Fellowship

Overview

Computational Research for Equity in Legal Systems (CRELS) trains PhD students to conduct multidisciplinary research on the criminal legal system using data science and computational methods. The program focuses on three interconnected areas: criminal legal systems, data science methods, and ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence and big data

CRELS brings together students and faculty across social sciences, statistics, computer science, and professional schools to advance computational approaches to legal system research. A central goal of the program is to build a multidisciplinary research community at Berkeley and beyond that integrates a broad set of perspectives with data science tools.

PhD students as part of the CRELS training program can be either Trainee Fellows, who are funded, or Trainee Scholars, who do not receive a stipend or tuition costs but receive other benefits from the program. Please see the eligibility criteria below to identify which pathway is the best fit for your circumstances.

Eligibility

Trainee Fellows must:

  • Be enrolled in a full-time, on-campus PhD program in the Social Sciences Division, the Division of Computing, Data Science and Society, or a professional school at UC Berkeley
  • Be US citizens or permanent residents

Trainee Scholars must:

  • Be enrolled in a full-time, on-campus PhD program in the Social Sciences Division, the Division of Computing, Data Science and Society, or a professional school at UC Berkeley.

Funding

Trainee Fellows 

  • 1 year of fellowship support, typically in the third year of graduate study.
  • Funding includes a $34,000 stipend and in-state tuition and fees, including student health insurance.
  • Trainees’ home departments are responsible for the difference between the CRELS stipend and GSR trainee salary minimums.

Trainee Scholars

  • Non-funded Trainee Scholars participate in the program and receive research or travel funding, but are not eligible for stipend or tuition support. Trainee scholars do not need to be US citizens or permanent residents.

Application

Submit your application here - deadline: April 5, 2026, 11:59 pm PT

Questions about CRELS? Please contact us: bids-crels@berkeley.edu

CRELS and CSS Training Program Opportunities

The CRELS and CSS (Computational Social Science Training Program) training programs are distinct efforts, funded by two separate training grants. However, we manage many activities as one cohort, maximizing trainees’ opportunities for collaboration and to learn from each other.

Combined activities

CRELS and CSS trainees benefit from:

  • Faculty and program mentorship through guidance from faculty and program leadership, including support on research design, professional growth, and navigating interdisciplinary projects
  • Weekly research workshop where trainees share current research, receive feedback from peers and faculty, and engage in discussion around methods, research design, and career development
  • Invited faculty presentations as part of the CRELS sponsored speaker series (speakers selected with cohort input), along with opportunities to meet with the guest speakers in small group or one-on-one settings
  • Science communication workshop, a multi-day training focused on communicating research to broader audiences, including sessions with journalists, public communicators, and experienced writers
  • Access to the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) community, including talks, workshops, hackathons, and open source community events such as those connected to Berkeley’s Open Source Program Office (OSPO), Cultural Analytics Group, as well as collaborative spaces like the AI Futures Lab (AIFL)

Program Goals

CRELS emphasizes a team science approach to problem solving and prepares students to generate new scientific knowledge and develop novel tools for large-scale data integration and analysis.

Trainees can expect to acquire the following core competencies:

Note: The program will consider accepting other coursework in substitution for these courses, including coursework at other institutions.

Program Design

Key components of CRELS include:

  1. A flexible set of pathways for trainees to acquire essential competencies;
  2. Two available “tracks” through the program for trainees with either more or less background in mathematics and computation;
  3. Courses in data science, computing, applied statistics, Inequality and Criminal Legal Systems, Social Implications of AI and Big Data, and on Reproducibility and Collaborative Computational Research;
  4. Participation in a multi-disciplinary CRELS workshop that will meet weekly and will include discussion of work in progress, recently published research, and professional development.
  5. Professional development in team science, research ethics, science communication, and publishing.
  6. Mentoring from faculty from multiple disciplines.

The program accommodates the requirements of trainees’ home PhD programs while providing sufficient flexibility to explore specific interests through an individualized training plan. This built-in flexibility and careful sequencing of required elements ensures that trainees’ time to degree is not delayed.

Major Research Efforts and Projects

Trainees will typically begin the program in the summer following their first year in graduate school with workshops and bootcamps to prepare them for fall coursework and to remediate any lack of experience with coding or statistics. Students who may need extra preparation and support for success in CRELS will be counseled by the faculty on necessary BIDS or D-Lab trainings. A week prior to fall instruction, trainees will attend a program orientation that covers program requirements and structure, advice on connecting with faculty mentors, training requirements, review of individual development plans, and an introduction to key program leadership and faculty. The program orientation and subsequent group meetings will serve to form close bonds within and across cohorts. Initially, each trainee will be matched with one mentor from their own discipline and another from a different discipline, based on their research interests and developmental goals, although they will be allowed to change mentors as the program progresses.

Program coursework will occur primarily in the second year of graduate school, with some courses possibly completed in the third year, depending on requirements of the home department. We also anticipate that some trainees will begin taking program courses in their first year of graduate school, in anticipation of application to the program. Given the wide range of backgrounds and prior experiences, each trainee's coursework will need some degree of tailoring in consultation with program faculty. The coursework will play a critical role in developing core competencies that will prepare trainees for effective engagement during their 3rd year in at least one of the research projects described below.

Most trainees will take advantage of program funding in their third year. The CRELS workshops and most professional development activities will be available to all interested doctoral students on campus. Professional Development, mentoring, and other support services provided by ISSI will continue as students transition to dissertation research in their fourth and fifth years. A central goal of the fourth year in CRELS will be ensuring all trainees submit at least one paper for publication by the end of the year.

This diagram further illustrates the program design for the typical trainee:

Current Fellows

Meet our graduate students!