The Early Career Research Scholars Fellowship at the Digital Ethics Center (DEC) offers promising early-career researchers an opportunity to develop original research on digital ethics and the governance, ethical, legal, and social implications of digital innovation, in connection with the DEC’s intellectual community.
The program is designed for researchers at the beginning of their academic careers working on topics relevant to the DEC’s mission and activities. The fellowship aims to support high-quality scholarship, foster interdisciplinary exchange, and create opportunities for engagement with the DEC research community, Yale faculty, students, and affiliated colleagues across departments and schools.
Program Structure
Each Research Scholar will complete a semester-long research project in the Spring 2027 semester.
This is a non-residential and non-stipendiary fellowship. Research Scholars are not required to reside in New Haven or Connecticut, and the fellowship does not provide salary, stipend, housing, relocation support, or travel funding. The fellowship provides institutional affiliation with the Digital Ethics Center and access to relevant DEC activities and Yale resources, where available and appropriate.
Participation may include virtual meetings, research presentations, workshops, reading groups, feedback sessions, and other DEC events.
The fellowship will allow Research Scholars to engage with the DEC’s interdisciplinary community and contribute to the Center’s ongoing conversations on digital ethics and AI governance.
The goal is for each Research Scholar to research, write, and revise a paper of publishable quality by the end of the semester, on a topic relevant to the activities of the Center. Projects may be developed with the support of Professor Floridi and in collaboration with other DEC researchers or affiliated scholars.
Exceptionally, the fellowship may be renewed for a second semester depending on progress made during the semester and the needs of the Center.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must be early-career researchers, including:
- PhD students
- postdoctoral researchers
- researchers who obtained their PhD no more than six years ago
Applicants must also meet the following criteria:
- Be working on a project that can be developed into a publishable research paper during the fellowship period.
- Be able to participate actively in the fellowship during the Spring 2027 semester virtually.
- Demonstrate a strong research interest in digital ethics.
- Demonstrate interest in the governance, ethical, legal, and social implications of digital innovation.
- Have prior research experience relevant to the proposed project (with strong awareness of existing literature).
- Be able to balance the fellowship with existing academic, teaching, research, or institutional commitments.
Researchers from all disciplines are welcome to apply, including but not limited to communication, computer science, data science, information studies, law, management, philosophy, political science, public policy, sociology, and related fields.
Applications should include:
1. A short CV, maximum 2 pages. Please submit the CV as a PDF using the following format:
LastName-FirstName-ScholarApplicant.CV.pdf
2. A research proposal, maximum 2 pages. Please submit the proposal as a PDF using the following format:
LastName-FirstName-ScholarApplicant.Proposal.pdf
The research proposal should address the following questions:
- What is the specific research question addressed by the project?
- Why is this question important?
- What is the working hypothesis or expected contribution of the project?
- How do you plan to support, justify, or develop the argument?
- What objections, limitations, or criticisms might be raised, and how would you address them?
- What methodology will you use, if relevant?
- What is the proposed timeline for the semester? Please include a Gantt chart.
Please send your application to dec@yale.edu using the subject line: Early Career Research Scholar Applicant. Application deadline is on September 1, 11:59 PM EST. Contact Research Fellow Lead Claudio Novelli (claudio.novelli@yale.edu) with any questions.
Selected applicants will be contacted by November 2026 about next steps.