Deadline: March 25, 2022
Do you want to work this summer on innovative solutions to the climate crisis? Are you an undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral student with either rigorous academic research skills or cutting-edge digital design, video production, media pitching, or other creative communications talents? Apply now for the New Futures Fellowship 2022.
Young people are at the forefront of climate activism, with urgent demands for decision-makers to move fast and decisively. But right now, progress is too slow to address the scale of the crisis and focus on the people who bear the most devastating effects of climate change. The movement for climate justice needs everyone to get involved, and to keep building new pathways to progress. The New Futures Fellowship offers an opportunity to do this.
The Fellowship program brings together researchers and advocates from different disciplines, countries and backgrounds to share their expertise and commitment for change. This year’s themes of health, the music industry and Web3 offer opportunities to formulate practical ways forward to real-world problems. In each of these areas, Fellowship teams will work collaboratively to select a focus that is grounded in concrete evidence and the potential to accelerate change.
New Futures Fellowship Themes for 2022: Health, Music, and Web3
- Climate + Health: Health and well-being are inextricably connected to the climate crisis. Rooted in Sustainable Development Goal 3, this fellowship group will focus on an aspect of this connection. Areas of interest may include climate-related: bodily harm and diseases, mental health and eco-anxiety, unequal access to health services, oral health, health education, or any other health-related topic relevant to the interests of the fellowship group. This research is meant to result in advocacy-based recommendations and human rights-respecting solutions to climate-change-driven health issues.
- Climate + Music: The music entertainment industry is a microcosm of the climate crisis. It touches many of the human contributions to climate change: travel, construction, energy, production, and communication. However, for many people, listening to music is an emotional experience, a mode of escape from the problems of everyday life. This fellowship group will focus on one or more areas of the music industry, proposing solutions for federal or local policy, venue policy, recommendations for artists and fans, and/or any number of innovative, equitable solutions.
- Climate + Web3: Potentially tackling approaches to decentralized finance, art production and NFTs, and/or the metaverse, this fellowship group will research an aspect of how our digital future will interact with climate change, the existential threat of our time, and propose potential U.S. federal policy solutions that will address both climate and community impact.
Benefits
- The Fellowship stipend is $1,000. SPI can also offer documentation for academic or internship credit if relevant.
Eligibility
- Open to undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in a degree program or entering a degree program by January 2023. For the Climate and Health theme and the Climate and Music theme, Fellows can be citizens of or located in any country in the world. The Web3 theme is limited to U.S. residents or citizens.
- All fellowship activities will be fully online, and Fellows must have regular internet access to participate. Fellowship activities will be in English and Fellows must be able to work and write fluently in English.
- Research and Advocacy Fellows may come from any field of study including natural and physical sciences, social science, arts and humanities. For the Advocacy Fellowships, applicants are welcome from, but not limited to, majors in communications, journalism, marketing, public relations or similar fields. For Advocacy Fellowships, priority will be given to applicants with activist campaigning experience and/or creative skills such as story-telling, digital media, graphic design or video production.
Application
- Application deadline is March 25, 9:00pm Eastern Time (GMT – 4)
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview in Mid-April
- Fellowship dates: May 22-September 2 (including mandatory full 2-day orientation on May 28-29)
For more information, visit New Futures Fellowship.
