Proposals are accepted year round and evaluated within 2-3 months of entry on a schedule posted on the OSI website.

The Open Society Institute (OSI) fellowship programme supports idea entrepreneurs from around the world. The Open Society Fellowship enables professionals, including journalists, activists, scholars, and practitioners, to work on projects that inspire meaningful public debate, shape public policy, and generate intellectual ferment within OSI. The fellowship focuses on four areas: 'National Security and the Open Society'; 'Citizenship, Membership and Marginalisation'; 'Strategies and Tools for Advocacy and Citizen Engagement'; and 'Understanding Authoritarianism'. Fellows’ projects may include books, articles, outreach for documentary films, online media, and efforts to seed new campaigns and organisations.


Fellowships are awarded for one year. In some cases OSI considers requests for shorter or longer durations. Preference is given to applications for full-time fellowships, but OSI also considers applicants who can only work part-time on their projects.


In addition to supplying a fellowship stipend, OSI may cover additional limited expenses such as travel, conference fees, and part-time research assistance. Fellowship expenses should not include operational or programmatic costs, such as employees and physical infrastructure. The purpose of the fellowship is to support individual fellows. The fellowship does not fund enrolment for degree or non-degree study at academic institutions, including support for dissertation research.


Proposals are accepted year round, but those received by January 8 2010 will be evaluated by March 24 2010. Those received by April 28 2010 will be evaluated by July 21 2010. Further deadlines will be posted on the OSI website as necessary.

Click here for more information and access to the application in PDF format. Only applicants without internet access should use this PDF application form.

All interested applicants should complete the online application form, which requires registering on the website, and submit supporting materials for consideration. The sponsors recommend reading the FAQs before applying. Applicants may submit a project proposal or other materials in a language other than English, as long as they also submit an English translation. Certified translations are strongly recommended.

Open Society website on November 14 2009, and email from Lisena DeSantis to The Communication Initiative on November 20 2009.