full participation. Freelance journalists should submit a letter from an editor indicating an interest in publishing their work on this topic.
Past NPF briefings on rare disease topics are available here.
Questions? Contact Alyssa Black at ablack@nationalpress.org.
This training is sponsored by Fondation Ipsen. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
