The Open Source Hardware Association is launching a new Open Hardware Creators in Academia program for undergraduate and graduate students: The Student Open Hardware Fellowship. This semester-long fellowship will provide mentorship opportunities with open source hardware creators across the spectrum of making, from 3D printing to healthware to robotics and more.
This program is open to any nationality, and any version of education you are engaged in, participants will receive mentorship as well a completion certificate at the end of the program. Unfortunately OSHWA cannot offer any financial support with this Fellowship. Please note that mentorship will primarily be in English and run virtually. Participants will be expected to commit to mentorship meetings every two weeks and developing a project for certification. Throughout the Fellowship students will learn about the basic tenets of open source hardware, the certification process, what can be hardware, how they can engage with the community at large and be guided through the certification of their own open source project.
Open source hardware, software, and data can be resilient in a lot of ways: you can use it and share it despite institutional moves, changes in funding, and other unexpected events!
Researchers and academics, we’ve got resources for you on open source: Open licenses share your intent to share and a certification for your hardware validates and verifies your source for the community, Creative commons has documentation licenses covered. OSI has a suite of software licenses to choose from. Data is not copyrightable in most situations, but to make your intentions clear, you can always add a CC0 license to data, the CC0 license ensures there are no conditions attached.
Take a listen to how CERN is talking with their knowledge transfer office on open source hardware. The WRC is an experiment in public-private partnerships and knowledge transfer, which can become a template for other projects and technologies.
Academia needs open source more than ever. Open source projects grant the creator and future users freedom, scientific integrity, equitability of resources and keeps research democratized. Open source licenses can apply to software, hardware, and data. It can be tricky to navigate your tech transfer office and University protocols even if you want to open source a project. Here are a few resources to offer in getting through those hurdles.
CERN has licenses for hardware, Creative commons has documentation covered, OSI has a suite of software licenses to choose from.
OSHWA allows you to go one step further and certify your hardware as open source, ensuring the source is licensed correctly and accessible to the public. The verification is done by OSHWA, validating your hardware and giving you a trademarked unique identifier. Certified projects are listed in the certification database and easy to identify as open source.
Academic fellows at OSHWA wrote Enabling Practices for Creating and Advocating for Open Source Hardware in Academia as a guide.
Does your University have an Open Source Program Office? The CURIOSS network has an academic OSPO definition and other resources for academic OSPOs, including a guide to set up an OSPO. CERN has a suite of documentation material (some CERN specific) but contains a lot of information, including how-to guides and recommendations.
Keep your hardware open, and accessible! We’re here to help!
Want to nominate or self-nominate to participate in the Student Open Hardware Fellowship? Go to this form and put your name in now! Applications close September 22nd 2025 at 11EST.
