Summary

  • The current RIPE 94/95 call places RIPE 101 and a quiz before the application invitation; applications close on 23 November 2026.
  • Galante said language checking is fine but AI can alter ideas and motivations; she raised interviews as a possible step, not an announced rule.

The first step is a quiz. A candidate creates a RIPE NCC Access account, completes RIPE 101 and passes its quiz. Only then does the Fellowship team send an invitation to apply. The course is the gate; the application is where the programme must hear why this person wants to enter the RIPE community.

That distinction sits at the centre of Michela Galante's one-year update on the redesigned RIPE Fellowship. In the slide deck prepared for RIPE 93, she lays out the sequence and gives applicants a blunt instruction: “Using AI makes everyone sound alike.” The current RIPE Fellowship page says much the same in a gentler register. It encourages applicants not to use AI because the applications that stand out are the ones where the applicant is truly themself.

Galante then floated a possible response: the programme may need interviews rather than relying only on the application form. That was an idea under discussion, not a new step on the current Fellowship page. A conversation could surface motives a polished essay hides; it could also reward speed, confidence and fluent delivery. Before adding that gate, RIPE needs to publish what interviewers assess and what language support candidates can use.

The statement is more than a style preference. The programme asks the committee to assess the alignment between a candidate's personal interests and RIPE's work, alongside regional and gender diversity. A generic application makes the first of those judgements harder. A course quiz can check whether someone completed RIPE 101. It cannot write a credible reason for that person to learn about routing, measurements, address management or Internet governance.

Galante is a Senior Community Development Officer at RIPE NCC. Her work includes building relationships with local communities and supporting deployment of RIPE NCC tools such as RIPE Atlas, RIS, K-root and AuthDNS. She joined the organisation in 2013 after a decade in software development project management. Community work is not an accessory to the Fellowship she presented; it is the point of the redesign.

Her slide deck sets out the change in one pair of lines. The old goal was to bring diverse new voices to a RIPE Meeting. The new goal is to help those voices find their place in the RIPE community. It begins with a diagnosis: “The RIPE community is aging and not getting enough new participants.” A travel seat can bring someone to a room. A learning path, coach and continuing group can help them decide what to do after the room empties.

The redesigned Fellowship is a three-stage journey before, during and after a meeting. Each Fellow is assigned a coach. The required work includes one-to-one calls, group calls, a personal learning path, public-speaking and soft-skills courses, and personal meeting goals. Seven tracks give that path a subject: DNS, Internet Governance, IP Address Management, IPv6, Measurements & Tools, Routing, or Security. After the meeting, a Fellowship network is meant to keep cohorts connected, encourage knowledge-sharing and create ways for alumni to give back.

That is a different promise from simply selecting a diverse group. The published selection process uses a committee of the Fellowship Coordinator and RIPE community participants. It scores personal-interest alignment and regional and gender diversity; the committee also seeks a spread of geography, stakeholder groups and interests. Applicants now pass a course gate before that human judgement begins. Their application has to supply the individual signal the gate cannot.

In its 191st meeting minutes, the RIPE NCC Executive Board recorded two issues for the next round: AI submissions and the need to automate parts of the programme. The minutes do not identify which tasks would be automated or say that applications are machine-scored. The distinction matters. Scheduling coach calls is a different job from deciding whether a personal learning ambition belongs in the RIPE community.

The application window for RIPE 94 and RIPE 95 closes on 23 November 2026. Galante's slides give the programme a plain test for this cycle: candidates must clear RIPE 101, but the case they make afterward should not sound as if it came from everyone else.

Sources