Mozilla Foundation Fellows Program: Funding and Eligibility (Historical Reference)

The Mozilla Foundation’s 2026 Fellows nomination round is closed. Its official request page gives the nomination period as November 9, 2025 through January 30, 2026, and states that 2026 appointments would be announced in June. Mozilla has since published its 2026–2027 cohort on the live Fellows page. That page invites people to sign up to hear when applications open for the next cycle, but it does not announce a next nomination window or deadline. This page is a historical reference to the closed 2026 call, not an open application notice. The date in the metadata is the real closing date for that past round; it is retained so the archive is clearly identified as closed.

The 2026 request page remains useful because it records the terms of the call that produced Mozilla’s published 2026–2027 cohort. It describes two tracks, a nomination-first process, geographic rules for Embedded Fellows, and projects expected to be executable in twelve months. The request set January 30, 2026 as the nomination close and said appointments would be announced in June; Mozilla’s current cohort page now lists the Fellows. These records confirm the past round’s outcome, but do not establish that another round is accepting nominations. For news about a future call, use Mozilla’s live fellowship page and its notification signup rather than an old nomination form or third-party listing.

The details below document what Mozilla asked for in the closed 2026 round. They can help a prospective Fellow assess fit and prepare questions, but none of the amounts, hosts, locations, or materials should be assumed to carry over to a future call. Mozilla’s currently published 2026–2027 cohort is an announcement of selected Fellows, not a new invitation to apply. Until Mozilla publishes another request, there is no open application step to take; the practical next step is to monitor the official page for a new call.

At a Glance

What the 2026 Cycle Actually Offered

Mozilla ran two tracks, and the difference was structural rather than a matter of prestige.

Track I — Embedded Fellows offered a $100,000 total investment: a $75,000 stipend plus a $25,000 project budget. Embedded Fellows work with a civil society host organization and take on a specific challenge that the host has already identified as a priority. The host supplies context, relationships, and a real problem; the Fellow supplies technical depth. Because the host relationship is central, Track I required Fellows to be located in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, the MENA region, Mexico, the UK, the US, or the EU. The host descriptions added narrower preferences. For example, Mozilla described work with Arab Reform Initiative on surveillance infrastructure in the MENA region, Baraza Media Lab on AI and African storytelling in Kenya, Instituto Fogo Cruzado on tracking police violence in Brazil, and other projects with Bellingcat, Open Supply Hub, SMEX, and Unitary Foundation.

Track II — Independent Fellows offered a $125,000 total investment: a $100,000 stipend plus the same $25,000 project budget. Mozilla described this track for recognized innovators with a proven record of independent leadership who were ready to pursue ambitious, field-defining work. There was no host organization supplying the project challenge. That gave the Fellow more autonomy, while placing more responsibility on the candidate to define a strong question, a credible work plan, and an outcome that could be completed in twelve months.

The $25,000 project budget was the same in both tracks. Mozilla’s page described the overall package as financial backing, a global network, professional development, and platforms that can amplify a Fellow’s work. The project budget could support the practical work behind a public-interest technology project, while the stipend made it possible to dedicate time to that work. The award was not described as a prize for an already finished idea; it was support for a Fellow to lead a concrete project and share what they learned with the wider community.

The non-cash parts mattered to the application as well. Fellows were expected to join a global cohort, take part in fellowship activities, share expertise through speaking, writing, or collaboration, and develop resources through Mozilla’s channels. A strong project therefore needed a public-facing use case, not just a private research question. A toolkit, dataset with a governance model, audit method, educational resource, or working system had a clearer fit when the candidate could explain who would use it and how the work would remain available beyond the fellowship.

