Deadline: January 4, 2026
Applications are open for the GovAI Summer Fellowship 2026 – Applied Track. Seasonal Fellowships are three-month opportunities designed to launch or accelerate impactful careers in AI governance and policy. Participants in the “Applied Track” execute projects of their choice in areas other than traditional research. They also participate in an expert Q&A and seminar series aimed at developing a broad understanding of the field and spend time forging connections with researchers and practitioners.
Fellowship Details
Seasonal Fellows in the Applied Track join GovAI to work on project(s) of their choice in areas other than traditional research. Past applied projects have included organising a high-impact event, working as a project manager for policy engagement work, developing the communications strategy for a new AI safety org, and writing a series of policy memos to inform live policy development. They are potentially open to a broad array of projects, as long as the applicant can make a case for how the project would help to set them up for an impactful non-research career in AI governance.
Each fellow is paired with a mentor from the GovAI team or network. They spend the first two weeks of the fellowship exploring what project(s) would be most valuable for them to work on, with input from their mentor, the Fellowship Team, and the broader GovAI community; and the following ten weeks executing on them.
Alongside their projects, fellows will also invest time in upskilling on AI governance and widening their professional network. GovAI will organize a series of Q&A sessions with AI governance experts, weekly seminars aimed at developing subject-matter knowledge, workshops for building relevant skills, work-in-progress meetings that facilitate peer-to-peer feedback, and social events. Fellows will also be encouraged to discuss follow-on career opportunities with the GovAI team and network.
Benefits
- Summer Fellows will join for three months, between 8 June and 28 August, in the office in London, UK. Fellows will receive a stipend of £12,000, plus support for travelling to London.
- While in London, they provide Fellows with lunch on weekdays and a desk in the London office. This is intended to be a full-time and in-person role. They are able to sponsor 3-month temporary work 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.
Eligibility
- They strongly encourage you to apply if you are interested in using your career to help decision-makers navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI, in roles in which research is not the main duty. Some of the most in-demand roles in the field currently are operations and communications staff, research and program managers, and policy engagement professionals.
- They are interested in candidates from a broad set of professional backgrounds, including those with experience in government, academia, industry, startups, media, or civil society. There are no specific requirements for the role, although they expect that the most promising candidates will typically have relevant professional experience in roles involving, for example, communications, policy, issue advocacy, events, research management, program management, operations, fundraising, or research.
When assessing applications, they will be looking for candidates who have the following strengths or show positive signs of being able to develop them:
- Relevant expertise: Skills or knowledge that are likely to be useful for non-research roles in AI governance. As mentioned above, we think that relevant expertise can take many different forms.
- Quality of work: The ability to perform at the highest level in their area of expertise. We are looking for signals of excellence.
- Judgement: The ability to prioritise between different projects, and good intuitions about the feasibility of different projects.
- 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.
Application
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, they will invite candidates to a remote interview.
Applications for the Summer Fellowship are now open. The deadline for applications is 23:59 GMT Sunday 4 January, 2026.
For more information, visit GovAI Summer Fellowship.
