Application cycles, every June.

The Center for Offsite Construction assembling its cohort of Senior Research Fellows every summer. The title goes to a limited number of professionals and thought leaders who can think clearly, critique constructively, and move one of the Center’s projects forward. The work is open-source. The cohort is multidisciplinary. The last deadline was Monday, June 29, 2026.

This year, CfOC recruited technical experts alongside attorneys, storytellers, software and AI builders, and development professionals.

The work

CfOC is building the shared infrastructure for a new way to build. The industry is shifting from one-off custom projects toward catalogs of configurable, pre-engineered products. That shift needs open standards, digital file formats, legal frameworks, accreditation, curriculum, and a public voice. Fellows help build all of it. An open, commonly held foundation is the most effective way to make housing affordable and the building marketplace coherent.

Fellows choose a project from the active roadmap:

• the open connectivity standards, from pod-to-building to panel-to-panel;
• the digital file format that lets a building be configured from catalog parts;
• the standard forms of agreement, in alignment with the Uniform Law Commission;
• accreditation and the model curriculum for the field’s education;
• the platform of essays and maps that frames the whole effort;
• and the storytelling and automation that help a small center do large work.

Who we are looking for

You may come from the construction industry. You may bring an expertise the construction industry urgently needs. CfOC is recruiting across five kinds of contribution.

• Designers, builders, and industry experts. Architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers, developers, educators, and researchers strengthen the standards, the file format, the curriculum, and the roadmap with technical judgment and hard-won precedent.
• Legal minds. Attorneys and legal scholars shape the standard forms of agreement, and they stitch those contractual concepts into the digital file format, so the law and the software finally speak to each other.
• Storytellers, producers, and communication designers. Producers, writers, journalists, filmmakers, and brand and web designers make the work clear and compelling, from podcasts and explainers to a sharper public face.
• Software, automation, and AI builders. Engineers develop the configurator and the file format, tame the data behind the research, and automate the repetitive work so a small team scales.
• Development and fundraising professionals. Grant writers and development professionals turn this work into funded work, which is the constraint the whole effort feels most.

You need not fit one box. The application lets you name where you are most prepared to contribute.

How it works

Every fellowship begins the same way. Fellows contribute asynchronously, around their existing commitments. A sharp critique, a lunch-hour review, a technical correction, or a well-framed memo can materially improve the work. The fellowship is remote and built for busy professionals. For many Fellows, that is the whole of it, and that is enough.

Where it can lead

Some Fellows lean in, and the work opens up. A Fellow gets struck by an idea, or spots a place where a real technical contribution is possible, and the role grows. Eddie and Connor co-authored the Handshake agreements with us last year. Steve and Sam wrote the Rule Layer paper. Others build the Airtable databases, produce the podcast, or write the documentation the Center runs on. This is the phase where a Fellow takes partial ownership of a project, helps shape its path to funding, and writes a role for themselves into a grant that can span years of work.

Not every Fellow reaches that phase. For those who do, the adventure is real. Connor flew to Chicago with us to present to the Uniform Law Commission — and no one at the CfOC is a lawyer! Sara and Michael now sit on the 1220 consensus committee — and neither had heard of “ANSI procedures” when we began.

What Fellows receive

The Fellowship offers a formal academic affiliation for professionals who want to remain connected to research, teaching, and the intellectual life of a university while continuing in full-time practice. The appointment provides a meaningful academic credential for a CV, participation in a serious multidisciplinary peer cohort, access to active standards and research projects, and opportunities for public credit, publication, committee service, and funded collaboration. For mid-career professionals considering a future faculty role, teaching appointment, or tenure-track application, this fellowship offers a practical way to keep an academic trajectory active without stepping away from practice.

Before you apply

Read three things first: the Philosophy (essays), the Delivery Models (a table), and the Research Roadmap (project executive summaries). The application asks what you find strongest in the platform, where it is underdeveloped, and how your expertise would move a project forward. Candid, constructive critique is what earns attention. You need not agree with every claim. You do need to take the thesis seriously and help make the work better.

Two practical truths belong here too. Fellowships begin as an unpaid professional appointment. Compensated project work may follow when the Center’s project secures funding, and CfOC prioritizes Fellows whose expertise helped shape the funded work. Selected Fellows also sign a Grant of Rights (to their project), so their contributions can flow into the Center’s open standards, publications, and public materials.