Citizen Lab Opens 2026 ICRP Fellowship Call

Citizen Lab and OTF announce the 2026 Information Controls Research Program, funding research into censorship, surveillance, and internet freedom.

This article is an administrative call for applications rather than a threat report. The Open Technology Fund's Information Controls Research Program (ICRP), hosted in part by Citizen Lab, is soliciting proposals for research into how authoritarian governments restrict internet freedom through censorship, surveillance, and information controls. The program offers stipends for researchers examining topics such as app security, AI bias, digital transnational repression, disinformation, mass surveillance, and targeted surveillance of journalists and activists.

While the program touches on themes relevant to threat intelligence (state censorship, surveillance technology, digital transnational repression), the article itself contains no indicators of compromise, malware, exploited vulnerabilities, or active threat actor campaigns. It is informational/programmatic content describing a funding opportunity and eligibility criteria, with references to past research outputs like reports on algorithmic policing and an AI-enabled influence operation (PRISONBREAK) targeting the Iranian regime, listed only as examples of prior fellowship work.

Source reporting: https://citizenlab.ca/call-for-applications-information-controls-research-program-2026