Rethinking Fellowship Power Between South and North
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Like many of you, I’m fairly active on LinkedIn, which feels like both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it hasn’t (yet) turned into the slop of Facebook; a curse because I’m inundated with so many genuinely interesting opportunities, insights, and updates in the fast-evolving policy world of frontier tech.
Lately, I’ve noticed my global network posting exciting policy and research fellowship opportunities in areas like AI governance, ethics, and safety. These are often well-paid, well-designed and well-supported roles that give individuals the chance to influence and shape the future of AI policy and thinking.
But the vast majority of them are based in the Global North, run by North American or European think tanks, universities, or policy institutes.
That got me thinking: why are these opportunities so concentrated in the North? And what would it take to build a similarly vibrant ecosystem in the Global South, particularly in Southeast Asia, where I live?
To begin with, this overwhelming concentration of fellowships and research opportunities in the Global North is structural, certainly benefiting in part from imperial and superpower colonialism. Northern institutions have spent decades building a comprehensive ecosystem around knowledge production: one where research feeds directly into policy; where governments and philanthropies fund not only science, but the socio-economic inquiry around it; and where think tanks and universities offer paid fellowships that support independent, critical work.
This architecture sustains their leadership in AI ethics, governance, and safety. And this extends beyond just innovation, but onward through agenda-setting and influence.
I think this architecture can be adapted and reimagined in the Global South. Here in Southeast Asia, we have the talent and urgency to build a knowledge ecosystem that supports our thinkers, responds to our contexts, and informs our policy processes and decisions – all done here at home.
Of course, doing so will take sustained public investment, regional coordination, and especially a rethinking of what prestige and excellence look like. This last bit is particularly crucial.
In other words: you can be a successful and influential Southeast Asian policy leader without having to be based or attached to a Northern outfit.
What might this look like in practice?
First, governments and regional bodies must invest in independent research institutions (the ones that don’t just produce research to tout a particular government or private sector line), especially those focused on the social, political, and ethical dimensions of technology. We need fellowship programs and grantmaking infrastructures that empower a diverse bench of researchers to explore issues from our own perspectives. This includes long-term support for local think tanks, better integration between universities and policy institutions, and policy labs that turn research into action. Institutions like ASEAN could play a catalytic role in funding coordination, shared infrastructure, and visibility.
Second, we need to build our own culture of support around knowledge work. In the North, private philanthropy (generally from family foundations to corporate donors) has long subsidised academic and policy research. Here in the South, we need to develop new models: public-private funding coalitions, philanthropic mechanisms suited to our contexts (including cultural shifts among financial elites) and collective regional funds that can back South-led inquiry on our terms.
Third, we must rethink prestige. Instead of defaulting to Northern institutions for validation, we should define excellence through relevance: research that speaks to local languages, histories, political contexts, and lived experience. That means designing fellowships that elevate Southern perspectives, creating platforms to publish and amplify our work, and strengthening South–South networks that allow us to learn from one another; and the North from us, too.
Reimagining Our Knowledge Ecosystem
By supporting our own policy thinkers, shapers and influencers with real resources and long-term institutional commitment, we can prevent the brain drain. But as importantly, we also can generate knowledge that is original, grounded, and globally relevant.
This is how we begin to recalibrate the system. Its done neither by attaching ourselves to or replicating the North’s model wholesale, but by building a knowledge ecosystem that reflects our priorities, elevates our voices, and serves our communities.
That’s how we begin to build a durable, decolonised, and truly Southern-led future for AI and frontier technology.