Fellowships

Call for Applications: Digital Policy Hub Fellowship 2025–2026 [Fully Funded; 12 months; UG/PG/PhD]: Apply by March 3

Apoorva

Feb 27, 2025
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Applications are invited for the Digital Policy Hub Fellowship 2025–2026 for UG, PG and PhD students. The application deadline is March 3, 2025!

About Digital Policy Hub

The new Digital Policy Hub at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) brings together a diverse group of emerging, innovative thinkers from the social, natural, and applied sciences, offering them opportunities to advance their research, analytical, and policy skills. In collaboration with universities, governments, and the private sector, the Hub provides a highly collaborative environment for undergraduate, masters, doctoral, post-doctoral, and visiting fellows.

Fellows spend up to 12 months connecting with CIGI’s extensive network of over 100 fellows and policy experts from around the world. Participants engage in seminars and activities that integrate research, analysis, and policy while enhancing their career development. Full funding for academic fellowships is available, with further details provided in the program FAQ document.

Research Focus Areas and Approaches

Transformative technologies are rapidly reshaping our world. Many are widely known — although often not well understood (for example, new hyper-connected social media platforms such as TikTok, mRNA vaccines, electric vehicles, blockchain, quantum computing and artificial intelligence large language models). In parallel, the digitalization of almost everything has created a more interdependent, data-driven world.

While broad technological change is nothing new, many current developments are moving at an accelerated pace and on a global scale, outpacing governance frameworks nationally and internationally. There is, therefore, a pressing need for transdisciplinary understanding of governance challenges and opportunities across a wide range of technologies.

The Hub’s research focuses address this need, centering on digital ethics and rights frameworks that assist in identifying and mitigating the gaps between rapid technological disruption and diffusion, as well as the lack of governance frameworks at the national and international levels.

Core research areas include:

Data, economy and society;
Artiﬁcial intelligence;
Outer space;
Digitalization, security and democracy; and
The environment and natural resources.

Value of Participation for Hub Fellows

Hub fellows will be part of a diverse community of emerging, innovative thinkers from the social, natural and applied sciences, and will have opportunities to develop their own research, analytical and policy skills.
In partnership with universities, governments and the private sector, the Hub offers a collaborative, policy-relevant experience.
The Hub’s interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary environment will help build broader capacity for a new generation of emerging researchers, including an alumni network.
Hub fellows will benefit from exposure to CIGI’s global research and policy community (with more than 100 experts from around the world).
Participants take part in frequent seminars and professional development sessions tailored to foster policy making, analysis and research mobilization skills.
Fellowships are fully funded (with the exception of visiting fellows) based on 8–12 month commitments depending on fellowship tier (for more information on this, please see our Program FAQ linked below).

Value of Participation for Supervisors

Academic supervisors will have opportunities to build connections between their home institution and CIGI’s global network of fellows, as well as to connect to decision makers in the private and public sectors associated with the Hub.
Hub fellows will return to their home institutions with new capacities and perspectives with which to pursue their degrees and academic work.
Supervisors will be invited to participate (unfunded) in Digital Policy events hosted by CIGI, such as the end-of-term research conference, either in person or online.
Supervisors have the opportunity to enrich the Hub fellows’ professional development and research skills through their participation in the Hub.
University supervisors and administrators are encouraged to view the Hub experience as complementary to existing academic and research programs.

Program Requirements

Hub fellows must attend weekly seminars (either remotely or in person) and engage actively in discussion.
Hub fellows must also follow the research output expectations outlined in the term curriculum and onboarding processes. This includes:
- One research proposal per term
- One working paper per term
- Cohort member peer-review of working papers
- Please note: specificities on research output expectations based on fellowship tier (word/page count, style, etc.) are shared once the fellowship begins, and all works must adhere to CIGI’s Style Guide.
- The program offers opportunities to become familiar with the Style Guide with ample time for Hub fellows to plan for their submissions (e.g., a Style Guide walkthrough with the organization’s Publications team).
Fellows must communicate the roles and responsibilities of the program to their academic supervisor throughout the duration of their tenure at the Hub.
Fellows must attend and present at the end-of-term research conferences held at the CIGI Campus.
Fellows are expected to support community building within their Hub cohort through active participation in discussions at seminars and in digital spaces such as the Hub Slack channel and LinkedIn group.

Eligibility Requirements

Academic fellows — Enrollment at a Canadian post-secondary institution:

Academic fellows include applicants at the undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and/or post-doctoral levels.
Fellows must be enrolled at a Canadian institution at the time of application and maintain student status for the full duration of the program.
- For example, students in one-year master’s programs typically do not meet eligibility requirements.
Post-doctoral applicants, including recent Ph.D. graduates, are eligible.
- Candidates must have completed their Ph.D. at a Canadian institution within the past four years.
- They must hold current post-doctoral status at a Canadian academic institution at the time of application and throughout the program.
- Documentation verifying post-doctoral status is required to access funding via their university.
Ph.D. students who successfully defend their dissertation during the fellowship may transition to post-doctoral fellowship status if they continue with the same academic supervisor and institution.
Eligible applicants include Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and international students with a valid visa that permits them to work in Canada.
Academic fellows must meet the eligibility criteria for the Mitacs Accelerate program, in addition to the requirements set by CIGI.

Supervisors

Students and post-doctoral applicants must have a supervisor at their academic institution who is willing to supervise them on their proposed project. They must also support their participation in the Hub, act as an applicant and signatory on the funding application, and hold and administer the funding at the academic institution. The supervisor must be eligible to hold a research account at their institution (for example, Tri-Council funding such as NSERC or SSHRC).

Disciplines

All academic disciplines will be considered. The Hub cultivates disciplinary diversity in the cohort.

Visiting fellows

Government and private sector professionals: Government practitioners and private sector professionals from within Canada are encouraged to apply and will serve as unfunded visiting fellows.

How to Apply?

Interested candidates can apply via this link.

Location

The Hub fellow must be based in Canada, with opportunities for a mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote participation to ensure geographic diversity within the cohort.
While remote participation is available, in-person engagement offers several advantages, such as access to shared office space and the opportunity to meet fellow participants face-to-face.
As a result, fellows who are within commuting distance are strongly encouraged to attend seminars and events onsite.
All fellows are required to travel to the CIGI Campus in Waterloo, Ontario, to participate in the end-of-term research conferences.