The Six Focus Areas

Mozilla named six domains for the 2026 cycle: protecting user privacy, auditing AI systems, advancing climate justice, protecting creators, democratizing data, and building open infrastructure. The descriptions were broad enough for technologists, researchers, creators, advocates, and organizers. They were still useful boundaries. Privacy work could include encryption, education, policy, or community organizing. AI auditing could mean tools, benchmarks, policy frameworks, advocacy, or education. Climate justice could involve research, digital tools, campaigns, or work that guides institutions. Creator protection could address consent, attribution, compensation, art, or organizing. Democratizing data could include community-owned datasets, personal AI systems, smaller language models, or organizing frameworks. Open infrastructure could involve protocols, standards, decentralized systems, education, or advocacy.

Mozilla also said that work did not have to fit neatly into one category if it embodied the Foundation’s vision of technology built with care, powered by people, and fueled by imagination. That flexibility did not remove the need for a defined project. The best fit was still a clear public-interest problem, an identifiable community, and a credible result that others could use or build upon.

How the Process Actually Works

The 2026 fellowship did not start with a conventional open application. It started with a nomination.

The closed 2026 sequence was described as follows; these are completed steps, not instructions for a currently open application:

1. Nomination. Mozilla invited nominations from its global community and explicitly welcomed self-nominations. Candidates entered through the nomination stage, not a continuously open general application portal. That window closed on January 30, 2026.
2. Eligibility screen and invitation. The request said eligible nominated individuals would be contacted by email with more information about the later stages.
3. Letter of Intent. The Letter of Intent was a later, invited stage. Mozilla did not publish a separate public deadline for it on the request page.
4. Full Application. The full application was also for invited candidates. Mozilla said subsequent deadlines would be communicated to applicants by email. The public call does not provide a basis for submitting a late nomination now, and the official pages do not publish dates for another round.

The practical consequence was that there was no way to jump straight to a full proposal. The public timetable contained only the nomination dates; the later deadlines were for invited candidates. A future call may use a different sequence, so do not treat the 2026 workflow as a promise about the next round. If Mozilla announces another fellowship, read that year’s request page carefully for the entry point, required fields, and communications schedule.

Review Criteria

Mozilla published five review criteria for 2026. They are useful preparation because they show what the organization considered important in a strong candidate:

• Fit — Does your experience match the track you are choosing? Are you ready for this opportunity?
• Project — Do you outline a compelling project that advances a better tech future and that you can realistically execute in 12 months? For Embedded Fellows, does the project address the host organization’s identified issue?
• Values — Does your approach embody technology “built with care, powered by people, and fueled by imagination”?
• Impact — Will your work serve communities and help others build better technology futures?
• Leadership — Are you someone who will influence the field and can inspire the next generation of technology leaders?

The twelve-month constraint made scope important. A proposal that needed several years before producing a useful result would have been difficult to defend under the Project criterion. A stronger plan would name a finishable artifact, such as a working audit script with documented case studies, a dataset with an explicit governance model, a curriculum that partner organizations had agreed to teach, or a public tool with a defined group of users. It should also say what the work will not solve. Clear limits help reviewers distinguish a credible fellowship project from a broad statement of concern.

Eligibility and the Money Logistics

Mozilla welcomed nominations from all countries where it can legally make grants, with a particular focus on recruiting Fellows from the Global Majority. Two administrative requirements applied to every fellow regardless of track:

• You must be able to receive stipend disbursements as ACH or wire transfer payments originating from the United States.
• You must be legally able to enter into a grant agreement with Mozilla Foundation, a US-based 501c3 organization.

These are administrative requirements, but they can determine whether a candidate is eligible. If a bank cannot accept USD wires or ACH payments from a US nonprofit, that needs to be resolved before a future nomination window. The same applies if an employment contract, visa status, or institutional policy prevents a person from signing a grant agreement with a foreign entity. A host organization or fiscal sponsor may help in some situations, but that arrangement requires advance discussion and should never be assumed to satisfy Mozilla’s rules.

Intellectual Property and Working in the Open

Mozilla’s 2026 terms stated that copyright, patent, and other proprietary interests in materials produced by selected Fellows during the fellowship would be owned by the Fellow. That ownership provision was paired with an openness requirement.

