2025 Fellowship
The Fellows
Sviatoslav Hnizdovsky
OpenMinds is a platform that helps safeguard elections by merging artificial and human intelligence to detect and counter disinformation targeting integrity. OpenMinds was established in 2022 to combat the impact of propaganda, with a particular focus on the Russo-Ukrainian war. Since then, OpenMinds has been empowering governments and research institutions worldwide with full-cycle information threat intelligence and response capabilities. Focusing on conflict zones and hard-to-reach regions, they build methods and technologies to study the impact of disinformation, establish communication channels to deliver effective countermeasures, and develop the AI-powered platform Pythia, enhanced by investigative journalists, behavioral scientists, and communications strategists. Over the last year alone, they applied their research insights in more than 350 communication campaigns, each reaching 200,000+ people.
OPENMINDS - UKRAINE
Mariam Kaulashvili-Southwell
Mariam Kaulashvili is a freelance digital marketing executive where she helps companies make the most of their digital marketing by taking some of the technological tasks off their hands while ensuring to leave enough time for companies to create valuable content. Mariam's project, Diatove, started as a Facebook group in April, coordinating protests against the foreign agent law and has since grown to over 200,000 members. In anticipation of the election, Mariam and her team launched the Observers Academy, a digital platform mobilizing thousands of election observers through online training sessions. The academy, officially launched on October 12, offered courses to Georgians interested in monitoring the election.
DIATOVE - GEORGIA
LexChain
LexChain aims to secure the rapidly digitizing information landscape in the Republic of Moldova by creating its own blockchain. This will ensure that government data is secure and cannot be attacked externally. The project focuses on promoting democracy by providing a secure informational space for the country's citizens. Team Members: • Adrian Manole, CEO: A 20-year-old passionate about creating impactful projects with experience in IT and business development. • Ștefan Bîstrițchi, COO: A cybersecurity student with hands-on experience in Python, AI, and blockchain, and a passion for innovation. • Liviu Mereacre, CTO: A second-year information security student with expertise as a cybersecurity analyst and strong hackathon performance. • Călin Brînzilă, CISO: A cybersecurity student specializing in network security and threat intelligence, with practical experience in local hackathons.
MOLDOVA
Anna Khachatryan
Anna is a software product manager from Armenia. With over 12 years of expertise across enterprise and startup environments, she has worked with international teams to create SaaS products with user-centric solutions. 2020 was a challenging year for the whole world and particularly difficult for Armenia: the pandemic, the military attack on Nagorno Karabakh, followed by snap parliamentary elections in 2021. During these intense times, Anna witnessed how an influx of fake news caused public confusion and panic, deepening the polarization in society and affecting her friends, family, and community. These incidents emphasized the urgent need for innovative approaches to enhance media literacy. Anna truly believes that modern technology can bridge the gaps in information awareness. This inspired her to create Havastie, a technological bridge between accountable journalism and the public. Havastie empowers individuals to effortlessly assess the accuracy of information and make informed decisions for a better democratic future.
HAVASTIE - ARMENIA
Danylo Dermenzhy
Univera is a secure and innovative digital voting platform designed for universities, student governments, and educational institutions. It ensures verifiable student authentication, secret ballot protection, and a seamless voting experience using advanced cryptographic security. Univera empowers student bodies with transparent and efficient election processes while also providing companies with insights into student engagement. Backed by strong metrics, university partnerships, and a clear growth roadmap, Univera is transforming the way student elections and governance are conducted, making democracy more accessible and trustworthy in educational environments.
UNIVERA - UKRAINE
Dropla
Dropla’s mission is to protect lives by creating a fully remote, innovative demining solution. Together, they are making the world safer, preserving lives, and ensuring the foundation of democracy remains strong - its people. Dropla develops advanced technological solutions to augment demining operations. Their innovative drone swarms, robotics, AI systems, and sensor fusion software accelerate mine action, saving lives and resources in Ukraine. They are bonded together with one goal: to see Ukraine without landmines not in 100+ years, but in 10. With expertise in AI/ML, robotics, and data analytics, they turn ambitious ideas into field-validated breakthroughs for the greater good.
UKRAINE
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Democracy Tech?
Tech innovations that can strengthen or/and provide solutions to one of the above six mentioned conceptions of democracy, namely, electoral, consensus, accountability, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian. We also consider media literacy tools addressing the problem of disinformation, and unethical artificial intelligence.
What is a scalable business?
A scalable business is one that focuses on the implementation of processes that lead to an efficient operation. The workflow and structure of the business allow for scalability, where measurement of the entire business can be assessed and managed at each level.
What is the application timeline?
Our call for applications opens on September 13, 2024 and closes on November 30, 2024. Following that is the selection process which will also entail interview sessions with selected fellows.
What is the fellowship timeline?
Stage 1, which is composed of bi-weekly collective masterclasses and mentor sessions will run from early January until the end of May, 2025. And Stage 2 will start in May, where fellows will attend Copenhagen Democracy Summit, slated for May 13 - 14, 2025. And follow up activities will be conduct including regional outreach events in our target countries
When is your next application cycle?
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