Summary

  • The RIPE Fellowship requires candidates to complete RIPE 101 and pass its quiz before receiving an invitation to submit an application.
  • The four-module, two-hour course is listed in English and requires no technical background. RIPE publishes no pass rate for the gate.

Analysis

The application form is not the first test in RIPE’s Fellowship. Before a candidate can describe a learning path, ask for coaching or tell the Selection Committee why a RIPE Meeting matters, the candidate must complete RIPE 101 and pass a quiz. The course takes two hours. The quiz comes first; the application comes later.

The current call covers RIPE 94 in Vilnius and RIPE 95 in Madrid, both in 2027. Applications close on 23 November 2026 at 23:59 UTC+1. Applicants must be at least 18, live in the RIPE NCC service region and study or work in a field related to Internet coordination and operations. The listed fields include network operations, measurements, routing, addressing, Internet governance and community coordination. General IT, software development or the wider digital sector alone do not qualify.

RIPE 101 is a four-module course, described as a two-hour beginner introduction. It covers Internet infrastructure, the RIPE community, RIPE NCC’s work and ways to participate. The Academy page says no technical background is required; it lists the course language as English. Completion unlocks the quiz. A passing result triggers an invitation to the Fellowship application. The current page tells candidates who fail to try again next year.

That sequence is a deliberate redesign. RIPE NCC’s account of the new programme says the course and quiz help select for motivation while giving candidates a map of the community and setting expectations. At RIPE 93, the programme coordinator described the same order: course, quiz, invitation, application. The stated aim was to give candidates context before asking them to apply. The Selection Committee then reviews applications and expects to notify selected candidates in early 2027.

Those are two different jobs for one checkpoint. A short course can make the later application more informed. A quiz can also decide which people are allowed to submit that application. The public materials explain the orientation value and the pass-or-wait consequence, but do not publish the quiz pass rate. That number would show whether the checkpoint is a light introduction or a substantial filter.

The language detail deserves a place in that accounting. RIPE welcomes applicants whose work may include Internet policy or community coordination, not only network engineering, yet the required course is listed in English. That does not tell us who failed or why. It does tell RIPE what to measure: how many candidates begin the course, finish it, pass the quiz and reach the application form. If the Fellowship wants new voices, the path to the microphone should have a public count at every door.

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