Selected Fellows agreed to release code and non-confidential content created during the fellowship under open licenses determined in consultation with Mozilla. They were also expected to work in the open, regularly sharing and documenting their progress. Anyone preparing for a future call should review employer, university, client, and collaborator agreements before proposing a project. Ownership, confidentiality, data protection, and publication permissions can conflict with an open fellowship deliverable, and those conflicts are easier to resolve before nomination than after selection.

If you are employed by a university, a company, or a government body, this is the clause to check before anything else. Many institutional IP policies vest ownership of employee output in the institution, which directly contradicts the first sentence above. Resolving that conflict means a written carve-out, a leave arrangement, or a host organization willing to sign terms your employer will accept. None of it happens quickly.

How to Be Ready If a Future Call Opens

Mozilla has published the 2026–2027 Fellows cohort, but its current English fellowship pages do not publish a new nomination window. Nothing here predicts when or whether another call will open. The following preparation ideas are drawn from the 2026 terms and are not current eligibility or application instructions:

• Register for notifications. The live fellowship page includes a “Be notified about future opportunities” link. Use Mozilla’s own page for updates instead of assuming that an old form or listing site represents an open round.
• Settle the banking question. Confirm in writing with your bank that it can receive USD wires or ACH payments from a US nonprofit, and find out what documentation they will demand.
• Settle the IP question. If you are institutionally employed, get an answer on whether you can own and openly license work produced under an external fellowship.
• Line up a host, if Track I is your route. Embedded Fellowships depend on a civil society organization with an identified problem and a genuine appetite for a technical collaborator. In 2026, Mozilla named host organizations and location requirements in the request page. A future host list may be different, so confirm it in the new announcement.
• Write the twelve-month project down. One page: the specific harm or gap, the concrete artifacts you will produce, who has already agreed to use them, and what happens to the work after the year ends.
• Keep evidence of finished work. Links to shipped code, published reports, documented pilots, community partnerships, or public teaching materials show what you can complete and how people use it. Evidence is more useful than a long list of intentions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I apply right now? A: No. The 2026 nomination process closed on January 30, 2026. Mozilla’s live program page does not publish a new nomination window. Check that page for future announcements.

Q: Do I need someone else to nominate me? A: No. Self-nominations were explicitly welcome in the 2026 cycle. The process still began with the nomination stage rather than a general application form.

Q: Were the 2026 Fellows selected? A: Yes. The request said appointments would be announced in June 2026, and Mozilla now publishes its 2026–2027 cohort on the official Fellows page. This is the result of the closed 2026 call, not a new application window.

Q: Is another application round confirmed? A: The official pages reviewed do not announce a new nomination window or deadline. Mozilla’s live page describes the published 2026–2027 cohort and offers a signup to hear when applications open for the next cycle. Use that signup and wait for an official request before treating any date or requirement as current.

Q: Which track pays more? A: Track II (Independent Fellows) — $125,000 total against Track I’s $100,000. The project budget is $25,000 in both; the difference is entirely in the stipend, reflecting that Independent Fellows have no host organization behind them.

Q: Can an organization be the fellow? A: No. The fellowship funds individuals. Track I fellows are placed with host organizations, but the grant agreement and the stipend attach to the person.

Q: Does the old foundation.mozilla.org link still work? A: Use the current mozillafoundation.org URL in this page’s metadata. Mozilla’s live fellowship page is the appropriate place to check whether a future round has opened.

Where to Watch

The live Fellows page — with the 2026–2027 cohort and the signup for notice of a future cycle — is here:

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/what-we-do/grantmaking/fellowship/

Mozilla’s 2026 request for nominations, left online for information only, documents the tracks, amounts, eligibility rules, review criteria, and closed timetable described above:

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/what-we-do/grantmaking/fellowship/2026-nominations-request/

General questions about the fellowship program go to the contact address listed on Mozilla’s request page. Do not treat an old nomination form as evidence that a cycle is open; use Mozilla’s live program page for the next official announcement.