Frequently Asked Questions

(Real questions that real people have asked about applying for an Open Lab fellowship)

When will you announce the next call?

We expect to release our next call for fellows in mid to late March 2017. Subscribe to our newsletter if you don't want to miss the call.

Is it too late to apply?

It is. Sorry! In 2016 we released our call for fellows in early March and the application deadline for Fall 2016 Fellows was May 1, 2016. Subscribe to our newsletter if you don't want to miss our next call.

Could you clarify if the fellowship assumes full-time (40+ hours per week) participation in the lab, or if that is a more flexible program in which you would essentially be using the $100k salary to travel in and out of the area several times a month to be plugged in and actively engaged on a more ad hoc basis.

Our expectation is that you'll be "in residence" in the lab in San Francisco. We're looking for folks who want to be part of our Open Lab. So yes, we expect you to be based in our San Francisco office day to day.

How much context does my proposal need?

That is obviously super relative, but here are some tips: on our first pass, we really just want to get a sense of what you are proposing to do. Somewhere right at the top of your cover letter, tell us what you want to do. You can restate that, and expand on it, in your project proposal.

What are you looking for in the proposals?

We want to see that you can articulate what you plan to do, that you have a clear sense of what it will take to do it, and that you have the capacity to do it.

And then we're looking for projects that we think are interesting, or that we think will move the needle forward in the area you're working in.

My proposal isn't really about "journalism" ... should I still apply?

Take a look at the current projects -- especially Saito and Christine Sunu! We're interested in projects that change the way we think about gathering knowledge and telling stories. They don't have to be journalism driven.

I'm working on my BuzzFeed Open Lab fellowship proposal, but I'm slightly concerned that I am trying to smoosh together two different proposals. Which one is a better fit?

Last year at least two successful applications included two or three very different proposals. So feel free to spin out a couple of different possible projects that you'd be excited to work on. But not more than three. If you give us more than three our eyes are going to glaze over. And if you have exactly one thing you're excited to spend a year working on, don't feel like you have to bulk your proposal out with competing ideas. But if you are vacillating between two endeavors that you're really excited about working on and you can't quite decide which is the right fit feel free to describe both in your application.

I don't suppose you have any need of a cell biologist at the lab?

We don't have any cell biologists now, and the lab is definitely more "maker space" than "petri dishes," but I'm personally a huge fan of Critical Art Ensemble and their biotech work. There's some fantastic biology-driven work happening at Eyebeam right now, too. And HabitatMap in NYC is doing some really interesting work around water testing and pollution. Those are just things I'm excited about, and none of them are really cell biology, but I'd love to hear what you're thinking.

The catch -- and this is true for a few other questions I've gotten lately -- is that we don't have any senior biologists on site. We're good about finding the advisors you need if they aren't already on our advisory group, but that is really not the same as being in a lab or an academic environment.

The other catch is that you need to spell out for us what all you'd need to complete your project. We have 3d printers and some power tools for building and refining prototypes, but we have 0 microscopes, 0 petridishes. We have no way to sterilize things and we don't have a fridge right now. So if your project requires a complete micro-biology lab, we might have a hard time making it work.

I am wondering if folks with no hardware or software initiative could still apply with a project centered around user research themes?

We're definitely looking for proposals for things that you're going to make so there should be some kind of hardware or software component that you will be building out. Which is to say ... no. Sorry.

In the job description I see that you would like to see projects that relate to augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning or artificial intelligence. My project would only lightly incorporate machine learning. Should I still apply?

Yes! Those are just ideas to prime the pump. I'm 100% sure that there are great projects our there that don't incorporate any of those tools. That is definitely not the whole, complete list of tools and projects we're interested in.

Can I just email you my proposal?

No. We actually need you to submit an application. If you really can't do that, let me know what is going on and I'll try to help.

Do you have any advice about what makes a strong proposal?

First of all, your application should indicate that you've read all of this. Second, cut to the chase! The strongest proposals always say, somewhere right in the cover letter, what you want to do in your fellowship year.

It's okay to repeat yourself. If your cover letter and your project proposal both contain the same clear one to two sentence snapshot of what you're proposing to do, that's fine. Definitely expand on why you think this is important and demonstrate that you have a clear sense of what it will take to build whatever you are proposing to build, but start with a clear statement about what your project is going to be.

How do I ask a question?

You can email openlab@buzzfeed.com or poke us on Twitter @openlab or leave a comment here. Open to any new and different ways you'd like to ask questions. You can always reach out to Amanda directly too.