The Century Foundation invites proposals from public policy analysts aged 30 years and under for a 7,500-to 10,000-word argumentative essay on surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties in the age of Trump. A panel of judges associated with TCF will review the proposals to determine the winner of the Janice Nittoli “Forward Thinking” Award, which will provide $5,000 to support the research and writing of the paper. In addition, The Century Foundation will publish and publicize the final product.

Ms. Nittoli served as The Century Foundation’s president from August 2011 to March 2014, when she retired due to illness. During her tenure, Nittoli nearly doubled the foundation’s endowment, revitalized its communications program and web presence, and added sixteen new policy experts to TCF’s roster. Under her watch, TCF fellows won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Magazine Award, and the institutional equivalent of the MacArthur Foundation’s so-called “genius awards.”

Proposals should describe in under 1,000 words (1) the policy idea to be recommended, (2) the scope of research available examining related policies to be synthesized in the paper, and (3) the extent to which the applicant has already studied the topic. Federal, state, and local policies are all suitable for this project, and, if applicable, international studies may be included in the final report’s synthesis of related research. It is expected that the winning author will draw conclusions in the report based on available research that would guide policymakers interested in adopting the recommended strategy. One model of this type of report is this piece by TCF contributor Timothy Edgar on subjecting overseas NSA surveillance to congressional and judicial oversight.

In addition, applicants should submit a curriculum vitae as well as a writing sample that demonstrates an ability to rigorously analyze public policy research in a way that can be clearly understood by non-experts. The writing sample can be a published article or a report submitted as coursework in school.

The review committee will evaluate the proposals based on their potential to make a distinctive contribution to the debate over surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties, the clarity of the project outline, and the quality of the submitted writing samples.

Proposal submissions should be e-mailed to [email protected] on or before March 31, 2017.