Mozilla Foundation Fellowship 2027 for Innovators Worldwide (Up to $125,000)

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Applications are open for Mozilla Foundation Fellowship 2027.The programme supports early-stage and ambitious technology projects, including initiatives focused on artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, emerging technologies and the future of the open web.

Mozilla Foundation will award 10 Fellowships for the 2027–2028 period. We are looking for extraordinary individuals working at the edges of human imagination, on technology that’s too early, too unexpected, or too ambitious for anyone else to fund. Our Fellows are builders first, of tools and of the fields around them. But they are also defiant about who technology should serve, and rigorous about making it a reality.

If that sounds like you, come build with us. Bring the wildest, most radical version of your idea: the one that questions who gets to decide and puts control back in the hands of the people who use it. Optimizing the status quo is somebody else’s job. Ours is to build the alternatives.

Mozilla Foundation Fellowship Focus Areas

Neurotech, biotech, and physical AI. Technology is moving off the screen and into our brains, bodies, and land, and we’re backing people who make sure the communities it touches get to own, shape, and govern it.
Hard infrastructure: compute, energy, quantum, and the extremes. The infrastructure that will define the next decade is being built in orbit, on the seabed, in data centers, and inside quantum machines, mostly behind closed doors, and we’re backing the people opening it up so communities get the data, the tools, and a vote.
Raising p(bloom). Instead of obsessing over the odds that AI goes wrong, we’re funding people who raise the odds it goes right, building AI that makes life better for far more people and breaking up the gatekeeping that hides behind the word “safety.”
Business models for a post-agentic web. The web’s old bargain of free information in exchange for our attention is collapsing under agents and paywalls, and we’re funding the people building the new deal, so creators, communities, and the open web still get paid.
Shared security and audit infrastructure for small organizations. We want to make security work like a public library rather than a pricey consultancy, giving small organizations affordable ways to test, audit, and trust the technology they depend on. Startups and emerging organizations shouldn’t have to break the bank to ensure their tools and products are safe.
Sovereign AI, public infrastructure, and maintenance. Communities shouldn’t have to rent their intelligence from a distant cloud, so we’re funding AI and infrastructure people can own, run, and keep running long after the company behind it is gone.
Creative Advocacy (one Fellow). One reserved Independent Fellowship spot will go to a culture jammer, prankster, or artist-provocateur who can turn a stunt into a movement and make people rethink who technology is built for.

Mozilla Foundation Fellowship Benefits

The funding package depends on the fellowship track.

Independent Fellows: Receive US$125,000 in total, comprising a US$100,000 stipend and a US$25,000 project budget.
Embedded Fellows: Receive US$100,000 in total, comprising a US$75,000 stipend and a US$25,000 project budget.
Mentorship and expert support: Fellows gain access to guidance and a network of people working across technology, research and civil society.
Project development: Funding supports the development of technical solutions, tools and other innovations.
Global network: Fellows join a community of more than 200 alumni working on technology and public-interest projects.

The stipend and project budget form part of the total funding package; the full amount is not an unrestricted cash grant.

Fellowship Tracks

The Fellowship has two tracks for builders at different stages of their careers. Both share the same commitment: developing Fellows into the kind of technology leaders a better technology future needs

Track I: Embedded Fellows
- These Fellows are working on projects in collaboration with and backed by a civil society organization. Your host provides mentorship and a community to work inside. In return, you gain the experience of turning technical skill into community impact, and your host gains the expertise to advance its mission.
- What Mozilla provides: $100,000 USD in total, as a $75,000 stipend and a $25,000 project budget.
Track II: Independent Fellows
- Independent Fellows pursue their most ambitious idea in one of the areas above. You’ll turn your vision into products, working systems, and other innovations that advance better technology futures, with the freedom to choose the approach: a platform that proves an alternative model works, or tools that let other technologists build better systems.
- What Mozilla provides: $125,000 USD in total, as a $100,000 stipend and a $25,000 project budget.

Eligibility Criteria

The fellowship is open to individual applicants worldwide who are developing ambitious, primarily technical projects aligned with Mozilla Foundation’s focus areas.

Mozilla is looking for applicants who can demonstrate:

A clear and original technology idea.
Evidence of their ability to build, test or advance a project.
A commitment to developing technology that serves people and communities.
The capacity to carry out a 12-month project.
A clear understanding of the problem their work seeks to address.

Applicants may be emerging innovators or established leaders ready to pursue significant work in their fields. The programme funds individuals rather than teams, and successful applicants must be able to receive funding from a US-based 501(c)(3) organisation.

How To Apply for Mozilla Foundation Fellowship

Applications are reviewed through a multi-stage process. The primary review occurs at the Letter of Intent stage, with only a small number of shortlisted applicants invited to submit a full application in early 2027.