Deadline: 30-Jun-21
The Open Technology Fund is seeking applications for its Information Controls Fellowship Program to cultivate research, outputs, and creative collaboration on topics related to repressive Internet censorship and surveillance.
Typically, ICFP fellows have experience in fields such as computer science, engineering, information security research, software development, and social sciences, law, and data visualization, among others. Information controls is a cross-disciplinary field, so applications are open to people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines and can include students and junior to mid-career practitioners.
The ICFP fellowship supports examination into how governments in countries, regions, or areas of OTF’s core focus are restricting the free flow of information, cutting access to the open internet, and implementing censorship mechanisms, thereby threatening the ability of global citizens to exercise basic human rights and democracy; work focused on mitigation of such threats is also supported.
Areas of Focus
- Development and refinement of tools and techniques to continuously monitor Internet interference on a global scale
- Investigation of information controls, security, and privacy in popular applications such as search engines, social media platforms, and instant messaging clients
- Testing creative methods of censorship circumvention
- Examination of the impact of Internet censorship and use of circumvention tools
- Experimental techniques to limit pro-government manipulation of online discussions
- Analysis of targeted threats against civil society organizations, including Internet filtering, denial of service attacks, and targeted malware
- Other novel ideas and approaches relating to the study of global and regional information controls
Fellowship Information
- Three, six, nine or twelve month fellowships available
- Usually offered to postdoctoral, doctoral students, and experienced researchers with demonstrated ability and expertise
- Monthly stipend of $5,000 USD
- Travel stipend of $1,250 to $5,000 USD depending on the fellowship length
- OTF fellowship contracts are 3, 6, 9 or 12 months in duration.
What types of efforts does OTF support?
OTF supports research, development, and implementation efforts focused on increasing:
- Access to the internet, including circumvention tools;
- Awareness of access, privacy, or security threats, including research, censorship detection, measurement platforms, and increasing digital security know-how among targeted groups;
- Privacy for at-risk users; and
- Security against threats to internet access and safety.
Eligibility Criteria
- Individuals of all ages irrespective of nationality, residency, creed, gender, or other factors, with the exception that OTF is not able to support applicants within countries that the United States has trade restrictions or export sanctions as determined by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
- Individuals who demonstrate skill and ability to assist in efforts to overcome information controls.
- Individuals who demonstrate a desire to grow their knowledge and skills through a collaborative, cross-discipline approach.
- Individuals who demonstrate a commitment to reach audiences outside the research community.
For more information, visit https://www.opentech.fund/funds/icfp/