Call for Applications: Paid Tech Policy Fellowship, 2024-25

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Application Deadline: 20 June 2024.

Call for Applications: Paid Tech Policy Fellowship, 2024-25

What to Expect

Policy Fellows at Tech Global Institute work with its staff, affiliate networks, senior fellows and community partners on a 6-month paid structured policy research project focused on one or more of its 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. Tech Global Institute support fellows with professional development and public speaking opportunities.

Fellows can apply from anywhere in the world as this is a fully remote program. There is a flat payment applicable to all fellows irrespective of their geographic location.

Tech Policy Fellowship 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

Tech Global Institute is 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. Tech Global Institute 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, Tech Global Institute would love to hear from you.

Qualifications

Tech Policy Fellowship 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: Tech Global Institute 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.