Systemic AI safety fast grants
This programme will fund researchers who will collaborate with the UK government to advance systemic approaches to AI safety.
Documents
Details
AI safety aims to protect society from present and future harms arising from artificial intelligence (AI). To date, the focus of the UK AI Safety Institute (AISI) has been on how AI models themselves could be misused or cause inadvertent harm. However, the risks that AI poses to people and society depend not just on the models themselves, but on the systems and infrastructure in which they operate.
To understand and avert these risks, we believe that a systems-focused approach to AI safety is needed. We want to kickstart a research programme into Systemic AI Safety now before more advanced AI models are developed and deployed.
What is being funded
In partnership with UKRI, the UK AI Safety Institute (AISI) will shortly be inviting researchers to submit grant proposals that directly address a problem in systemic AI safety or improve our understanding of systemic AI safety. We will prioritise applications that offer concrete, actionable approaches to significant systemic risks from AI.
We expect to offer around 20 exploratory or proof-of-concept grants and will invite future bid for more substantial proposals, to further develop research programmes.
The AI Safety Institute will be working with UK Research and Innovation and The Alan Turing Institute on this work. Alongside this, we will be collaborating with other AI Safety Institutes from around the world.
Applications for this programme will be published in due course. You can also sign up here to receive updates about the programme.
Eligibility
We would like to invite proposals from researchers in any field.
You need to be:
- associated with a host organisation that can receive the awarded funds. This could be a university, a business, a civil society organisation, or part of government.
- based in the UK (but teams may involve international collaborators).
Proposals: what we are looking for
We want successful proposals to translate into meaningful impact. Our goal is to build a community of researchers who are focussed on systemic AI safety. To this end, we will meet regularly with grantees and connect them to other stakeholders both within and beyond the UK government to ensure that ideas reach their full potential.
Contact
You can email AISIgrants@dsit.gov.uk or visit www.aisi.gov.uk/grants for more information.