Organizer Information
The Just Tech Fellowship is a premier national initiative produced and administered by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). Based in Brooklyn, New York, the SSRC is an independent, international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing mobilizing social science research for the public good. The Just Tech program serves as a critical interdisciplinary infrastructure that explores how digital and emerging systems are developed, deployed, and governed, shifting the spotlight toward ethical approaches that reflect public needs, accountability, and collective civic values.
Title & Description
The Just Tech Fellowship (2027 Cohort).
This newly redesigned, focused one-year program supports rigorous, original, and community-grounded work addressing how advanced technology shapes contemporary society, structural equity, and public life. Far from a traditional production commission, this fellowship offers independent practitioners flexible capital, specialized networks, and an intellectual sanctuary to test ambitious ideas and advance research in motion. The program welcomes a diverse mix of fields and methodologies, recognizing artists, journalists, social scientists, and technical builders as vital researchers capable of expanding public imagination around technology.
FELLOWSHIP OFFERS & FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE
- Unrestricted Financial Grant: A flexible personal award of up to $60,000 USD, disbursed in sequential installments over the course of the fellowship year.
- Seed Collaboration Capital: Active fellows are eligible to apply for up to an additional $5,000 USD in dedicated collaboration funding to launch joint, interdisciplinary projects with other members within or across Just Tech cohorts.
- Bespoke Mentoring Grid: Regular matchings with specialized advisors to provide individualized mentoring and critical feedback throughout the project cycle.
- Cohort Exchange Infrastructure: Monthly virtual gatherings and interactive interdisciplinary forums designed to cultivate safe, horizontal spaces for sharing work-in-progress and peer review.
- Physical Research Workshop: Free entry and fully covered logistics to attend one mandatory in-person workshop (the exact city location varies annually to support focused cohort collaboration).
- Timeless Network Access: Lifelong professional integration into the expanding Just Tech network of alumni, institutional directors, policymakers, and cross-sector advocates long after the initial award year concludes.
Categories
Research / Archive Studies, Curatorial Practice / Criticism, Software Culture / Critical Tech Studies.
Eligibility & Commits
- Geographic Imperative: Citizens of any country may apply; however, all fellows must physically reside within the United States for the absolute duration of the fellowship period. The SSRC does not sponsor visas and cannot be listed as an immigration sponsor or affiliate on legal visa applications.
- Employment Flexibility: Fellows are not required to leave their current jobs or academic positions; the independent award is structured to run alongside your existing employment.
- Time Commitment: Expect to dedicate approximately 10 hours per week to advancing your proposed project, alongside regular participation in synchronous monthly online virtual gatherings and the annual in-person workshop.
- Student Exclusions: Individuals currently enrolled as full-time students are strictly ineligible to apply. The program is not intended to fund postdoctoral placements or dissertation completions.
- Credential Flexibility: There are no formal degree or academic requirements. Reviewers score applications based on the quality, relevance, and societal significance of a sustained record of public-facing work.
- Application Boundary: The program supports individuals only. Collaborative project structures are eligible, but the application must be locked by a single designated lead practitioner who will spearhead the cohort milestones.
- Reporting Obligations: Commitment to completing standard program evaluation activities, including the submission of one midterm progress log and one final outcome report.
APPLICATION PACKAGING DETAILS
Dossiers must be compiled entirely in English and logged through the secure electronic portal node. The online portal requires four components:
- Résumé / Curriculum Vitae (CV): A clean summary tracking professional milestones, publications, and technical skills, capped at a maximum of two (2) pages.
- Personal Statement: Detailing your research or creative practice, your primary areas of focus, and the underlying questions guiding your vision.
- Work Proposal Matrix: A detailed blueprint addressing six specific criteria blocks:
- Concept Description: Clearly defining your central idea, inquiry question, or targeted societal problem.
- Engagement with Technology: Explaining how the work substantively engages digital or emerging technologies—whether through design, usage analysis, infrastructure critique, or planetary governance.
- Approach and Contribution: Detailing the specific method your project advances and how it contributes to broader conversations.
- Feasibility: Outlining the practical, logistical, or conceptual challenges you anticipate and how you plan to navigate them within a one-year cycle.
- Field Context: Showing an active awareness of other individuals, zines, or institutions working on related queries, and how your vision intersects with that landscape.
- Public Contribution: Explaining how the research project feeds back into public spheres via dissemination, workshops, or public tool development.
- Two Representative Work Samples: Recent files or media documentation capturing your creative practice, accompanied by a brief description text detailing your exact role in each project.
Fees
- Application Processing Fee: None (Completely free to register and enter via the secure server).
How to Apply?
Prepare your writing or multimedia blocks on an external drive, set up a validated profile node on the SSRC secure platform, populate the required fields, upload your four application files, and lock your data. Apply to the SSRC Just Tech Fellowship 2027.
Key Dates
- Application Window Opens: Monday, April 27, 2026.
- Application Submission Deadline: Sunday, June 28, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time).
- Advisory Board Selection Result Logs: November 2026.
- Active Fellowship Term: January 2027 through December 2027 (A strict 12-month calendar block).
Location
United States (Virtual remote operations with physical residency travel required for the annual cohort workshop).
Additional Details
The selection process is governed by a multi-tier vetting network: after an initial internal compliance screen for completeness, eligible folders pass through a cross-sector panel of evaluators. The highest-scoring portfolios are then submitted to the Just Tech Advisory Board for a rigorous final review. Applications are evaluated according to six equal criteria: Articulated Practice (defined body of work), Strength of Project, Capacity to Execute, Evidence of Public Engagement, Fit with the Fellowship, and Constructive Approach to Collaboration.
While digital productivity software tools may be used to assist with initial brainstorming, translation, or grammatical editing, all submitted text files or slide layouts must reflect the applicant’s own original voice and ideas; massive AI-generation will result in folder exclusion. Due to the extraordinary volume of global applications handled by the council, individual feedback panels are not provided for unselected portfolios.