There's €10,000 Waiting for Storytellers, Activists & Changemakers — and the Deadline is April 27

If you've been doing meaningful work, telling untold stories, fighting invisible systems, or imagining a more just world, there is a fellowship with your name on it. And it doesn't ask for a PhD.

What is the Critical Pathways Fellowship 2026?

The Critical Pathways community at Utrecht University, in collaboration with Towards a Circular Economy and Society, has opened applications for its 2026 Fellowship Program. 

 It is one of the most refreshingly open fellowships in Europe right now, and it is worth paying close attention to.

The fellowship was created in recognition that some of the most urgent questions about sustainability and justice cannot be answered from within the academy alone. It is designed to amplify overlooked perspectives and inspire new pathways toward a more sustainable and just world.  

The Theme: Making Visible the Invisible

The fellowship is interested in uncovering the hidden stories, systems, and power structures that drive ecological breakdown and deepen inequality — as well as bringing to light the promising alternatives that too often go unnoticed. 

Fellows are invited to wrestle with questions like: 

- Who bears the hidden cost of the global economy? 

-What systems of exploitation operate beneath everyday awareness? 

-What would regenerative, equitable alternatives actually look like?

 These aren't just academic questions — they are the questions that artists, journalists, community leaders, and activists are already living and working inside.

Who Is This For?

This is where it gets exciting. The eligibility criteria are unusually open. There is no nationality restriction. There is no age limit. There is no requirement for a PhD, a master's degree, or any formal academic credential. 

The selection committee is looking for work that challenges the status quo, reveals hidden truths, or reimagines how we can live more sustainably and justly. 

The call explicitly names artists, filmmakers, writers, activists, organizers, community leaders, journalists, legal practitioners, policy advocates, conservationists, sustainability practitioners, and entrepreneurs as eligible applicants, alongside academics from any discipline.  

In short — if your work tells the truth about power, inequality, or what a better world could look like, you qualify.

What Do You Get?

-Fellows receive a budget of up to €10,000 to cover travel, accommodation, living expenses, and visa costs.

-The university can also help arrange travel and housing if needed. Fellows will have access to office and meeting spaces, the university library, and ICT resources. 

-Participants are also supported in building networks and collaborations that can extend beyond the fellowship period.

 -The residency runs for four to six weeks, with exact dates flexible, between October and November 2026 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Why You Should Apply

Opportunities like this — fully funded, no academic gatekeeping, open to creatives and community leaders from across the world — are rare. 

This flexible approach allows fellows to express their ideas in ways that resonate with broader audiences and spark meaningful dialogue. 

 Whether your medium is documentary film, community organizing, journalism, or policy advocacy, the fellowship meets you where you are.

A documentary filmmaker investigating e-waste in West Africa, a community organizer mapping food deserts in Southeast Asia, a legal practitioner challenging land-grabbing in Latin America — these are precisely the kinds of voices this program is designed to attract. 

If you are from Nigeria, from the Global South, from a community whose stories rarely reach European institutions — this is a programme actively seeking you out.

How to Apply

Applications require a completed application form (available as a downloadable .docx from the programme's website) and a CV, both submitted by email to coordinator Tom Gerritsen at criticalpathways@uu.nl. There is no application fee.  

Deadline: April 27, 2026. That is days away — do not sleep on this.

Visit the official page at uu.nl and search "Critical Pathways Fellowships 2026" to access the application form.

Share this with someone whose work deserves to be seen on a global stage.