Technical AI Safety Request for Proposals (RFP)

Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy), the largest funder in existential risk reduction, has issued a Request for Proposals for Technical AI Safety Research focused on alignment, interpretability, and control of advanced AI systems. The RFP accepts proposals on a rolling basis with no fixed deadline. Coefficient Giving expects to spend roughly $40 million on this initiative and is open to spending substantially more depending on application quality. The program funds a wide range of activities including fundamental alignment research, interpretability and mechanistic understanding of AI systems, AI control and containment strategies, evaluation and benchmarking of AI safety properties, scalable oversight methods, and seed funding for new AI safety research organizations. This is distinct from Coefficient Giving's separate AI Governance Research RFP which focuses on policy and governance questions.

Coefficient Giving (the rebranded Open Philanthropy) is funding technical research that advances the science of building safe and trustworthy AI systems, including understanding and preventing frontier AI system misalignment, creating valid evaluations and interventions, and developing oversight mechanisms for superhuman AI capabilities. The RFP is open to proposals of many sizes and purposes, ranging from rapid funding for API credits and compute to discrete 6-24 month projects, academic start-up packages, and seed funding for new research organizations. Coefficient expected to deploy roughly $40 million over the initial period, with capacity to spend substantially more depending on application quality.

The AI Safety Policy Entrepreneurship Fellowship is FAS's route for turning technical and domain expertise into frontier AI safety policy that actually moves. It is a part-time hybrid programme running 30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027, with applications due 7 September 2026, and it pays a USD 5,000 stipend plus up to USD 1,000 as a merit award. Fellows commit roughly five hours a week to developing a policy memo on a specific AI safety challenge, attend training sessions, join an in-person retreat in California from 4 to 7 November 2026, and present at a capstone event in Washington DC during the week of 22 February 2027. The design target is explicit and unusual: it recruits early- to mid-career professionals who have limited direct public policy experience but deep expertise elsewhere - technical AI research, academia, think tanks, civil society, industry, law, cybersecurity and national security - and teaches them the mechanics of getting an idea adopted. Selection weighs clear understanding of AI governance challenges, concrete implementation-oriented solutions rather than broad principles, awareness of which stakeholders must be moved, and a credible commitment to translating expertise into policy outcomes. Because the stipend is modest and the time commitment part-time, this is designed to sit alongside an existing job rather than replace one.

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is committed to advancing work that furthers the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) mission to keep our country safe and secure and uphold the rule of law and protect the rights of American citizens. OJP provides federal leadership, funding, and other critical resources to directly support law enforcement, combat violent crime, protect American children, provide services to American crime victims, and address public safety challenges, including human trafficking and the opioid crisis. This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY2026 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program—State Formula. This opportunity will provide formula funding to states to, in general, support hiring additional personnel and/or purchase equipment, supplies, contractual support, training, technical assistance, and information systems for criminal justice or civil proceedings, including for any one or more of the eleven program areas. With this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), BJA seeks to award Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funds to eligible states. Only designated state administering agencies are eligible to apply for this NOFO. Funding Opportunity Number: O-BJA-2026-172704. Assistance Listing: 16.738. Funding Instrument: G. Category: LJL. Award Amount: Up to $21.5M per award.

Boosting biorefinery competitiveness through biotech is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Successful proposals will contribute to the implementation of the EU initiative on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, the EU Life Sciences Strategy, the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU Biotechnology Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Chemical Industry Action Plan and the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act. Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes: Full industrial scale biorefinery and related value chain(s) for the sustainable production of bio-based products using biotech as a key enabling technology. Availability of bio-based products meeting market and technical performance requirements as relevant for their respective application areas. Improvement of sustainability, circularity and resource efficiency compared to relevant benchmark(s). Contribution to increasing the EU’s strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness. Scope: Biorefineries integrating biotechnologies, underpinned by sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock, have a huge potential to transform the EU manufacturing landscape, spurring socio-economic growth, fostering job creation and contributing to defossilisation of the EU economy. Europe is strong in life sciences including industrial biotechnology. However, research results often struggle to be deployed to the market; in most cases, scale-up needs de-risking and requires overcoming challenges in large-scale process and reactor design, cell productivity, efficient use of feedstock, operative condition stability, reactor sterility and efficient integration of downstream operations among others. Proposals under this topic should: Demonstrate (at TRL 8) a sustainable and robust biomanufacturing route to obtain bio-based product(s). The proposal should focus on processes in which biotechnology is the key enabling technology; the integration of (upstream and/or downstream) supporting unit operations based on technologies other than biotechnology is in scope. Products in scope include chemicals, intermediates, polymers, ingredients and enzymes. Food and feed ingredients as main application are out of scope. Optimisation of selected cells, enzymes and/or microorganisms is also in scope provided that the starting TRL is at least 6. Demonstrate (at TRL 8) the further conversion or use of the obtained biorefinery product(s) into at least one end-product driving the business case; validate it (TRL 6 and above) in relevant market applications. Additional end-product(s) with high prospective market potential can be targeted, reaching at least TRL 6. In addition to the specific requirements applicable for the type of action, as described in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2026 [1] , proposals under this topic should: As part of the multi-actor approach (MAA), ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic and across the sustainable circular bio-based system, including feedstock providers, policymakers and end users. Address compliance with EU regulatory frameworks as relevant for targeted products and applications, identify potential gaps and provide recommendations to overcome them. Perform a risk assessment on impacts, potentially deriving from the use of biotechnology, on human and ecosystem safety and identify adequate mitigation measures. Assess the adequacy of policy and regulatory means to manage these risks and provide recommendations to overcome potential identified bottlenecks. Include a task to apply the SSbD framework, developed by the European Commission, for the assessment of the production process of targeted biorefinery product(s) as well as the chosen derived end product(s). For more information on the SSbD framework and criteria, refer to Safe and sustainable by design . Seek complementarities and avoid overlaps with past and ongoing R&I projects addressing similar challenges, including those funded by BBI JU/CBE JU and under Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe (under Cl Programme areas: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy, Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Keywords: Applied and industrial chemistry, Bioprocessing technologies (industrial processes relying on biological agents to drive the process) biocatalysis, fermentation, Industrial bioengineering, Industrial biotechnology, bio-based feedstock, bio-based products, bio-conversion, bioreactors, biorefineries, downstream technologies, safe and sustainable by design, STEP-Biotech