AI for SDG Acceleration Fellowship

What is the Fellowship?

The AI for SDGs Fellowship is a 6–12 month program that brings together university faculty, students, and city hall staff to co-create AI-powered solutions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the barangay and city level.

Offered by the City Futures Lab and MPAplus+ programs of the Asian School of Governance (ASG), the Fellowship empowers the next generation of civic innovators to work directly with local governments, using Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), Adaptive Leadership, and Bridging Leadership methodologies to tackle urgent community challenges.

Why Join?

The future of cities depends on how well they innovate today. This Fellowship equips you to:

• Empower Local Problem-Solving: Apply AI tools and systems thinking to real barangay and city issues.

• Build Adaptive Leadership Capacity: Learn to frame complex problems, mobilize stakeholders, and lead change.

• Generate Scalable Innovations: Design, test, and showcase AI-enabled pilots that can be replicated across multiple localities.

Who Can Apply?

Student Fellows

• Upper-year undergraduates and graduate students from any discipline (technology, policy, social sciences, health, environment, etc.).

• Passionate about civic innovation, AI, and the SDGs.

Faculty Research/Teaching Fellows

• Researchers or faculty from any discipline (technology, policy, social sciences, health, environment, etc.).

• Passionate about civic innovation, AI, and the SDGs.

City Fellows

• Each partner city mobilizes at least 17 fellows from among their city hall staff.

• City fellows act as members and/or advisers of the co-creation teams, ensuring solutions are practical, relevant, and aligned with official priorities.

Together, student fellows and city fellows form co-creation teams that bridge innovation, governance, and community voice.

Fellowship Tracks

Fellows may specialize in one of four tracks:

• Data & AI Innovation – Build AI applications, dashboards, and predictive models for local decision-making.

• Civic Engagement & Participatory Governance – Design AI-enabled platforms for citizen feedback, transparency, and collaborative policymaking.

• Climate Action & Resilience – Apply AI to strengthen disaster preparedness, resilience planning, and low-carbon transitions.

• Policy & Governance – Focus on SDG localization, adaptive regulation, and municipal innovation policies.

Program Journey

1. Onboarding Bootcamp (2 weeks)

• Foundations in AI for SDGs

• Training in PDIA, Adaptive Leadership, Bridging Leadership

• Systems thinking, ethics, and equity lenses
  
  

2. Immersion (Months 1–2)

• Fellows embedded in barangay or city offices

• Diagnose SDG challenges using PDIA framing
  
  

3. AI-SDG Action Labs (Months 1–8)

• Co-creation teams test and refine AI pilots in short PDIA cycles

• Stakeholders convened through bridging leadership methods

• Sample projects: AI chatbots for maternal health, flood risk mapping, food distribution optimization, citizen reporting platforms
  
  

4. Scaling & Showcase (Months 9–12)

• Demo Day with city leaders, universities, and partners

• Fellows present prototypes, case studies, and public narratives
  
  

What You Gain

For Fellows

• Practical AI and civic innovation skills

• Leadership toolkit (PDIA, Adaptive, and Bridging Leadership)

• Micro-credentials and a Certificate in AI for SDGs Innovation

• A portfolio of real-world projects tied to the SDGs
  
  

For Cities

• AI-enhanced pilots addressing urgent governance, climate, and social challenges

• A trained network of student and city staff fellows

• Strengthened municipal innovation pipelines
  
  

For Universities

• A replicable fellowship model that integrates civic engagement, AI literacy, and SDG practice
  
  

Join the Movement

Be part of the first generation of AI for SDGs Fellows shaping the future of cities.

• Students: Apply now to join a co-creation team in your city.

• Cities: Partner with us and mobilize your 17 city fellows.

• Universities & Partners: Collaborate with ASG to scale the Fellowship across more cities.