Applications Invited for Information Futures Fellowship

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About the Organization

With over 20 years’ experience of practicing the science of foresight with major international corporations, government institutions, associations and non-profits, The Futures Lab, Inc. can proudly say that we are experts in delivering revolutionary, actionable visions and strategies for the future of a multitude of industries and geographies. Our passion is to create your preferred future.

About the Fellowship

The Information Futures Fellowship is a novel opportunity for practitioners in public health, healthcare, community organizations, media, policy, design and other fields who are actively working on responses to the ongoing information crisis. The six-month fellowship provides these practitioners with the resources, time, research partners, training and peer network to develop new ideas, evaluate existing programs or design and test novel interventions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront how misinformation poisons public discourse, disrupts efforts to respond effectively in a crisis, and interferes with people’s ability to live healthy lives. As earlier work on elections has shown, however, misinformation is just one part of the challenge. Technological advances and designs have enabled rapidly changing information ecosystems that are vulnerable to misuse and abuse — and ill understood by most people who rely on these information ecosystems every day to engage with friends, colleagues, constituencies and communities. The result is an erosion of trust in institutions and others in society, and many downstream effects such as a lack of trust in vaccines or elections, leading to preventable deaths and suffering, and political instability.

The Information Futures Fellowship is built to empower practitioners who lead investigations into any aspect of these intersecting information challenges and how they can be addressed — to start building a better future for our information spaces, habits, institutions and culture. As leaders in their fields and communities, those on the front lines are most familiar with concrete information challenges and closest to potential solutions. The Fellowship provides access to skill sets and research expertise of other disciplines and industries (in the form of partnerships and mentorship) as well as the resources and freedom to innovate.

Eligibility

• To The Information Futures fellowship is designed for practitioners with at least 5-10 years of experience and a proven track record in areas including, but not limited to: policy making, public health, libraries, education, communications, design, fact checking, journalism, healthcare, community leadership, research or government. We are particularly interested in applicants working with communities that are underrepresented in efforts to improve information. We also prioritize applicants who, without this fellowship, might not be able to dedicate space and resources to design and implement a program with their community in mind.

During their fellowship, IF Fellows will develop, implement and evaluate pilots quickly, as they iterate with an urgency that matches the magnitude of the challenge. Proposed projects should be innovative, evidence-based and designed to push forward our understanding of what successful approaches should be replicated and scaled. Topic areas of interest for 2023 include but are not limited to pandemics and epidemics, climate change and gun violence. Applicants can propose entirely new projects, or those that are already under way but need new insights, iteration and evaluation.

How to Apply

Fellowships are offered twice a year in conjunction with the Fall and Spring semesters. A timeline for our first cohort is below.

• Spring 2023 Cohort
• July 2022: Applications open, Fellowship information session (virtual)
• August: Applications due
• September: Application review, finalist interviews (virtual)
• October: Fellowship offers made, announcement of cohort
• January: Fellowship begins; IFL Academy and Sandpit in Providence
• February-May: Fellowship activities & pilot work
• June: StandUp presentation and Sandpit in Providence; summary report due

Deadline - August 15, 2022

Apply Now

For more information please check the Link 

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