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AISI: Funding 60 Projects to Advance AI Alignment Research
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High(4)High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: UK AI Safety Institute
This 2026 announcement from the UK AISI marks a major government-led effort to institutionalize and scale AI alignment research funding globally, notable for its coalition-building across governments, industry, and philanthropy.
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Importance: 62/100blog postnews
Summary
The UK AI Safety Institute announced the first 60 grantees of the Alignment Project, a global funding initiative now totaling £27 million with partners including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic. The program received 800+ applications from 466 institutions across 42 countries, selecting projects spanning mathematics, learning theory, economics, and cognitive science. This represents a significant institutional commitment to scaling alignment research infrastructure globally.
Key Points
- •First cohort of 60 grantees selected from 800+ applications across 42 countries, reflecting broad international interest in alignment research
- •Total funding expanded to £27m with new partners including OpenAI (£5.6m), Microsoft, and the Australian AI Safety Institute joining the coalition
- •Projects span diverse disciplines (mathematics, learning theory, economics, cognitive science) reflecting multidisciplinary approach to alignment
- •Highlighted projects include LawZero's Scientist AI (Yoshua Bengio), focusing on transparent reasoning and minimizing AI agency/deception
- •Program aims to remove barriers to alignment research by supporting people, compute, and collaboration needed to stress-test ideas at scale
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Organisation Funding 60 projects to advance AI alignment research
The Alignment Project welcomes its first cohort of grantees, and new partners join the coalition, bringing total funding to £27m.
— Feb 19, 2026 AI systems are advancing quickly, and their potential is vast. To realise the benefits of more capable AI, we need confidence that powerful systems will do what we intend, even in complex, high-stakes settings.
AI alignment is a crucial subset of that challenge. Alignment research asks how to build and deploy AI that follows human intent, avoids harmful side effects, and remains under human oversight and control. As systems become more capable and autonomous, methods that work for today’s models may not hold up tomorrow.
That’s why we set up the Alignment Project , a global funding programme to accelerate progress in alignment research and innovation. Today we’re announcing our first 60 grant awardees, alongside new partners and £12m in additional funding, bringing total support for alignment research to £27m.
A growing coalition
The Alignment Project launched in July 2025 with over £15 million in funding, backed by an international coalition including the Canadian AI Safety Institute, CIFAR, Schmidt Sciences, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anthropic, Halcyon Futures, the Safe AI Fund, UK Research and Innovation, and the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
We now welcome OpenAI, Microsoft, the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ AI Safety Institute, the AI Safety Tactical Opportunities Fund, Sympatico Ventures, and Renaissance Philanthropy.
Together, these partners bring total funding available for alignment research to £27m, including £5.6m from OpenAI . This funding will help remove barriers that have historically limited alignment research. It supports the people, time, compute and collaboration needed to stress-test ideas at scale.
Announcing the first 60 grantees
Interest in the Alignment Project’s first funding round was extraordinary. We received 800+ applications from 466 institutions across 42 countries.
We shortlisted 101 proposals for full applications after assessing every submission for relevance, feasibility, innovation, actionability, and team capability. Shortlisted applicants then worked with our team to sharpen their theory of change, execution plan and budgets, before full proposals were assessed in depth by expert reviewers and a moderation board.
The 60 successful projects span fields like mathematics, learning theory, economics, cognitive science and more, reflecting our belief that alignment progress requires a multidisciplinary effort. ( Full list of awardees. )
Below are three projects that illustrate the range of the portfolio:
1. Scientist AI
LawZero, a non-p
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