Are you fascinated by how technology reshapes societies, economies, and governance? The 2026 Tech Reporting Fellowship, offered jointly by openDemocracy and Tech Policy Press, is a fully funded, year-long journalism placement based in the UK designed for professionals ready to investigate and illuminate tech’s powerful influence on public life.
Overview
This Tech Reporting Fellowship runs for 12 months and embeds the selected candidate within openDemocracy’s UK bureau. Throughout the fellowship, you’ll receive mentorship from experienced editors at Tech Policy Press (with bases in Europe and the U.S.), and have your work published on both platforms giving your reporting an international audience and substantial visibility.
Compensation for the fellowship is £30,000 per annum, paid monthly.
What You’ll Do
As a Tech Reporting Fellowship fellow, you’ll carry a wide range of editorial responsibilities aimed at producing high-impact journalism on technology and its intersections with democracy, governance, media, energy, geopolitics and everyday life. Specifically:
- Every month, you are expected to deliver at least one analytical report and one feature article.
- You’ll respond to breaking news when relevant and may be called on to contribute to podcasts or media appearances to discuss your work and broader tech-policy issues.
- Over the course of the year, you will also plan and execute a long-term investigative project exploring a major issue at the heart of technology and society.
- As part of the newsroom, you will collaborate with editors, attend meetings, and meet regular editorial deadlines.
This structure promises both the rigor and discipline of a newsroom environment and the creative freedom to pursue in-depth, long-form journalism.
Who Should Apply
The Tech Reporting Fellowship welcomes a broad spectrum of applicants. While preference is given to candidates with a journalism background, researchers, lawyers, technologists, public-policy professionals, and others with a demonstrated interest in technology and its societal impact are also eligible and encouraged to apply.
Ideal candidates will have a genuine passion for public-interest reporting particularly around subjects such as AI, digital governance, media ethics, energy transition, civil liberties, or global tech policy.
Because this is a UK-based fellowship, applicants must already have the right to live and work in the United Kingdom; visa sponsorship is not provided. While applications from across the UK are accepted, there is a preference for candidates based in or near London, to facilitate easier engagement with editorial meetings, events, and sources. Applicants from other regions are welcome, provided they clearly explain how they will manage location challenges in their cover letters.
Application Requirements
To apply, you will need to submit:
- Three to five samples of recent published work ideally investigative or analytical journalism, though other well-crafted and relevant journalism outputs are also acceptable.
- A cover letter (maximum two pages) describing your motivation, your interest in covering the intersection of technology and democracy, and why you believe you are suited for this fellowship.
- A short memo outlining 1 to 3 feature story pitches for your first months, along with a longer-term investigative idea you would pursue over the year.
- An up-to-date CV or résumé.
- Three professional references.
Be sure in your memo to demonstrate both your sense of urgency and your capacity for long-form reporting and to connect your ideas to larger social, political or technological themes.
Why This Fellowship Matters
We are living in an era where technology doesn’t just impact convenience it shapes energy infrastructures, influences global geopolitics, transforms economies, and alters how societies govern themselves. The Tech Reporting Fellowship offers a rare chance for journalists and critical thinkers to step into the frontlines of this transformation, researching and reporting issues that will define the future.
With editorial support, newsroom access, and publication through influential international platforms, the Tech Reporting Fellowship empowers you to craft stories that inform global conversations amplifying underreported issues and holding powerful technological forces to account. For anyone committed to public-interest journalism at the intersection of tech and society, this fellowship presents a singular opportunity to grow, contribute, and make a tangible impact.
Deadline: January 10, 2026
