Gates Foundation Announces 2027 Africa AI Fellowship: Applications Open for Artificial Intelligence Innovators - Global South Opportunities

The Gates Foundation has announced an exciting opportunity for emerging artificial intelligence (AI) professionals through its 2027 AI Fellows Programme, expanding its established fellowship initiativ

The fellowship targets technically capable and mission-driven individuals with practical experience applying artificial intelligence to real-world challenges.

Applicants should meet the following requirements:

• Education: Hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, data science, engineering, applied mathematics or a relevant discipline.
• Professional Experience: Have at least two years of experience applying AI solutions, preferably within health or agricultural systems.
• Technical Expertise: Demonstrate a strong understanding of artificial intelligence, machine learning, model development and evaluation.
• Programming and Software Development: Possess practical software engineering and data management skills necessary to develop end-to-end AI applications.
• Large Language Models: Demonstrate hands-on experience building prototypes using modern LLMs, open-source technologies or API-based AI platforms.
• Applied AI Knowledge: Show an interest in applying AI to health systems, public financial management, supply chains and logistics.
• Analytical Capabilities: Be comfortable working with data engineering, time-series analysis, optimisation, information retrieval and decision-support technologies.
• Communication Skills: Demonstrate the ability to explain technical concepts and recommendations to diverse audiences.
• Collaboration: Possess strong teamwork, adaptability and problem-solving capabilities.
• Public Interest Commitment: Demonstrate a genuine interest in using AI responsibly to advance equitable development and improve global health outcomes.

Applicants do not necessarily need to have specialised AI research backgrounds, provided they demonstrate the technical competence and practical experience required for applied AI development.

Successful fellows will participate in several technical, strategic and collaborative activities throughout the 12-month programme.

Problem Identification and Project Development

Fellows will collaborate with project sponsors, technical teams and local partners to identify challenges that can be addressed through artificial intelligence. They will assess user needs, local operating environments, data availability and the technical infrastructure required to implement effective solutions.

AI Prototyping and Experimentation

Participants will use modern large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies to develop prototypes, test concepts and assess the feasibility of proposed solutions. They will document findings and translate experimental results into practical recommendations for further development and implementation.

Designing and Delivering AI Solutions

Fellows will develop and evaluate AI and machine learning models, integrate them into decision-support systems and build reliable software solutions.

Responsibilities may include:

• Developing and evaluating machine learning models.
• Preparing, cleaning and integrating datasets.
• Building secure and reliable data pipelines.
• Using large language models for prompting, retrieval, tool integration and deployment.
• Applying software engineering practices, including version control, testing and clean coding.
• Assessing model accuracy, fairness, explainability and real-world performance.

Teaching and Capacity Building

Fellows will support AI literacy across the Foundation’s Africa team by developing training materials, practical guides, workshops and implementation resources.

They will also mentor colleagues and demonstrate how AI tools can be used responsibly and effectively, particularly within low- and middle-income country environments.

Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Participants will work across multidisciplinary teams and communicate technical findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. They will facilitate workshops, support collaborative problem-solving and help translate AI research into practical development interventions.

Responsible and Ethical Artificial Intelligence

The programme places strong emphasis on responsible AI development. Fellows must incorporate data privacy, fairness, bias mitigation, transparency and explainability into their technical approaches while ensuring that proposed solutions align with the Foundation’s public-interest mission.