Big Bets Fellowship: Asia-Pacific

A Transformational Fellowship for a Sustainable Future

As part of our long-standing commitment to making opportunity universal, we established an annual Fellowship to equip leaders with the mindset and skills needed to advance solutions with breakthrough potential to improve the lives of underserved communities in Asia and the Pacific.

Each year, we select a diverse and interdisciplinary cohort of emerging leaders who are working to accelerate opportunity for the most vulnerable. In 2024, our Fellowship included leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2025, we are looking for leaders and their solutions in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Centering Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific cohort will encompass bold and innovative solutions in countries located in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

Home to over half of the world’s population, the Asia-Pacific region represents a nexus of immense challenges and transformative opportunities. It boasts vast renewable energy potential and critical ecosystems, including glaciers, coral reefs, mangroves, peatlands, and tropical forests. These ecosystems not only preserve biodiversity but also provide sustenance to hundreds of millions of people — and they face urgent threats from unsustainable development practices. The region’s rapid urbanization, high dependency on fossil fuels, and escalating climate impacts endanger lives, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Particularly vulnerable are women, youth, and Indigenous communities, who face severe risks from climate inaction, costly adaptations to rising sea levels, escalating health crises linked to environmental degradation, and declining agricultural productivity.

The Big Bets Fellowship: Asia-Pacific will empower leaders across sectors to tackle the world’s biggest challenges in the region head-on, fostering the development of sustainable solutions, resilient communities, and policies to advance ideas that are good for people and the planet.

Program Dates:

Onboarding Call: June 5^th
In-person Convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bangkok Office: June 25^th-26^th
In-person Convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center: August 4th-8^th
Amplification Moment at The Rockefeller Foundation’s headquarters in New York City: week of September 22^nd
Final Call: October 17^th

Most reasonable travel expenses for participation in the in-person convenings will be covered by The Rockefeller Foundation. The Fellowship does not cover medical care or insurance. The Applicant should take out adequate insurance to cover their trips and stays in the United States, Thailand, and Europe.

While the Foundation will cover most reasonable expenses related to the visa application process, it is the fellow’s responsibility to secure the necessary visas ahead of traveling. Failure to obtain the visa or inability to attend the convenings may result in forfeiture of the Fellowship.

Fellow Selection Criteria

There is no standard candidate for the Fellowship, but the following characteristics describe the individuals that we believe would be a good fit for the program:

5-15 years of work experience
Has a unique perspective and fresh insight on a problem area that is informed by lived and/or professional experience
Track record of delivering meaningful change within their unique cultural context and region
Well-placed within a local, regional, or global community/network where the fellow can influence relevant levers of change for their project
Collaborative and community-driven
Has courage to challenge the status quo
Applicants must also be members of the Big Bets community to be eligible to apply for the Fellowship

Meet Last Year's Fellows

Project Selection Criteria

and inclusive transitions OR
Developing gender-inclusive systems and frameworks to mitigate and/or adapt to a changing climate OR
Investing in nature-based solutions, such as large-scale ecosystem preservation and restoration, sustainable forestry, regenerative agriculture, and marine conservation, to align economic development for underserved communities with ecological preservation and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities leadership OR
Developing climate-resilient infrastructure, including smart cities, heatwave and flood defenses, sustainable transportation systems, and climate adaptive housing and health systems, to meet the demands of growing populations in underserved communities while reducing vulnerabilities.

To learn more about the program, eligibility criteria and focus areas, please check out the Big Bets Fellowship: Asia-Pacific Terms and Conditions.

Read the Terms and Conditions

Application Dates:

Application Launch – January 28th, 2025
Deadline for fellows to complete the Eligibility Form and Pre-Application Form – February 9th, 2025
Finalists invited to submit Full Application Form and sign-up for interview – early March
Deadline for fellows to complete the Full-Application Form – March 23rd, 2025
Interviews – March 24th to April 4th, 2025
Fellows selected – mid May

The work of these fellows flips the script: the Global South is not just a hotspot for challenges, but a powerhouse for innovative solutions.
Nathalia Arcencio De Marchi dos Santos
Manager, Convenings and Networks
The Rockefeller Foundation

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Big Bets Fellowship:Asia-Pacific