India Acumen Fellowship Program (Fully Funded)

September 29, 2024 by Goher Iqbal Punn

Are you seeking a research fellowship or a fellowship program and want a renowned organization where you would like to do your fellowship? If so, it is your chance to witness the best one for your career goals. The opportunity is offered by the Acumen Academy, which claims they equip leaders to build the change they dare to dream of. Acumen invests in social entrepreneurs across the capital continuum and accompanies them on the journey to generate transformational change. If you would like to apply for the India Acumen Fellowship, which is open for applications now, you should learn all the relevant details.

Details About the India Acumen Fellowship

The Acumen Academy explores and prepares leaders equipped with the hard skills required to build scalable solutions to poverty and the tougher skills of moral leadership to re-imagine and construct a better world.

The fellowship is a transformative program that brings together a cohort of exceptional individuals having an entrepreneurial mindset and an utter commitment to solving poverty problems. The Indian Acumen Fellowship equips individuals with the required tools and community to build and strengthen their leadership, scale their impact, and then create a worthy meaningful change in India.

About The India Acumen Fellowship Program

The program is laced with a giant experience of two decades accompanying social entrepreneurs on the journey from seed to scale. With this fellowship, the candidates will get new leadership frameworks through a supportive cohort. The pressure of fellows will test the new skills they are obtaining/learning in real-time. They will build peer relationships.

Structure of the Fellowship

It will be a six-month hybrid program where the fellows remain in their jobs and participate in the fellowship program that consists of virtual sessions, self-paced learning, and in-person immersion. This will be a high-level program overview.

One 3-day virtual orientation
Two 5-day full-time in-person immersions consisting of eight hours of assignments for each immersive containing self-paced learning and group calls.
Four learning labs consisting of four hours each coupled with assignments

India Acumen Fellowship Eligibility

Interested applicants need to meet the below-mentioned eligibility criteria.

They have to be social entrepreneurs or senior decision-makers committed and dedicated to solving poverty-relevant problems/issues having at least 5 years of related work experience.
On the part of organizations, they need to have at least have team member since collaboration is vital for success.
A minimum of 50% of the target audience (group) has to fall below the line of poverty to ensure a meaningful impact.
No specific academic qualifications are required, but the applicants interested in this fellowship program have to be over 18 and must be proficient in English.
It is worth noting that those candidates who have earlier participated in an Acumen Fellows Program or specific Acumen Academy Leadership Accelerators will not be eligible to submit their applications for the Indian Acumen Fellowship.
In case there are multiple applicants from the same organization, they can apply for the fellowship program, but only one out of them will be chosen per year. Besides, only one candidate from the same organization can be a fellow within 3 years.

Note: you are advised to check complete eligibility in the FAQ section available in the official announcement.

Funding Availability for the India Acumen Fellowship

Since the fellowship program is fully funded for fellow candidates, the organization does not offer any funding or additional benefits as part of the program. There are a few of our regions that offer need-based funding for the selection conference. The participants will be informed if they are chosen for the selection conference.

Once your application is approved as an Acumen Fellow Candidate, all program-related costs will be covered by Acumen during the fellowship. This includes all expenses associated with the immersives, consisting of food and lodging. If the participants of the fellowship program want to claim, the reimbursements for travel to immersives will be available.

There is a 100% attendance requirement needed for the program. Thus, fellow candidates who are chosen will have to attend all program sessions, 1:1s and complete assignments, and cohort calls, or face possible removal from the program. On a case-by-case basis, exceptions for emergencies are available.

Note: For complete funding, visit the FAQ section available in the official announcement.