Applications Now Open for the 2024 Fellowship

About SEEKCommons

The Socio-Environmental Knowledge Commons (SEEKCommons) project is dedicated to building pathways for horizontal collaborations across Science and Technology Studies (STS), Open Science (OS), and socio-environmental researchers and community organizers.

The SEEKCommons Fellowship is an initiative to bring graduate students and early-career researchers with new perspectives and voices to socio-environmental research with open technologies. Our program is designed to:

  • Encourage new integrative practices involving environmental and climate action research with OS practices; and
  • Provide a space for fellows and network members to connect on research issues, challenges, and solutions.

We are seeking 9 fellows for the inaugural 2024 SEEKCommons Fellowship. More details below:

  • Application Form Open: September 5-October 15, 2023
  • Successful Fellows notified: November 29, 2023
  • Fellowship begins: January 22, 2024
  • Fellowship ends: October 22, 2024

Priority Topics for Fellowships

Priority will be given to potential fellows with localized project focus. The datasets fellows work with should have significance to their community/partner communities.

  • Open technologies for data management, formats, standards, protection, and sharing strategies;
  • Creating/adapting tools or workflows to support the reuse of strategic datasets;
  • Open Hardware instrumentation for socio-environmental projects;
  • Open data and metadata curation for sharing, protecting, and preserving socio-environmental environmental project outputs;
  • Developing FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs) for socio-environmental research for public benefit (with orientation of CARE principles);
  • Beyond and alongside CARE, strategies / frameworks for addressing process as part of data use (which FAIR does not do);
  • STS research on responses to OS institutional mandates, data protection and sharing practices, and commercialization of the sciences.

To encourage engagement with critical and emerging topics in socio-environmental research:

  • One fellowship will be reserved for an indigenous STS fellow working on OS or Socio-Environmental issues;
  • One fellowship will be reserved for a STS fellow working on AI and open environmental data.

Eligibility Requirements

In order to be eligible for this fellowship program, you must:

  • Be currently enrolled in a graduate program, or hold a postdoctoral appointment, or be a professional practitioner working in a community-based organization;
  • Demonstrate clear alignment with the goals and objectives of the SEEKCommons project. This will be assessed via your application materials.

Of the nine fellowships offered in each cohort, at least one will be reserved for:

  • An indigenous STS fellow working on the priority topics listed above under “potential research topics”
  • An STS research fellow working on artificial intelligence (AI) and open socio-environmental data

Please review our SEEKCommons Fellowship FAQ for additional eligibility information.

Fellows’ Responsibilities

To successfully participate in the fellowship program, fellows will be expected to be actively involved in cohort activities, including:

  • Participation in once-monthly virtual cohort meetings (total of 9);
  • Participation in, at least, 7 virtual workshops during the duration of the fellowship, with the option to join additional workshops;
  • Engagement with mentors during the process of design, implementation, and completion of the proposed project;
  • Participation in annual in-person SEEKCommons Network convening (travel funding provided).
  • Work with SEEKcommons team and network members to curate content for the Resource Hub;
  • Document research work through public, multimedia formats (i.e. blogs, video, social media) so the benefits of the fellowship are shared publicly and widely;
  • Preparation of a final research product (i.e. peer-reviewed publication, software package, hardware project, white paper, website, data portal, conference poster/presentation). Post-docs will be required to pursue, at least, one peer-reviewed publication;
  • Participation in entry and exit surveys conducted by the SEEKcommons team.

SEEKCommons Fellows will benefit from these offerings:

  • Stipends: $8,000 graduate students, $12,000 post-docs and professionals
  • Mentorship from SEEKCommons project and network members
  • Training in OS, STS, and Socio-environmental research topics
  • Participation in virtual meetings and annual SEEKCommons convenings
  • Access to computing infrastructure (via SEEKCommons Lab)
  • Support for travel to one in-person SEEKCommons convening

Applications due by October 15, 2023

Read our FAQ to learn more and apply here.

SEEKCommons is a collaboration between partners at: University of Notre Dame, the Open Environmental Data Project, and the HDF Group. The project is made possible by a National Science Foundation FAIROS RCN grant (Award 2226425). This award was jointly supported by the NSF Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure.