The Polyfoni Social Sciences for AI Fellowship is a four-month, part-time research collaboration run by Polyfoni. Fellows remotely audit a real AI product in a region they know through fieldwork.
Each fellow shapes the project with academic and industry mentors and produces a report for a product team, published under the fellow’s name. The program page gives November 2026 to March 2027; the application form says November 2026 to February 2027.
Benefits & funding
- Dual mentorship from an academic collaborator and an AI industry professional.
- Training in Polyfoni’s Cultural Audit Method.
- Online masterclasses and monthly group sessions with peer and practitioner input.
- Publication on Polyfoni’s website and in the open-access Making AI Listen publication.
- No cash funding or participation fee is specified; fellows commit about five hours weekly.
Eligibility
- Applicants should have a humanities or social-science background; no strict degree level is required.
- MSc and PhD students and early-career researchers in adjacent fields are welcomed.
- Prior AI experience is not required.
- Applicants should be comfortable working in English; additional languages are an advantage.
- Selection favors contextual knowledge backed by fieldwork where AI is deployed; priority regions are East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and China.
Can you apply?
Check who can apply
No nationality, residency, education, experience, gender or age limit is listed. The other conditions are under Eligibility.
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Application process
- 1By 15 October 2026, submit the official form, which asks two questions of up to 200 words each: your fieldwork experience, and which AI product you would audit and why. The program page describes this step as a motivation of up to 500 words.
- 2Successful applicants are contacted for a CV review.
- 3Finalists complete an interview and research discussion with the Polyfoni team.
Program timeline
Application deadline
15 October 2026
Program starts
November 2026
February or March 2027
Program ends (the form says February, the program page March)