We run a Visitor Programme for academics and practitioners wanting to spend an extended period of time at the Oxford Internet Institute to engage in collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral exploration of the Internet’s most important issues. The overall aims of the Visitor Programme are:
We accept applications for two programme streams: (1) Visiting Research Fellows, and (2) Visiting Policy Fellows.
The Visiting Research Fellowship programme aims at attracting top quality academics and researchers across the world to visit the OII for up to one year. Applications are welcomed from researchers at any level of experience and seniority.
Please note: We do not accept applications from Doctoral students under this program. They should instead apply through the Recognised Students Programme.
Visiting Research Fellows come to the department with a personal research agenda, a set of ambitions, and a clear sense of the public scholarship and community interactions they wish to foster while at the OII. To support these aims Visiting Research Fellows will be expected to contribute to one or more of the following activities, in proportion to their length of stay:
We expect that any research undertaken during the visit will be undertaken in the public interest, and that any reports or publications arising from it will be freely available to scholars and other interested parties. Visitors must acknowledge the OII in research or other publications deriving from the visit, and must abide by University and OII policies, as per the University’s Academic Visitor declaration.
The Visiting Research Fellows scheme is open for visits of a minimum of three months and maximum of twelve months. Applicants are encouraged to align their visits with the Oxford term calendar to ensure full immersion in all that Oxford has to offer. Likewise, Fellows are encouraged to spend as much time as possible in Oxford, but are not required to be physically present for the full duration of their visit.
Visiting Research Fellows will be provided with a university card (for access to university premises and the libraries), a hot desk in the department, IT facilities and support, and general assistance with meeting the department’s expectations.
Before arriving in the department, visitors will be asked to provide a short biography and a statement of what they intend to do during their visit, for the Department’s website. At the end of their stay, visitors will be asked to provide a short activity report on their time in the Department, which will be added to their web profile.
The Department does not provide a salary or other financial payments to Visiting Research Fellows. Visitors are charged a monthly bench fee of £500 to cover administrative overheads. This fee may be waived on an individual basis according to hardship considerations detailed on the application form. Our aim is to support applications from individuals for whom a visit may otherwise not be possible due to a lack of funding, and in particular from early career researchers and academics from the Global South.
Prospective visitors may wish to explore external funding to support a stay in Oxford, as living costs in Oxford, especially for short visits, can be relatively high. Sponsors offering this sort of funding include the British Academy Visiting Fellowships, Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorships, and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellowships. A number of Oxford Colleges also run Visiting Fellowship schemes, details of which will be available on their respective websites. Applications for external funding should normally be made through the visitor’s home institution.
For further information, contact researchfac@oii.ox.ac.uk.
The Visiting Policy Fellowship programme aims at attracting top quality practitioners from government and civil society, industry, and other policy relevant institutions across the world to visit the OII for a period of two years.
Visiting Policy Fellows come to the department with a personal agenda for policy, industrial, or civil society work, a set of ambitions, and a clear sense of the public scholarship and community interactions they wish to foster while at the OII. Visiting Policy Fellows will be expected to contribute to one or more of the following activities, in proportion to their length of stay:
We expect that any work undertaken during the visit will be undertaken in the public interest, and that any reports or publications arising from it will be freely available to interested parties.
Visitors must acknowledge the OII in research or other publications deriving from the visit, and must abide by University and OII policies, as per the University’s Academic Visitor declaration.
Visiting Policy Fellows are appointed for a period of two years. Fellows are encouraged to engage in both remote and in-person collaboration, and to visit Oxford multiple times across their fellowship.
All Fellows are provided with a university card (for access to university premises and the libraries), IT facilities and support, and general assistance with meeting the department’s expectations. Visiting Policy Fellows are not expected to be physically present in Oxford throughout their fellowship; rather, a hot desk in the department can be allocated on an ad hoc, per visit basis. Two nights in college (or alternative accommodation) per term is provided, covered by the fees, depending on availability and requiring advanced booking.
Before arriving in the department, visitors will be asked to provide a short biography and a statement of what they intend to do during their visit, for the Department’s website. At the end of their stay, visitors will be asked to provide a short activity report on their time in the Department, which will be added to their web profile.
The fee for the Visiting Policy Fellows programme is:
The Department does not provide a salary or other financial payments to Visiting Policy Fellows. There may be opportunities for Visiting Policy Fellows to support executive education programmes and teaching.
For further information, contact mark.malbas@oii.ox.ac.uk.
Before completing the Visitor Application form, prospective visitors must have identified and corresponded with a faculty member who is willing to act as their host. Prospective visitors should discuss with their sponsor the opportunities for contributing to the department in their area of research or work, and include this information in their application form. The departmental host will be available at the beginning of the stay to meet the visitor and facilitate their introduction to the department so that they get the most out of their time here.
Please do not submit an application without having first discussed it and secured support from a faculty host. Your host will be required to provide a letter of support as part of the application process.
The application form will ask for:
Applications are particularly welcome from women, black and minority ethnic people, and individuals from the Global South, each of whom are under-represented in posts at Oxford University.
Receipt of your application will be acknowledged, and the outcome communicated as soon as possible, typically within ten weeks except during the Summer/Winter vacation period.
Click on the buttons to apply.
Please note that since Brexit, all visitors, apart from British and Irish nationals, need a visa to carry out any activities in the UK. Some have to apply for and obtain a visa before travelling to the UK, others simply enter under the relevant visitor visa route, but advice will always be required in advance of any visit on the appropriate visa route based on the specifics of the visit. Some may also require ATAS clearance before coming to the UK, which can take some time to obtain. When a visitor arrives, the department must check they have obtained the correct visa or entered under the correct visa route and obtained an ATAS certificate, if necessary, before any activities can commence.
Contact should be made with the department at least three months before any proposed visit to allow sufficient time for the appropriate visa route to be determined, and advice and assistance provided with visa and ATAS application processes, if applicable.
Those who obtain or enter under an Academic Visitor visa may visit the department but may undertake private research only and may not contribute to University projects or activities or participate in collaborative work with University employees. Please note the department cannot act as a sponsor for Tier 5 visa applications for Visitors.
A tourist visa is not acceptable proof of the right to be in a UK workplace under current Home Office legislation, so it is not possible to come to the University without making contact to discuss and arrange the details of your visit before travelling to the UK.
The department will provide advice and assistance on these issues in each case, with help from the University’s Staff Immigration Team, but some information on visa status, visiting the UK and what the university expects from its visitors can be found on the University website
Accommodation is always at a premium in Oxford. Unfortunately, the Department cannot assist in searching for accommodation (except in the case of Visiting Policy Fellows) but the University Accommodation Office may be able to help. See also the Daily Info for listings of accommodation to let.
