Winter Fellowship 2026
Summer and Winter Fellowships provide an opportunity for early-career individuals or established professionals new to the field of AI governance to spend three months working on an AI governance research project, deepening their knowledge of the field, and forging connections with other researchers and practitioners. We are looking for candidates who are strongly considering using their careers to study or shape the lasting implications of AI.
Applications for the Winter Fellowship are now open. The deadline for applications is 23:59 BST Sunday 13 July 2025.
About the Team
GovAI was founded to help humanity navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI. Our first research agenda, published in 2018, helped define and shape the nascent field of AI governance. Our team and affiliate community possess expertise in a wide variety of domains, including AI regulation, responsible development and release practices, technical governance, agent governance, threat modelling, AI company corporate governance, US-China relations, and AI progress forecasting.
GovAI researchers have closely advised decision makers in government, industry, and civil society. Our researchers have also published in top peer-reviewed journals and conferences, including Science, FAccT, and NeurIPS. Our alumni have gone on to roles in government in the US, the UK, and the EU; top AI companies, including DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic; top think tanks, including the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology and RAND; and top universities, including the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
About the Fellowship
Seasonal Fellows join GovAI to conduct independent research on a topic of their choice, with mentorship from leading experts in the field. Each fellow is paired with a supervisor from the GovAI team or network. They spend the first two weeks of the fellowship exploring the AI governance landscape, before settling on a research proposal with input from their supervisors. Their research could result in a report, white paper, journal article, op-ed, or blog post targeted at an audience relevant to AI governance. The Research Managers and our broader team will offer additional support in deciding what project and output would be most valuable for the fellow to work toward. You can read about the topics our previous cohorts of Summer and Winter Fellows worked on here and here.
Alongside their research and weekly meetings with their supervisors, fellows will also have the opportunity to widen their professional network and upskill on AI governance. GovAI will organise a series of Q&A sessions with AI governance experts; workshops and seminars aimed at building relevant skills and subject-matter knowledge; work-in-progress meetings that facilitate peer-to-peer feedback; as well as social events. Fellows will also be encouraged to discuss follow-on career opportunities with our team and network.
Qualifications and Selection Criteria
We strongly encourage you to apply if you have an interest in our work and are considering using your career to study or shape the lasting implications of AI.
We are interested in candidates from a broad set of professional backgrounds, including those with experience in government, academia, industry, or civil society. Relevant disciplines include political science, public policy, computer science, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, and law. There are no specific educational requirements for the role, although we expect that the most promising candidates will typically have relevant graduate study, research experience, or professional experience in related areas.
When assessing applications, we will be looking for candidates who have the following strengths or show positive signs of being able to develop them:
Quality of work: The ability to produce clearly written, insightful, and even-handed research. We are particularly excited about strong reasoning ability and clear and concise writing.
Relevant expertise: Skills or knowledge that are likely to be helpful for work on AI governance. We think that relevant expertise can take many different forms. Note that we also do not have any strict degree requirements.
Judgement: The ability to prioritise between different research directions, and good intuitions about the feasibility of different research directions.
Team fit: Openness to feedback, commitment to intellectual honesty and rigour, comfort in expressing uncertainty, and a serious interest in using your career to contribute to AI governance.
Salary, Duration, and Location
Winter Fellows will join for three months, between 19 January and 10 April, in our office in London, UK. Fellows will receive a stipend of £11,000, plus support for travelling to London. While in London, we provide our Fellows with lunch on weekdays and a desk in our London office. This is intended to be a full-time and in-person role. We are able to sponsor visas. For successful applicants who require a visa, note that you will need to remain in your country of visa application for some time while the visa application is underway.
We realise that for senior professionals or academics, some of the above may present obstacles to your participation in the fellowship. For candidates with exceptional profiles, we are sometimes able to make accommodations. If you would like to discuss this option, please email recruitment@governance.ai with the subject line containing the words “senior candidate winter fellowship 2026,” a copy of your CV, and a brief explanation of your requirements.
How to Apply and What to Expect
The application process consists of a written submission in the first round. Selected candidates will then complete an approximately 20-minute automated assessment that serves as a pathway to the second round, which includes a paid remote work test. In the final round, we will invite candidates to a remote interview.
We expect to reach out to Winter Fellowship candidates for the automated assessment shortly after submission, for paid work tests in August, offer interviews in September, and communicate final decisions to candidates in October. Please feel free to reach out to recruitment@governance.ai if you would need a decision communicated earlier than the standard timeline (this may or may not be possible), or have questions about the application process.
We accept applications from anywhere in the world. We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all candidates regardless of race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. If you are concerned that you’re not the right fit but have a strong interest in the Fellowship, we encourage you to apply anyway.