On the World Day for Water, the Lake Baikal Foundation for Environmental Applications and Research announces a call for applications for the All-Russian Grant Journalism Competition: «Baikal: Conservation Instructions». The topic of the World Day for Water 2021 is value of water. The UN calls for a global dialog on how water is valued in different contexts so that we will be able to find a solution to the conservation of «the cornerstone of life». In order to make a profound contribution to this discussion, the Foundation invites the Russian journalist community to join the dialog on Baikal, which is a world-famous freshwater reservoir. The aim of this Competition is to attract the attention of mass-media to the problem of Lake Baikal conservation through the development of environmental journalism. The Competition sets the task of identifying and supporting authors who are ready to write about various aspects of the management of the Baikal natural area and the scientific potential of Lake Baikal.
From March 22nd till April 22nd, 2021, the applications on the following theme categories are accepted:
- The management of the Baikal natural area (legal regulation challenges; the prospects of the national project «Ecology» implementation on Lake Baikal; development of the responsible tourism; implementation of the UN Sustainable development goals, etc.);
- Treatment facilities in the Baikal national area (requirements for wastewater treatment; reconstruction and modernization of existing treatment facilities; challenges during the construction and commissioning of new treatment facilities, etc.);
- Research and development in the Baikal natural area (research in the field of biotechnology, medicine, hydrology, hydrobiology; introduction of artificial intelligence and other high technologies for sustainable development of the Baikal natural area; study of biodiversity conservation, etc.).
Competition winners will be selected by the Expert council. The amount of each grant will vary from 90 to 120 thousand rubles. The total grant fund amounts to more than 500 thousand rubles. Winners will receive grants in two stages in equal shares: immediately after the announcement of the results of the application campaign by June 10th, 2021 and after the publication of the material, which should be released by December 1st, 2021.
The participation in the Competition is open to full-time journalists of federal and regional print media, online media, news agencies, as well as freelance authors on condition of providing a free-form letter of support from the editorial office of the media that will publish the material.
The Expert council is chaired by Andrei Palamarchuk, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Russia. The other council members who confirmed their participation are:
- Angelina Davydova, Director of Environmental Information Bureau;
- Sergey Ivashko, Press Secretary of the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University;
- Zorigto Namsaraev, Acting Head of the Synthetic Biology Laboratory of the Kurchatov Genomic Center, National Research Center Kurchatov Institute;
- NataliaParamonova, Executive Director of Ecocup Film Festival;
- Alexey Sivukhin, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists of Ivanovo State University, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Biology, Secretary of the Scientific and Technical Council of Ivanovo State University;
- Maxim Timofeyev, Director of the Research Institute of Biology, Irkutsk State University;
- Ilya Ferapontov, Editor-in-Chief at N+1;
- Yana Khlyustova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at the information and service portal Indicator.Ru;
- Georgiy Shakhgildyan, Head of the Scientific Communications Department, member of the Council of Young Scientists of D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia.
The organizer of the Competition is Lake Baikal Foundation. BAIKALSEA Company operates as the Competition general partner. The media partner of the Competition is the Association of Communication in the Sphere of Education and Science (AKSON), which ensures the transparence and provides the content support of the event.