Writing Contributor, The New Forge Lab

You write two analyses on how young people lead, found and keep projects alive in their own communities: funding, mentoring, failure, ethics and the law. Two analyses in one 3-month cycle, five places, fully remote.

Read the lab’s research avenues: research avenues

HOW TO APPLY

Apply here on Idealist. In a few lines, present the topic you propose, your angle and what makes it original. Start from one of the lab’s research avenues listed below, or propose another topic linked to the lab.

THE ASSIGNMENT AT A GLANCE

• Lab: The New Forge Lab (Leadership & entrepreneurship)
• What you write: two analyses, in English or French, of 430 to 1,600 words each (op-ed, analysis brief or field piece)
• Places: 5 contributors for this lab
• Cycle: 3 months, from 1 December 2026 to 28 February 2027
• Renewal: once, for a second cycle from 1 March to 31 May 2027
• Time: 3 to 5 hours a week
• Location: fully remote, from any country
• Fully voluntary assignment

ABOUT THE LAB

The New Forge Lab is preparing a programme that trains and equips young leaders to build lasting solutions in their own communities. The programme puts leadership into practice on real projects, with mentorship that lasts well beyond the initial enthusiasm.

Lab page: The New Forge Lab

THE TOPICS: THE LAB’S RESEARCH AVENUES

• The market as a school of entrepreneurship: Market traders in Lagos, Lima or Hanoi know a great deal about risk, credit and trust. Incubators would gain from listening to them.
• Funding women founders: Around the world, companies founded by women receive a small share of venture capital. Rotating savings groups, crowdfunding and dedicated funds open other routes.
• Leading by example: In a collective, an association or a volunteer project, authority is earned. These quiet forms of leadership often train tomorrow’s leaders.
• Building a business for one’s community: Cooperatives, social enterprises, commons: reconciling profit and purpose, and measuring impact honestly.
• Brain drain or brain circulation?: Doctors, engineers, researchers: their departure costs their countries dearly. Returns, diaspora entrepreneurs and remote work are changing the picture.
• The jobs of a just transition: Coal miners in Poland, South Africa or Indonesia, car workers, farmers: training the people whose trades are disappearing for jobs in the green economy.
• The right to fail: Bankruptcy law, social stigma, second chances: each society treats entrepreneurs who fail in its own way, and that weighs on innovation.
• Mentoring that lasts: What keeps a mentoring relationship going beyond the enthusiasm of the first months: methods, commitments, results.
• Protecting what you invent: Patents, traditional knowledge, biopiracy: the legal tools innovators use to keep control of their ideas.
• Ethics as strategy: Working conditions, customer data, environmental impact: does a young company gain from being exemplary from day one?
• Making a living from content: Video makers, streamers, creators on social media: many young people dream of living from it. Income, social rights and dependence on algorithms raise the question of a status.
• Leading young: Very young elected officials, NGO founders, company heads: what youth brings to power, and what power demands of it.

You can also propose another topic linked to the lab. Anchor it in a country, a city, a sector or a period: a good topic fits in one precise sentence.

PROFILES WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Business, management or entrepreneurship: funding women founders, ethics as strategy, building a business for one’s community
• Economics: the informal economy and markets, brain drain or brain circulation, the jobs of a just transition
• Law: patents and traditional knowledge, bankruptcy and second chances, legal forms of social enterprises, the status of content creators
• Organisational studies or social and solidarity economy: leading a horizontal collective, mentoring that lasts
• Founders, association or project leads, mentors and content creators who write from what they have built, including what did not work

Every background counts: a course, a student project, an internship, volunteering or a personal project. First-hand experience of the topic you write about is a strength.

WHAT YOU DO DURING THE CYCLE

• Confirm your two topics with the lab at the start of the cycle, within the needs set by the Lab Lead
• Research and write each analysis yourself, with a verifiable source for every figure, quotation and fact
• Submit each analysis through our submission space: the text, its sources, a two- or three-sentence biography, a portrait photo and a declaration of any AI tool used
• Revise your text with the editorial board’s written feedback until its final decision

OUR EDITORIAL CHARTER

• Your own words: a text produced or rewritten by generative AI is rejected, and any use of an AI tool is declared, proofreading included
• Verifiable sources: author, title, date and link for each one
• Three checks before the editorial board: AI detection, plagiarism check and source check
• Unpublished work, reserved for YouthShare until it is published

Read the charter: editorial charter

WHAT THIS ASSIGNMENT GIVES YOU

• Two analyses published under your name, in English and French
• Written feedback from the editorial board at every round
• Your card on our

Contributors page

• Research writing experience to the standard of a demanding editorial board

HOW CYCLES WORK

Each lab welcomes 5 contributors per 3-month cycle. The assignment can be renewed once, for a second cycle. After each cycle, the lab opens a new cohort according to the needs set by its Lab Lead.

HOW SELECTION WORKS

We select applications according to our values (equity, solidarity, integrity, participation, resilience and impact), your availability and the places open in the cycle.

If you need an adjustment to apply or to take part, write to hr@youthshareinitiatives.org

AFTER SELECTION: SUBMIT ON OUR WEBSITE

Each analysis is submitted with a personal code received by email: submission space

ABOUT YOUTHSHARE INITIATIVES

YouthShare Initiatives is an international think-action tank and a French non-profit (Act of 1 July 1901). It brings young people from around the world together in five labs to think together, then act: research, debate, mentoring and foresight. Discover us: youthshareinitiatives.org

RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS

Rédiger deux analyses sur le leadership et l’entrepreneuriat des jeunes (La Nouvelle Forge) : Vous rédigez deux analyses sur la façon dont les jeunes dirigent, créent et font durer des projets dans leur communauté : financement, mentorat, échec, éthique et droit.

Mission bénévole à distance, 5 places, cycle de 3 mois du 1er décembre 2026 au 28 février 2027, renouvelable une fois ; 3 à 5 h par semaine. Candidatez ici sur Idealist : présentez votre sujet, votre angle et ce qui le rend original.

Vos analyses se déposent ensuite sur notre site : soumettre une analyse

Pistes de recherche du laboratoire : lire les pistes