2023 Funding Opportunities

PrivacyCo’s funding opportunities provide a platform for researchers and postgraduate students to conduct original research and promote digital rights globally.

PrivacyCo is committed to provide funding for original research that helps advance digital rights globally. We are particularly interested in funding research that uncovers hidden threats to our digital rights through technical research methods.

We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis, with candidates invited to apply for up to US$10,000 in funding. Approval will be dependent on the quality and originality of the proposed research coupled with its potential to shape and influence digital rights debates.

The final report will be made available on Top10VPN.com. To apply, please email samuel@privacy.co a one page concept note outlining your methodology, potential findings and funding requirements.

Below are our current areas of interest. If you have a proposal outside of the areas listed below, please contact Samuel with a brief description of the topic prior to submitting a concept note.

Authoritarian Internet Governance

We are currently accepting submissions from researchers, postgraduate students, and academics looking to conduct original technical research on authoritarian internet governance practices.

Successful candidates will use innovative investigative techniques and uncover original findings that help shed light on some of the most pressing threats currently facing the web.

Potential topics may include uncovering the censorship tools used by the likes of Russia, China or Iran, and the role of middlebox manufacturers, ISPs, and other tech companies in undermining free expression online.

Censorship Circumvention Techniques

We are always looking to support innovative research into popular censorship circumvention technologies, including VPN apps, mesh networks, and Tor. We’re particularly interested in revealing the hidden privacy and security risks of many of the most popular apps to help promote best practices among developers.

Internet Shutdowns

Network interference and internet shutdowns are increasingly used to stifle the free flow of information during politically sensitive moments around the world. They risk exacerbating unstable conditions, frequently obscure human rights abuses, and fuel violence during protests.

We welcome submissions from researchers that will investigate the technology responsible, analysis of internet measurement data, and quantitative work that uncovers their reach and impact. Research may utilize publicly available data, such as OONI, Cloudflare and Kentik, or develop unique ways of measuring censorship and network interference.

If you are a civil society organization working on technical research in the areas outlined above, please get in touch with us to discuss ways we might work together outside of these funding opportunities.

Please get in touch at samuel@privacy.co to explore ways Top10VPN could help your organization and to discuss the ways we could work together.

We are particularly interested in discussing collaborative data-led research projects and funding new tools designed to help protect and advance digital rights globally.

We invite candidates to submit a one page concept note containing a brief outline of the proposed research, methodology, and a short author biography.

After reviewing the concept note, the successful candidate(s) will then be invited to provide a full project outline, with details on the proposed duration of the research and proof of feasibility. Evidence of engaging with the ethical considerations of the research methodologies will also be required.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Once complete, the findings of the research will be published in full on PrivacyCo’s main website, Top10VPN.com.

For any queries, or to submit a concept note, email: samuel@privacy.co

PrivacyCo, the parent company of Top10VPN.com, has conducted research on a wide range of digital rights issues, from calculating the cost of internet shutdowns, to monitoring spikes in VPN demand around the world. These reports have subsequently been cited in leading global publications, including the New York Times, BBC, Financial Times, CNN, and WIRED.

Our funding opportunities will be overseen by Samuel Woodhams. His work has been cited by the United Nations, in testimonies to the US Senate and Congressional Commissions, as well as by academics at Yale, Harvard and the University of Oxford.