Is RadicalxChange Fellowship For Me?

We encourage projects that are strengthening civil society and creating public goods to apply.

What are we doing?

We are launching the RadicalxChange fellowship program.

The 10-week program will bring together mission-driven people working on projects to strengthen civil society and rethink public goods. This program is relevant for anybody who:

1. Want to strengthen civil society and contribute to the creation of new public goods
2. Think in terms of public goods and increasing returns (or increasing returns to scale) – that is, building infrastructure that facilitates the success and productivity of others – and not individualistic value capture
3. Want to rethink incentives and ownership structures, such as “exit to community” and other alternative corporate or cooperative forms, to create more equitable economies

And what will you get from us?

1. You will have access to high calibre mentors and peers working on projects that have a meaningful positive impact on the world
2. You will collaborate and learn from a diverse mix of people across disciplines to incorporate different perspectives and solve your problems creatively
3. You will increase your chances of making an impact by tapping into the RadicalxChange team, network, and community to get access to relevant customers, investors, partners, and policymakers

Who should apply?

We are creating a program that first and foremost fosters interdisciplinary thinking. We believe that positive and comprehensive change is only possible through the inclusion of diverse voices and backgrounds.

We want to encourage people from across disciplines to apply. All you need is to be aligned with the RadicalxChange mission and be working to strengthen civil society across four broad themes: governance and democracy, property rights, data rights, and competition and antitrust.

We think there are 8 types of profiles that will benefit from the program. The list is not exhaustive, and we encourage applicants to get in touch if you don’t fit neatly into any profile.

1. Activist: I am an activist working on a campaign to bring about political or social change. The digital realm has been taken over by corporates and governments to own leaving citizens disempowered. Physical power is being extended using digital power through data in a way that is not well understood by citizens. I am campaigning for data rights as a human right and the need for digital public goods and public spaces as we move more of our lives online.

   Example demo day deliverable: A presentation detailing the ecosystem that has been created during the program ideally with planned events and campaigns to influence target stakeholders.

2. Artist and storyteller: I am an artist working on a project to help the public understand that social and economic systems are failing us. I want to develop art that connects different social problems and to tell a story. Art will be vital in engaging people emotionally and viscerally with problems that need to be solved.

   Example demo day deliverable: A public release of your artwork ideally with planned events and campaigns to influence target stakeholders. If the work during the program focuses on making the project or your individual, or collective practice, sustainable, a presentation of how this has been implemented and a forecast of increasing returns and outcomes to both the public and the project ro practice.

3. Designer: I am a designer focused on social change and increasing returns on public goods. I design mechanisms into interactive experiences such as games, scenarios, and workshops that get people, companies and governments to think critically about the bigger picture and the many stakeholders and factors that affect outcomes. I have developed a module and am in the early stages of setting up a design firm to continue doing this work.

   Example demo day deliverable: A public release of your design as an interactive experience or presentation that shows your methodology and the design in an easily digestible way. If working on systems design and new business models, a pitch deck including diagrams, that can be presented to entrepreneurs and investors.

4. Entrepreneur: I am an entrepreneur creating a startup in the civic technology space. I am worried that financing incentives will dilute my vision to create societal value and force me to focus on value extraction. I want to finance and govern the business in more participatory and inclusive ways. I am interested in the B-corp movement as well as the broader idea of stakeholder-led capitalism and exit to community (E2C). The project doesn’t need to have customers, but some code or product would be welcome.

   Example demo day deliverable: A public release of a working minimum viable product. Or a pitch deck for investors outlining progress made during the program.

5. Investor: I am an investor that is fed up with seeing venture capital poured into the same “growth at all costs” startups. I want to understand and fund companies that care about the social impact of companies in terms of environmental, social and governance criteria as well as financial criteria. I am interested in things like the Zebra movement, impact investing, the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), quadratic funding, exit to community, and crowdfunding as ways to fund civic tools and public goods that today venture capitalists can’t because of their own incentives. I have the ability to fund startups as an angel investor or through a fund.

   Example demo day deliverable: A public release of an investment strategy or a startup ecosystem map for viable investments. It could also be an investment into a project or series of projects.

6. Policymaker: I am a non-partisan policymaker or group of policymakers working in a policy area related to competition, data rights, governance, or property rights. I want to understand the solution environment to help inform my policy direction and proposals. I believe there is an opportunity to do things differently and present more visionary policy ideas through the policymaking process either nationally or internationally.

   Example demo day deliverable: A policy memo or brief.

7. Researcher: I am a researcher exploring the themes of competition, data rights, governance, or property rights. I am interested both in the historical context of the digital world and data, as well as the consequences of the current corporate-controlled digital social-economic paradigm. I work at a university, a non-profit organization, or within a company where my role is to publish or to inform decision-making within the organization.

   Example demo day deliverable: A research report or academic paper to be published in a journal or published online.

8. Technologist: I am a technologist building tools for political economies in cyberspace. I believe that access to civic technology should be open access and universal. I want to contribute to tools that limit power, whether that is corporate or state power, and promote architectural and political decentralization to enable more inclusive, vital human cooperation on the Internet. I do not hack to get rich, but to make society richer.

   Example demo day deliverable: Working code released on GitHub for public use, working demo, business plan deck.

How do I apply?

1. E. Glen Weyl’s book, Radical Markets, provided a starting place for envisioning institutions that preserve democratic values in a rapidly-changing technological landscape. Send us a 1000-word essay explaining how your project contributes to the RadicalxChange movement and pushes the vision forward.
2. Share a brief personal statement describing what you care about and what drives you.
3. Optional: share a selection of your previous work or research.

Read more about the fellowship here

Apply here