Application Deadline: 2 March 2026
Applications are now open for the 2026 UNHCR Innovation Fellowship. The Innovation Fellowship focuses on building the innovation skills and competencies of participants, and supports them to engage with colleagues, partners, and refugees to bring innovative approaches into their operations or divisions.
Over the course of the journey, Innovation Fellows learn and practice innovation methods and tools, embedding these new approaches into their everyday work. They focus on problem solving, ideation, and experimentation to develop innovative solutions to real-life challenges in the field or at headquarters.
Fellows are UNHCR’s ambassadors for innovation and lasting positive change both within and outside the organization.
Requirements
The Fellowship is open to UNHCR colleagues (whether you’re based at Headquarters or in Operations, in any region and at any level) and to members of partner organizations. This includes:
- All UN agencies
- NGOs and partner organizations of UN agencies
It is designed for anyone who wants to explore new ways of making progress in their work. You do not need to be an “innovator” by title or have prior experience with innovation methods. What matters most is your curiosity, openness to learning, and commitment to experimenting with new approaches within your current role. Please note that your manager needs to give their formal agreement for your participation in the learning journey.
Importantly, applicants do not need to apply with a fully formed idea, innovation project or solution. Fellows bring a challenge or area of curiosity and develop their projects throughout the Fellowshi
Challenges
Participants in the Fellowship apply the skills they’re learning to real challenges they’ve encountered in the course of their work, progressing through different stages of innovation to address their chosen challenge. From 2023–4, Fellows explored innovative solutions in areas ranging from protection and shelter to food security and cultural heritage.
Their projects included:
- Addressing negative narratives about refugees in Ireland by creating a refugee-led creative storytelling network and platform.
- Systematizing ways to include refugees in UNHCR Panama’s strategy planning processes, to ensure their perspectives inform approaches.
- Exploring sustainable and community-driven ways to deliver more durable and ecofriendly shelter solutions in Chad.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the UNHCR Innovation Fellowship
