With historic levels of federal funds flowing into states to build broadband infrastructure and implement digital equity plans, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is looking to cultivate a new generation of broadband scholars, practitioners, and advocates working on broadband access, adoption, and equity issues.

To that end, Benton is putting out a call for prospective fellows through its Opportunity Fund Fellowship program, seeking resumes and project proposals focused on identifying obstacles to broadband access.

The deadline to submit proposals is August 31.

According to Benton Institute's Vice President of Programs Revati Prasad, the questions the program is most interested in exploring are:

“What obstacles prevent people from subscribing to broadband? How does the cost of broadband service impact adoption? Does a concern for privacy and safety dissuade people from using the Internet? How might climate change adversely impact building broadband infrastructure? What national or state policies could delay or disrupt broadband deployment and/or digital equity efforts?”

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However, Prasad was quick to add, prospective fellows shouldn’t consider those questions to be exhaustive and is encouraging interested applicants to “propose other approaches and questions to the overarching theme of barriers to building and using broadband networks,” adding that the program will “especially welcome applications that focus on historically marginalized communities.”