Call for Applications: Tech Policy Fellowship, 2024-25

Please note that our fellowship application period has now closed. We will announce the next call for fellows in May 2025.

Our work at Tech Global Institute is rooted in advancing equity for the Global Majority on the Internet. We focus on the design, governance and processes that underpin modern technologies, and have a profound impact on Global Majority communities. Past efforts have focused on specific harms. We are primarily interested in why these harms happen in the first place. We investigate the assumptions underlying policies, products and processes shaping the Internet and explore the systemic issues that lead to downstream online experiences.  

The past decade has witnessed tremendous technological progress. However, much of the debate on the policies governing them have excluded Global Majority communities. As a result, these policies are disconnected from lived realities, undermine fundamental rights, exacerbate the opportunity gap, and risk harming people. 

We are on a mission to change this. 

We believe everyone has a stake in the technologies that impact their lives, and that people—not only the developers and traditional governors—should have a voice in how it is being designed and deployed. 

We are looking for a cohort of 6 fellows for 2024-25 who believe in the same, and are committed to promoting equity, accountability and transparency to ensure underserved communities from the Global Majority have decision-making powers over technology design and governance. Specifically, we are interested in early to mid-career technologists, community organizers, activists and policy or legal professionals who are deeply embedded in their communities, are aligned with our mission, and are committed to contributing towards  building a safer, more open, more equitable, and inclusive Internet ecosystem.

The application deadline is June 20, 2024. 

What to Expect

Policy Fellows at Tech Global Institute work with our staff, affiliate networks, senior fellows and community partners on a 6-month paid structured policy research project focused on one or more of our thematic areas. Each fellow is assigned to a mentor with whom they work together to shape their project, and produce a range of outputs, including (but not limited to) white papers, peer-reviewed publications, op-eds, community events or workshops, and other public interest scholarship or engagements. 

Fellows collaborate closely with community organizations to study, articulate, and propose meaningful local or region-centric frameworks to address existing platform or technology related policy problems that have disproportionate negative impact on historically excluded communities in the Global Majority. Through this partnership, fellows play a critical role in building local capacity while ensuring their interventions are embedded in lived experiences of communities. We support fellows with professional development and public speaking opportunities. 

Fellows can apply from anywhere in the world as this is a fully remote program. We have a flat payment applicable to all fellows irrespective of their geographic location. While we do not have expectations on time spent, fellows typically spend 16-20 hours per week on their project. We have a flexible working environment. 

Thematic Areas

Applicants may submit a project proposal that responds to one or more of the following thematic areas within Global Majority contexts:

• Platform accountability, particularly in the areas of:
  • Privacy
  • Content moderation
  • Algorithmic transparency
  • Policy creation
  • User experience and access to complaints/recourse
• Global Internet governance 
• National or international regulations and laws defining citizens’ online lives, including intermediary liability
• Digital infrastructures, including public digitisation initiatives
• Digital rights, and/or surveillance
• Responsible and inclusive AI with a Global Majority focus

We are primarily interested in policy questions within a thematic area that either delves into the nuances of existing gaps, and/or proposes a way forward, acknowledging the contextual, cultural, socioeconomic and political diversity of communities affected by these issues. We recommend treating the thematic areas as a guidepost, meaning if you don’t have significant tech experience, but have had significant impact in taking on large corporations or systems, or advancing state accountability, we would love to hear from you.

Qualifications

Applicants and their proposed projects should demonstrate the following:

• Impact: Applicants should clearly articulate their tightly structured policy question, along with timelines, expected outputs, and an explanation on why this is significant and demands change at a systemic level. 
• Experience: Applicants should be able to demonstrate at least one of the following:
  1. be deeply familiar with their local political and policy contexts, rooted to communities, and have an understanding of public interest technology. 
  2. be able to demonstrate their past contributions in a related field, and have a strong reach of experts and practitioners in their communities.  
  3. be able to demonstrate their research and/or advocacy experience and how this will help them during their fellowship.
• Background: We welcome applications from a range of backgrounds, including (but not limited to) human rights, trust & safety, international law, public policy, community organizing and activism, social science research, and human-centered design/computing. 
• Analytical Rigor: Candidates should be able to craft a roadmap for answering their policy question, and build and implement research approaches to incorporate unimpeachable quantitative data, pertinent qualitative information and strong recommendations that can be presented to platforms/regulators/governments to illustrate the need for and path to change.
• Collaboration: Applicants should have experience working in an interdisciplinary environment of individuals from diverse backgrounds and identities. They should be comfortable engaging with a geographically distributed team, have the ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in formal writing, and be willing to contribute to strengthening the culture and shared knowledge of their cohort and the organization.
• Leadership: Applicants should be able to work independently and in groups in a self-directed manner to achieve goals and outcomes. They should possess a facilitative leadership approach that recognizes diverse leadership and working styles, and actively seeks opportunities to elevate others. They should experience working virtually with a high level of autonomy and be proactive in ensuring their work is tied to measurable impact.  
• Mission and values alignment: Applicants should be deeply committed to advancing the rights, opportunities and voices of Global Majority communities and have an understanding of the sociopolitical histories that affect policy processes and decisions. Further, applicants should be aligned with our DEI policies, Code of Conduct, and ensure that they are respectful, thoughtful, inclusive and compassionate to diverse co-workers and partners.   

Application Package and Deadline

Interested applicants should submit the following in their application package at [email protected]. We do not accept applications through any other channel. We will only consider completed applications. 

• Resume, indicating relevant professional experience and education
• Research proposal, no longer than 1,000 words. 
  • The research proposal should clearly outline the key questions, thematic focus, methodology, timeline, and expected outputs. 
  • The proposal should be fit for a policy project, not an academic research. 
• Two references, including contact information
  • References can be academic or professional.
• One writing sample.
  • This can be an original op-ed, research or white paper, conference proceeding, blog post, policy brief, or any work-in-progress written by the applicant. 
  • Please note that we take plagiarism seriously and do not accept writing samples produced using ChatGPT or other AI writing tools. 

The application deadline is June 20, 2024. We will not accept submissions after the deadline has passed.

Application Process 

Our internal staff will review the completed applications and notify only shortlisted candidates by the second week of July. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by staff, senior fellows, alumni, or other affiliate partners. The fellowship period will formally commence from September 1, 2024. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].