The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) just announced their Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship. The one year fellowship provides $50,000 or $100,000 grants to individuals who are leading the way as open source hardware expands into academia. The fellows will document their experience of making open source hardware in academia to create a library of resources for others to follow. The RFP is here, and the application form is here. It’s due April 7th. Currently we are seeking US-based institutions.
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Hi Alicia,
Is there any justification or reasoning behind the requirements to ring-fence the funding to the United States? This seems a very strange thing to do with charitable funding, and totally against the international ethos of the Open Hardware movement I know?
Julian
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On one hand, I am super excited and grateful for funding like this. On the other hand, I echo @julianstirling’s concern about the US-only nature of this support. At the very least, if you can share why there is this deeply unfortunate restriction, we can all learn together to make much-needed support for open source hardware more inclusive in the future!
Thanks for the question, we added it to our FAQ page.
After careful consideration, we limited the first round of the Trailblazers Fellowship program to US-based institutions.
This was not a decision we made lightly. OSHWA is an international organization for the international open source hardware community. Our goal is to be able to extend this program to members of our community around the world.
However, the Trailblazers Fellowship is also a new program for OSHWA that involves coordinating a number of people and institutions in ways that we have not done before. We hope that limiting the first round of the program to US-based institutions will make it easier for us to learn and be well positioned to expand the program in the future.
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Hi All
It would be great to see US-based GOSH Community members getting some of these Fellowship awards to work on open science hardware, and also learn from other fellows with different academic pursuits.
Applications are due tomorrow so don’t delay!
Jenny
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