Updated November 3, 2026
AI Safety Research Grants
Open grants and fellowships for AI safety, alignment, interpretability, and AI governance research, from AI labs, foundations, and federal agencies. Updated daily.
AI safety has gone from a niche research area to one of the fastest-growing corners of research funding. The labs building frontier models now fund outside safety research directly, through fellowships, research awards, and industry-backed pools like the Frontier Model Forum's AI Safety Fund. Philanthropies including Coefficient Giving, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and the Future of Life Institute run dedicated programs, and federal agencies are funding the mathematical and technical foundations that trustworthy AI depends on.
Featured grants
Updated automatically from Atom's grant database. Summaries are AI-generated.Request for Proposals: AI Governance
Request for Proposals: AI Governance supports researchers and organizations with research, training, and governance project funding to reduce catastrophic risks from advanced AI.
AI for Privacy, Safety, and Security Academic Research Awards
Google's AI for Privacy, Safety, and Security Academic Research Awards fund interdisciplinary research using AI to tackle digital privacy, safety, and security challenges.
Technology in the Public Interest
Supports research and networks to improve oversight, evaluation, and accountability in AI governance, prioritizing public interest, equity, and transparency in high-impact sectors.
The field is broader than its name suggests. Funders support technical work on alignment, interpretability, robustness, and model evaluations, but also governance, policy, security, and research on how advanced AI affects work, institutions, and society. That breadth means researchers in computer science, statistics, economics, law, philosophy, and the policy sciences can all find programs that fit, and many safety funders explicitly welcome applicants who are new to the area.
This collection tracks open grants and fellowships for AI safety and governance research across AI labs, foundations, and government funders. It refreshes as new calls open and deadlines pass. Many safety programs accept applications on a rolling basis or open on short notice, so a live list catches opportunities that an annual calendar misses.
Funding for work that builds capacity to address risks from transformative AI
Funding for work that builds capacity to address risks from transformative AI supports new and existing AI-risk talent through training, networks, and shared knowledge to help society navigate transformative AI.
AI Safety Fund
AI Safety Fund supports independent researchers studying frontier AI safety and security to reduce public risks, mitigate malicious use, and enable standardized, independent evaluations of AI systems.
Researcher Access Program
Researcher Access Program supports researchers and research nonprofits with OpenAI API access to study responsible AI deployment, mitigate risks, and examine AI’s effects on people and society.
US-China AI Governance PhD Fellowships
US-China AI Governance PhD Fellowships support PhD researchers studying AI governance and cooperation to reduce risks arising from US-China competition in the development and deployment of advanced AI.
Technical PhD Fellowships
Technical PhD Fellowships support PhD researchers studying AI existential risks and developing technical approaches to reduce them, strengthening the research community working on AI existential safety.
SFF is taking on a more proactive stance toward AI risk
The SFF Initiative Committee internally identifies and funds research projects aimed at reducing existential risks from advanced AI and related technologies, focusing on AI safety, policy, and global flourishing.
The Policyholder Behavior in the Artificial Intelligence Era
The Policyholder Behavior in the Artificial Intelligence Era supports researchers studying consumer AI use in life insurance to understand changes in policyholder behavior, product performance and risk.
AI for Science program
AI for Science program supports researchers with API access for AI-enabled scientific work, emphasizing biology and life sciences to accelerate discovery and contribute to positive real-world impact.
AI for Information Security call for proposals - Fall 2026
AI for Information Security call for proposals - Fall 2026 supports researchers developing AI for secure agents, threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability remediation to address security challenges.
AI Opportunity
AI Opportunity supports Chicago youth, communities, and nonprofits through work on AI, the economy, and workforce, community-centered development, and nonprofit uses to expand equitable participation in AI.
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare supports researchers and graduate students attending a conference to examine AI tools and their potential to help or harm healthcare quality and efficiency.
Multilingual and Contextual AI Evaluation call for proposals - Fall 2026
Multilingual and Contextual AI Evaluation call for proposals - Fall 2026 supports academic and nonprofit researchers evaluating AI across languages and cultures to improve safety and fairness in the Global South.
The Right AI Tool for the Job: How Actuaries Choose Between Models, Platforms, and Architectures RFP
The Right AI Tool for the Job: How Actuaries Choose Between Models, Platforms, and Architectures RFP supports researchers developing a practical framework to help actuaries select fit-for-purpose AI approaches.
Explainable AI and Regulatory Compliance RFP
Explainable AI and Regulatory Compliance RFP supports researchers examining explainable AI techniques and adoption in actuarial work to make AI usable where decisions need explanation and documentation.
AI and the Workforce
AI and the Workforce supports academic scholars researching how artificial intelligence affects employment, productivity, occupational change, and economic opportunity over time to deepen understanding of work.
Technical Postdoctoral Fellowships
The Technical Postdoctoral Fellowships from the Future of Life Institute support postdocs conducting technical research to reduce existential risks from advanced AI.
Advancing Research at the intersection of Biology and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)
Advancing Research at the intersection of Biology and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) supports researchers using AI/ML for biological discovery and biology-informed methods to advance both fields.
Frequently asked questions
Philanthropic funders include Coefficient Giving, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and the Future of Life Institute. AI companies fund outside research through programs such as the Anthropic Fellows Program, Google's academic research awards, and the Frontier Model Forum's AI Safety Fund.
Not always. Technical programs fund alignment, interpretability, and evaluations work, but many funders also support governance, policy, law, economics, and ethics research on advanced AI.
Yes. Several funders run PhD and postdoctoral fellowships, and some fellowship programs specifically recruit researchers who are new to the field. Check each listing's eligibility for career stage and location.
AI safety funding focuses on making advanced AI systems reliable, controllable, and beneficial, rather than on improving capabilities or applying AI to other fields. Atom's AI Research Grants collection covers the broader field.