NEW YORK—PopTech, the renowned global innovation network, is proud to announce a joint fellows program with The Rockefeller Foundation through its Bellagio Center.
The Bellagio/PopTech Fellows Program will bring together a small, interdisciplinary group of four-to-six hand-selected artists, scientists, designers, technologists and social innovators at the Bellagio Center in Italy for a two-week immersion residency. The program is designed to be a unique incubator of unconventional, cross-disciplinary collaboration and will also serve as a laboratory for the study of the nature of collaboration itself, as a profound tool for creative problem-solving and solution development.
This new Fellows Program closely reflects the missions of both organizations, particularly The Rockefeller Foundation’s commitment to innovation for the next 100 years, and PopTech’s continuing efforts to create collaborative breakthroughs for social and ecological good.
The inaugural year of the Fellows Program will focus on the increasing need for psychological, social and systemic resilience, and the remarkable potential of ‘big data’, visualization, mobile and other distribution technologies to amplify resilience.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center provides a serene setting to promote interdisciplinary innovation and identify impact-oriented solutions to critical global problems. The Center’s goals are achieved through conferences and residency programs that support the work of scholars, artists and policymakers who share in the Foundation’s pioneering mission to “promote the well-being of humanity.”
“Innovation has been at the core of The Rockefeller Foundation’s work since its founding in 1913, and when we convene people who do not typically work together, we create an opportunity to foster innovative thinking that can lead to transformative change,” said Robert Garris, managing director for Bellagio Programs at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Both the conference and residency programs at the Bellagio Center reflect the Foundation’s conviction that the best problem solving happens through collaboration across disciplines, professions, and cultures, and the new Bellagio/PopTech Fellows Program underscores both the Foundation’s and the Center’s strong tradition of promoting breakthrough innovative thinking and action.”
“PopTech is well known for its ability to bring together eclectic groups of scientists, innovators and unconventional thinkers to share ideas and collaborate on new approaches to daunting challenges,” said Andrew Zolli, PopTech’s curator and executive Director. “Our continuing collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation reflects our commitment to innovation and our desire to explore ‘edge’ innovations—those that occur in unfamiliar territory that challenges funders, implementers and communities to take risks and make bets on untested, disruptive approaches to key global challenges.”
The Fellows Program will convene at the Bellagio Center in August 2013, and results will be shared in a variety of forums including the annual PopTech conference in October 2013. Those interested in applying to the program will be able to do so through an open nomination process that will be accessible from January 7 – March 15, 2013.
For additional information and to respond to the call for nomination, please visit www.poptech.org/bellagiofellows
About PopTech
PopTech is a hub of global innovators made up of today’s brightest minds and the next generation of changemakers. PopTech’s one-of-a-kind network includes innovators in wide-ranging fields such as science, technology, green energy, sustainable ecomaterials, violence cessation, design, and the corporate, entrepreneurial and social sectors. Its charge is to explore the social impact of technology and the forces of change shaping the future. PopTech’s mission is to accelerate the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas, and to foster unconventional collaborations that tackle some of the world’s most significant challenges and lead to real and lasting change. PopTech is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Please visit poptech.org for more information.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation aims to achieve equitable growth by expanding opportunity for more people in more places worldwide, and to build resilience by helping them prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. Throughout its 100 year history, the Rockefeller Foundation has enhanced the impact of innovative thinkers and actors working to change the world by providing the resources, networks, convening power, and technologies to move them from idea to impact. In today’s dynamic and interconnected world, The Rockefeller Foundation has a unique ability to address the emerging challenges facing humankind through innovation, intervention and influence in order to shape agendas and inform decision making. Please visit www.rockefellerfoundation.org for more information.
Media Inquries:
Becky Sennett, PopTech, 207-230-2425 or 518-229-0902, becky@poptech.org
Laura Gordon, The Rockefeller Foundation, 212-852-8216 or 646-915-2631, lgordon@rockfound.org