Currently 4 active tech and infrastructure grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in the US. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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The AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships place scientists and engineers inside US federal agencies, congressional offices and the judicial branch for a year of hands-on policymaking, contributing technical knowledge and analytical skills to the federal policy process. AI, data and computing policy placements are among the largest tracks, and AAAS runs a dedicated AI legislative branch cohort that places AI experts in congressional offices at GS-12 Step 10 on the DC locality scale. ELIGIBILITY: US citizens holding a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree in any science or engineering field, or a master's degree in engineering plus three years of post-degree professional experience; some tracks accept a bachelor's plus five years. Relevant expertise includes AI, machine learning, computer science, robotics and data science. Fellows must reside in DC, Maryland or northern Virginia during the fellowship year. TIMELINE: the application portal opens 1 August 2026 and closes 1 November 2026 at 11:59pm ET, with eligibility notification in late November, interview notification January to February 2027, semi-finalist interviews in March, placement offers by early May, and the fellowship year running 1 September 2027 to 31 August 2028. Apply through fellowshipapp.aaas.org.
ACLS Digital Justice Grants fund digital projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of colour and other historically marginalised communities, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities. The programme's stated aims are to diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues, with an explicit interest in scholars working with under-utilised or understudied source materials and those at institutions with less infrastructure for digital work. TWO TRACKS, one deadline: SEED GRANTS of USD 10,000 to 25,000 for projects in the start-up or prototyping phase, covering planning, prototyping and methodology testing; and DEVELOPMENT GRANTS of USD 50,000 to 100,000 for projects that have moved past proof of concept and can show preliminary work and evidence of engagement. ELIGIBILITY: at least one principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities or interpretive social sciences, and awarded funds must be administered by a US institution of higher education. WHAT IS NOT FUNDED: creative works such as novels or films, textbooks, straightforward translations, purely pedagogical projects, and institutional indirect costs. Note that outputs are expected to be made as widely available as intellectual property allows, ideally under the most liberal open-source or Creative Commons licence. TIMING: applications go through the ACLS online fellowship and grant administration system (ofa.acls.org) by 3 November 2026 at 17:00 ET; grant terms begin between 1 July and 31 December 2027 and run 12 to 18 months. The programme is funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The American Sunlight Project works to ensure that citizens have access to trustworthy sources to inform the choices they make in their daily lives. It is looking for a Free Expression Fellow to produce its regular newsletter on censorship, helping readers stay informed on a rapidly evolving US political landscape. RESPONSIBILITIES: compile and write 'Last Week in Censorship', a clear and engaging newsletter-style roundup of platform policy changes, censorship news and regulatory developments that erode American democracy; and, in support of the organisation's censorship tracker, compile instances from the weekly briefing into a database. IDEAL CANDIDATE: motivated to document instances of democratic backsliding in the United States and happy to take on a part-time nonprofit commitment in service of that goal. The posting explicitly welcomes students, retirees and people looking to moonlight for a good cause. REQUIRED: U.S. citizenship or legal residency; exceptional writing skills with a strong command of tone, clarity and synthesis; and knowledge of U.S. politics and social media. DESIRABLE: experience in research, journalism, public policy or a related field. STRONG PLUS: familiarity with tech policy, internet culture, free expression issues and/or platform governance. Familiarity with Substack is a plus but not required. TERMS: roughly 5 to 8 hours per week, fully remote with flexible scheduling, starting as soon as possible and running through December 2026 with possible extension pending funding, for a USD 2,500 honorarium. APPLY by emailing your CV, a short cover note of a couple of paragraphs explaining your interest, and a writing sample (preferably on a tech or policy topic) to benjamin@americansunlight.org with 'Fellow Application' in the subject line. No closing date is stated.
The ILIAD Intensive is a four-week, full-time, in-person program for mathematically strong researchers interested in foundational AI alignment, running in London (at LISA) and in Berkeley. It runs five days a week, 10am to 6pm, in cohorts of 15 to 30 participants. CURRICULUM, across five clusters: Alignment (decomposing the alignment problem, pretraining, post-training and deployment, reward learning); Learning (deep learning theory, singular learning theory, training dynamics); Abstractions, Representations and Interpretability (mechanistic interpretability, natural latents); Agency (reinforcement learning, decision theory, agent foundations); and Safety Guarantees (debate, steganography, the limits of interpretability). MONEY: no tuition is charged. Each participant receives a USD 5,000 travel and housing allowance, office space at the venue, and lunch and dinner five days a week. Participants book and pay for their own travel and accommodation out of the allowance. ELIGIBILITY: a strong mathematical background, typically graduate-level study or a completed degree in mathematics, physics or theoretical computer science, though mathematical maturity is weighted more heavily than specific credentials. Research experience, general competence and motivation are also assessed. Prior machine learning or alignment experience is not required. DEADLINE: no fixed closing date is published. A single application covers several upcoming programs and applicants indicate their preferred dates and locations; applications are being accepted for the October 2026 and November 2026 cohorts. HOW TO APPLY: through the application portal at iliad.ac/apply. Questions to contact@iliad.ac.