Funding & Grants

You don't need to work at a lab to do AI safety research. Independent research is viable — if you know where to find funding and support.

Getting started as an independent researcher

Many of the most impactful contributions to AI safety have come from independent researchers — people who aren't employed by a major lab but are doing serious, original work. The ecosystem is set up to support this: there are grants specifically for independent alignment research, coworking spaces that provide community and structure, and visiting researcher programs that give you access to resources without a full-time position.

The typical path looks something like this: complete a fellowship or program to build your skills, develop a concrete research agenda, then apply for funding to support 6-12 months of independent work. Many researchers base themselves at a coworking space like Constellation, LISA, or Meridian for the community and accountability.

The bar for funding is lower than you might think. Grantmakers in this space are actively looking for promising researchers and are willing to take bets on people early in their careers. A clear research question, a credible plan for investigating it, and evidence that you can execute — that's often enough to get started. For a practical guide to the grant writing process, see Marc Sheraton-Sherbourne's Everything I Learnt About Grant Writing Without Going Mad.

💰

Where to Apply for Funding

Career transition grant
BlueDot Impact — Career Transition Grants
Funding to work full-time on your own transition into AI safety or biosecurity — upskilling, testing a path, building a network — with warm introductions and regular check-ins alongside the money. You propose the amount and the duration. A BlueDot course is not a prerequisite, but you do need recent concrete action and a plan that produces something useful even if your first hypothesis turns out to be wrong.
Career changers Full-time You set the ask Mentoring included
Small, fast grant
BlueDot Impact — Rapid Grants
Grants from $50 for concrete AI safety work, decided in about five working days and usually paid up front. The advertised ceiling is $10,000, but larger asks are worth making — around $25,000 is realistic. Compute and API credits, travel, events, running a local group, project tooling. Open to anyone, though BlueDot course participants, alumni and facilitators are the likeliest recipients, and the reporting afterwards is a short impact update rather than a formal report.
Fastest route Rolling applications Up to ~$25k Compute credits
Research grant
Transformative AI Fund (TAIF)
EA Funds' grantmaker for early-stage work on risks from advanced AI, and the successor to the Long-Term Future Fund (LTFF), which closed in 2026 — same home, narrower remit and a new team. Grants usually run $10k–$150k, applications are rolling, and individuals and brand-new projects are explicitly in scope, which makes it one of the few realistic funders for independent researchers.
Major funder Rolling applications Early-stage
Career transition grant
Coefficient Giving — Career Transition
Funding to cover living costs while you retrain for AI safety work — graduate study, unpaid internships, independent study, or a straight career-transition period. Applications are rolling, with decisions usually inside six weeks. They have begun directing career-transition applicants towards BlueDot's grant above, so start there if you fit it and treat this as the route for the things BlueDot doesn't cover, degrees especially.
Career changers Living costs Funds degrees
Grant platform
Lightcone Commons
Launched in 2026 by Lightcone Infrastructure, running the same evaluation machinery that has moved over $100m through SFF and Lightspeed Grants — but now open directly, with roughly $20m in its first round and rounds about every three months. Individuals, nonprofits and for-profits can all apply, paid evaluators produce recommendations, and funders decide from those; a late application simply rolls into the next round.
New Quarterly rounds Individuals welcome Large pool
Research grant
Future of Life Institute (FLI)
FLI runs grant programs focused on existential risk from AI, including technical safety research and AI governance. Their grants tend to be larger and more structured — well-suited for researchers with a defined agenda and track record, or for collaborative projects between multiple researchers.
X-risk focused Larger grants Technical & governance
Crowdfunding / Regranting
Manifund
A regranting and crowdfunding platform where you can pitch your research project directly to funders in the AI safety community. More lightweight than a traditional grant application — you create a project page, and regrantors or individual donors can fund it. Good for smaller projects, pilot studies, or supplementary funding.
Regranting Crowdfunding Low barrier Fast turnaround
🏠

Visiting Researcher Programs

Cambridge, UK
Meridian — Visiting Researcher Program
Meridian offers a visiting researcher program that gives you desk space, community, and access to the Cambridge AI safety ecosystem for a defined period. A good option if you want to spend time in Cambridge working on your research while connecting with the local safety community.
Desk space Cambridge community Temporary
Berkeley, CA
Constellation — Visiting Researchers
Constellation welcomes visiting researchers who are working on AI safety. As the largest safety coworking space, it offers unparalleled access to the Berkeley alignment community — including MATS scholars, independent researchers, and people from major labs. Being at Constellation for even a few weeks can transform your network and research direction.
Major hub Berkeley community Networking

Writing a strong grant application

Be specific about what you'll work on and why it matters for AI safety. Grantmakers see many vague proposals — the ones that stand out have a clear research question, a concrete plan for the first few months, and honest reasoning about why this approach might work. If you've done a fellowship or published on the Alignment Forum, reference that work directly.

🧭

Want one-on-one guidance?

Paid career calls — application reviews, research direction, and navigating the field — are paused for now, and may resume soon.

Read more →