Host organizations

Aspen Digital empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world. The Aspen Institute shines a light on urgent global issues across cybersecurity, the information ecosystem, emerging technology, the industry talent pipeline, tech and communications policy, and innovation. The team then turns ideas to action and develops human solutions to digital challenges.

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that actively fosters bipartisanship by combining the best ideas from both parties to promote health, security, and opportunity for all Americans. BPC prioritizes one thing above all else: getting things done.

Our technology project is one of the foremost thought-leaders in D.C. tech circles, conducting in-depth analyses and providing educational resources in AI, AR/VR, antitrust, cybersecurity, and privacy. A Google Fellow at BPC will help us answer key questions, including:

• What should be done to ensure technology promotes fairness and inclusion?
• How can the regulatory system evolve while not stifling innovation?
• What can be done to protect privacy and security?
• How can technology investments accelerate innovation and growth?

The future will be shaped by the decisions made today. The BPC Technology project, with the help of the Google Fellow, will help inform these decisions in a thoughtful, bipartisan, and timely manner.

The Cato Institute is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a Google Policy Fellow for the fall of 2022. The Google Policy Fellow will work closely with Cato scholars in one or more of the following broad issue areas based on the candidate’s background, interests, and skill set: government surveillance, privacy, free speech, antitrust policy, and civil liberties. The Google Policy Fellow will also have the option to participate in Cato internship seminars, which focus on delivering a rich education in contemporary policy issues—and the philosophical, historic, and economic underpinnings of those issues. The seminar series features Cato scholars, guest speakers, staff, networking, and professional development opportunities.

The Cato Institute is a nonprofit public policy research organization—a think tank—dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues. Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th-century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution—individual liberty, limited government, and free markets—turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a 27-year old nonprofit, nonpartisan international organization that advocates to protect users’ civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age. CDT fights for policies and practices that protect users’ interests — in areas ranging from data privacy and AI, to government surveillance, to online content moderation, to democracy and elections, to the use of technology in education and government services.

CDT advocates to policymakers in the U.S. and Europe; engages with companies to improve their policies and product designs; shapes public opinion on major tech policy issues; and advocates in the courts. In addition to our advocacy work, CDT’s research team produces deep-dive original research to explore novel solutions to pressing issues in technology policy.

National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) is a nonpartisan research and educational organization that shows Americans how taxes, government spending, and regulations affect them. Along with our affiliate, National Taxpayers Union, we are the leading organization working to protect taxpayers in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals across the country.

The Google Public Policy Fellow will play a key role in monitoring and writing about tech policy proposals that affect taxpayers and the broader economy. This will include individual research and writing projects, such as op-eds, short policy papers, blog posts, and analyses of legislative and executive branch proposals. The Fellow will also work closely with and provide research support to other NTU Foundation staff and help shape the organization’s approach to tech policy.

The Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America works at the intersection of technology and policy to ensure that every community has equitable access to digital technology and its benefits. We promote universal access to communications technologies that are both open and secure, using a multidisciplinary approach that brings together advocates, researchers, organizers, and innovators. OTI’s work covers a range of Internet policy issues, including but not limited to:

• Net neutrality, broadband access and adoption
• Cybersecurity and encryption,
• Government surveillance and police technologies,
• Internet governance, platform accountability, and artificial intelligence,
• Privacy, free expression, and civil liberties.

As an OTI Google Public Policy Fellow, you will have the opportunity to work at the forefront of debates surrounding these issue areas. You will have the chance to make substantive contributions to OTI’s work by conducting policy research and analysis, authoring reports, attending government and public interest meetings, writing for our syndication partners, and more. Fellows may be involved in more than one focus area over the course of the summer, but please let us know if you have a specific interest or related background.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit. center left think tank and a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C., with an office in Brussels. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Founded in 1989, PPI started as the intellectual home of the New Democrats and earned a reputation as President Bill Clinton’s “idea mill.” Many of its mold-breaking ideas have been translated into public policy and law and have influenced international efforts to modernize progressive politics. Today, PPI is developing fresh proposals for stimulating U.S. economic innovation and growth; equipping all Americans with the skills and assets that social mobility in the knowledge economy requires; modernizing an overly bureaucratic and centralized public sector; and, defending liberal democracy in a dangerous world. A Google Fellow at PPI can expect to contribute to research into the contributions of digital innovation to domestic and international markets, as well as assist with in-depth analysis of the regulatory effects on innovation. In addition to research, fellows can expect to gain an understanding of how academics shape public policy and the dialogue around it. Fellows should be equally interested in technology, its economic impacts, and the effects public policy has on its development.

