About the Program

Each year, the RDVP hosts an elite group of seasoned professionals from around the world at Stanford. These Fellows work on interdisciplinary projects that utilize information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address real needs in underserved communities. RDVP Fellows bring a unique understanding of the realities of a particular emerging market or community to the Program. During their nine-months on campus, they collaborate with Stanford faculty and students, private sector firms, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to translate this market knowledge into culturally relevant and sustainable product and service concepts. The end goal of the RDVP is two-fold: accelerate community development and acquire valuable market knowledge.

Since its inception in 2001, Stanford has hosted 53 RDVP Fellows, who have worked on 49 projects in 15 countries. Approximately half of the RDVP projects were sustained after the Fellowship period and are being pilot tested and/or implemented in the field. At least 20% of the projects received significant funding. RDVP projects have been recognized internationally by entities such as the World Bank (Development Marketplace Awards), the Tech Museum (Technology Benefiting Humanity Award), governments (India’s Manthan Award for e-Learning), and Stanford University (Social e-Challenge Business Plan Competition for Social Entrepreneurship).

Projects have a practical emphasis: fellows produce proof-of-concepts by working closely with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Reuters Foundation’s AlertNet — an online community of 170 international disaster relief NGOs in 34 countries — and visiting the affected areas. The flexibility of the Program makes it possible for fellows to use their creativity in determining the nature of the project and its practical aims with guidance from the Program Director.

Fellows are affiliated to the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), an interdisciplinary research faculty at Stanford. They have full access to academic and other resources of a world leading technology university. The Digital Vision Program also holds regular seminars with world-class speakers from the technology, academic, and nonprofit sectors.

Each year, the Program accepts applications from technology visionaries around the world. The Program will sponsor up to 12 company-sponsored or independent fellows, and will pay for costs associated with each fellowship, including tuition fees, project equipment costs, and travel grants awarded to each fellow to make field trips to the developing world. In addition, Reuters Foundation will offer one fully-funded fellowship each year to a candidate from the developing world. This candidate will receive a stipend to cover living, housing and travel costs, in addition to the benefits listed above.

We encourage applications from visionary technologists, both from the Bay Area and around the world; and particularly those with family or close ties in areas of the developing world.