ICANN Fellowship Program

ICANN Fellow refers to an individual who is a member of the Internet community and recipient of a grant provided by the ICANN Fellowship Program.

The ICANN Fellowship Program provides financial grants to 25 eligible individuals to attend a given ICANN meeting as to actively contribute to ICANN processes and to become part of the future leaders of the Internet governing body. The grant covers the economy class airfare, hotel accomodation and a stipend needed to attend an ICANN conference.^[1] An effort is made to include more fellows from the region a given meeting is being held in.

There were a total of 116 applications received for ICANN 43, which is to be held in Costa Rica in March, 2012; 29 fellows from 24 different countries were accepted.^[2]

Background[edit | edit source]

Theresa Swinehart, ICANN Counsel for International Affairs, proposed the implementation of the ICANN Fellowship Program during the Special Meeting of the ICANN Board on April 25, 2007. Swinehart informed the Board that the fellowship program had been under development from the ICANN Operational Plan Project 4F for a significant period of time and it is ready to invite applications for participants in the next ICANN Meeting, which was to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ICANN Board unanimously approved the implementation of the ICANN Fellowship Program.^[3] The first ICANN Fellowship program was composed of thirty three fellows who were selected from 125 applications.^[4]

Mission[edit | edit source]

The ICANN Fellowship Programs aims to achieve the following objectives:^[5]

Strengthen the knowledge base of ICANN constituents by reaching out to less developed countries
Build the capacity of existing ICANN constituency groups
Increase the awareness of the ICANN Fellows about the latest issues affecting the Internet community worldwide
Encourage the ICANN Fellows to become more active in their respective countries to help in the development of the Internet for the future
Encourage the alumni of the Fellowship Program to serve as the new voice of experience in the future

Fellowships Committee[edit | edit source]

The Fellowships Committee (FC) is made up of responsible individuals who are qualified to receive the grant from the ICANN Fellowship program based on the criteria set by the ICANN Board. Its responsibilities include:^[6]

Selection of fellows from all the applicants based on the criteria set forth in the application and evaluation process
Provide information and feedback to the ICANN Board and Staff about the planning, implementation and evaluation of the fellowship program
Conduct outreach to support the program and to create a list of potential members of the selection committee in the future

Current FC members include:^[7]

Nashwa Abdel-Baki – Western Asia
Tatiana Chirev – Eastern Europe
Alejandro Pisanty – Latin America
Nii Quaynor - Africa
Hong Xue – Asia Pacific

Criteria[edit | edit source]

Individuals may be eligible to receive a grant from the ICANN Fellowship Program if the following criteria are met:^[8]

Applicant must be a citizen of a low, lower-middle of upper-middle income country based on World Bank Economic classification
Able to practice the knowledge and experiences gained from the fellowship program to become part of ICANN's future leadership
Displays contributions to the Internet community or interest in ICANN policy development, fellowship alumni network, stimulating local interest in ICANN and ICANN supporting organizations or advisory committee.