Access to an open Internet is critical to participation in a democratic society. But today, the public faces increasing challenges to fair and open access to the internet — from corporate consolidation and control of internet access, to overbroad application of copyright law, and many other threats. The public needs to be represented in Washington, to push better policies in everyone’s interest. That is why Public Knowledge advocates for these issues and puts an emphasis on training public interest advocates for the future.

Public Knowledge interns and fellows are immersed in internet, communications, and intellectual property policymaking. They play a significant role on the issues, participating in meetings on Capitol Hill, agencies, and with other public interest groups and allies, engaging with the public through press and social media, and performing related legal work, culminating in an understanding and facility to advocate for the public interest that will help position them to be leaders in the public interest community in their careers. Interns and fellows are part of Public Knowledge’s PKTrains program that is supported through mentoring and development by PK staff at all levels. More information about advocacy training at PK is located at publicknowledge.org/PKTrains.

R Street Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government.

We are a strong advocate for permissionless innovation, allowing innovators and entrepreneurs the freedom to bring products to market for the benefit of consumers. While government intervention with new technologies may sometimes be warranted, it ought not be a default remedy for fear, often hypothetical, of the unknown. R Street’s Technology & Innovation team focuses on two key aspects of technology: Our aim is to provide an understanding of how digital markets and platforms operate from an economic perspective, as well as evaluating the non-economic rules and norms required for internet governance.

Our Google Public Policy Fellow will work with us as we create a broad, cohesive and flexible strategy that allows us to nimbly and rapidly respond to the realities of the policy environment surrounding questions of competition and internet governance. The fellow will assist with original policy papers, blog posts, op-eds, and “one-pager” backgrounds and other educational resources designed more specifically to educate Hill staff. Additionally the fellow will assist with outreach to Hill staff and policymakers on relevant issues and events.

TechFreedom is a nonpartisan tech policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. As dynamists, we embrace a world of continuous invention, discovery, and entrepreneurship. We study the ongoing Digital Revolution and its transformation of communications technologies. Our scholarship focuses on six issue areas:

• Free speech
• Platform regulation and intermediary responsibility
• Antitrust and consumer protection law
• Privacy, artificial intelligence, child protection, and data security
• Telecommunications law
• Administrative law and related constitutional issues

We provide in-depth legal analysis to policymakers, courts, the media, and others in civil society trying to understand these and other issues. We’re looking for law students and economics and computer science PhD students who can support and enrich our work.

The Technology Policy Institute is a think tank that focuses on the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation. Our mission is to advance knowledge and inform policymakers by producing independent, rigorous research and by sponsoring educational programs and conferences on major issues affecting information technology and communications policy.

​​UnidosUS—formerly known as NCLR—is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. For more than five decades UnidosUS has committed to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

UnidosUS simultaneously challenges the social, economic, and political barriers that affect Latinos at the national and local levels by leveraging leadership in policy and advocacy and innovative programming in the areas of civic engagement, education, health, housing, workforce and the economy, civil rights, criminal justice, and immigration. UnidosUS aligns these efforts with its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations across the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Google Public Policy Fellow will work under the guidance of our Civil Rights and Affiliate Partnerships teams and contribute in meaningful ways toward development of a digital/technology strategy and approach. Activities will include research and analysis of technology policy, assessment and prioritization of technical assistance and capacity building for our nonprofit Affiliate members, coordination and outreach to community partners and coalition members, and communications via writing and presentations.