How to Apply

Applying for Diplomacy Lab

Each semester, the State Department sends partner universities a list of policy-relevant research questions posed by officials serving in the field. The Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC) will then issue a call for proposals (Appendix A), usually in April for fall semester projects and in September for winter term projects, and share a project menu. (As an example, the Fall 2021 menu is available here.) WDC typically asks students to submit bids via the Student Team Application in Google Forms (Appendix B) within two weeks from the call for applications.

We ask student teams to provide resumes or CVs for team members and a concise project description of up to 200 words. This should include a short description of how your team proposes to approach the project in question, as well as basic information on why your team members and faculty supervisor are appropriate for the project.

Bidding process

WDC reviews the bid applications and may select up to six bids to nominate to the State Department. The State Department runs a matching process in which the officials who posed the research questions review the bids submitted for their projects.  If your team is nominated and then selected through the matching process, you will be introduced to the relevant  State  Department officials and spend the semester working part-time on the project,  consulting with your State Department contacts periodically before delivering your findings. If your team is not selected in the first round of bidding, a second round of bidding is sometimes possible.