The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) invites pitches from investigative journalists, researchers and writers interested in critically examining the emerging commercial landscape of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

Eligibility: Open to journalists, researchers and writers worldwide, with particular encouragement for applicants based outside the EU and US
Location: Remote
Engagement Type: Fixed-term commissioned grant (non-employment relationship)
Project Duration: Approximately one month from commission
Funding: €1,500–€2,200 per commissioned story (under 2,000 words or 10 minutes video), depending on scope and reporting needs
Submission Deadline: March 5th, 2026

Stories will be commissioned on a rolling basis.
Publication-ready drafts are expected by April 10th, 2026.

Background

Freedom of thought is a precondition for open societies. The ability to think privately and freely, and to act without coercion, underpins all other fundamental rights. This freedom is now at risk as commercial brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are quietly entering consumer markets, workplaces, and public institutions. The vendors are racing to market with closed firmware, proprietary data and technology, cloud-only products that embed defaults hostile to user control.

Unlike medical devices, commercial BCIs face virtually no operational restrictions or specific regulations. And the authorities responsible for addressing their side effects lack the frameworks needed to enforce existing protections. When applicable, authorities responsible for privacy, health rights, and competition law often lack the knowledge and tools to implement and enforce protections or address harms in their respective areas. BCIs are characterised by their opacity by design, starting with closed firmware, non-portable data, and cloud-only functionality. That makes such technologies inaccessible, unaccountable, and structurally resistant to user control. In the future, if adoption is widespread, these technical defaults risk enabling thought surveillance, predictive profiling, and vendor lock-in at the most intimate layer of human experience for potentially thousands of people

As part of the Open Knowledge Foundation's effort to update our analysis of frontier technologies that will affect how we fulfil our mission, we are looking for stories to better unpack this issue. We are interested in reporting that looks critically at how these technologies are unfolding globally.  What business models are forming? How are regulatory frameworks responding or failing to respond? What role does artificial intelligence play in translating neural data into categories and decisions? Where are standards being set, and by whom?

We are particularly keen to receive pitches that focus on developments beyond Europe and the United States. Local market dynamics, regulatory experiments, procurement decisions, startup ecosystems, education pilots, and public-sector engagements in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific are of strong interest. From our experience over two decades, we know that early infrastructure decisions often take place far from global headlines.

We are deliberately not prescribing a single angle. We are looking for strong, independent pitches that identify a story within this rapidly evolving space, whether that story is about market concentration, governance gaps, AI opacity, emerging standards, or public-interest alternatives.

Who Should Apply

• Investigative journalists covering technology, health, infrastructure, or corporate power
• Tech accountability researchers with a clear investigative angle
• Writers with demonstrated experience reporting on regulatory or platform dynamics

What We Offer

• A fee in the range of €1,500–€2,200, depending on scope and reporting needs for a story under 2000 words or 10 minutes in video.
• Editorial and research support from the Open BCI team
• Access to background materials and expert briefings
• Publication and amplification through the Open Knowledge Foundation network
• Editorial independence and space for rigorous, evidence-based reporting
• Possibility of additional budget depending on the proposed format (e.g. multimedia, data-driven investigation, cross-border collaboration)

Timeline

• Call for pitches closes: March 5th
• Stories will be commissioned on a rolling basis
• Expected deadline for publication-ready drafts: April 10th

If you’d like to apply, please send the following information to jobs@okfn.org.

• A 500–800 word pitch outlining your proposed investigation
• The core questions you would pursue
• Preliminary sources or lines of inquiry
• A short biography and relevant previous work. 

We welcome applications from individual researchers, research teams or from independent investigative journalism organisations. 

Open Knowledge Foundation is committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace and aims to cultivate and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive team. Diversity is valued and encouraged because a range of experiences and perspectives enriches our work and strengthens our ability to address complex challenges. Applicants from communities that are under-represented in our workplace - ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals are encouraged to apply.

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