Fellow in Residence

Summary

Schmidt Sciences invites recent PhD graduates in AI and computer science to apply for a 12-18 month fellows-in-residence program, with the possibility of extension to 24 months. Fellows would split their time between supporting the AI Institute’s grantmaking efforts and conducting independent research. Up to three fellows will be hired in 2027.

Review of applications will commence on December 15, 2026, and priority review will be given to applications submitted by this date.

For this cohort, we are most interested in hiring experts in the following domains:

• Trustworthy AI and alignment
• AI interpretability
• Multi-agent systems
• AI for scientific discovery
• AI’s impact on the labor market, knowledge production, and metascience

About the Fellows-in-Residence Program

The goal of this fellowship is to allow early career AI researchers a flexible environment in which to pursue specific research projects while contributing to the work of the AI Institute at Schmidt Sciences. Fellows would split their time, roughly equally, between independent research and grantmaking work for the AI Institute as directed.

Fellows will indicate interest in specific areas of AI research as part of their application. Schmidt Sciences relies on domain experts to support grant decisions throughout all stages of review of external funding proposals. Fellows will directly engage with external proposals as well as assist with recruiting external reviewers for evaluating proposals.

This role involves significant autonomy and strategic thinking. Fellows will be expected to articulate arguments for what areas of AI research merit more philanthropic support, and they will contribute directly to Schmidt Sciences’ funding efforts.

Resources and Opportunities

Each fellow will have access to several valuable resources over the course of their fellowship:

Access to $50,000 in compute credits over the course of the fellowship, subject to Director approval, for their independent research.

Access to $50,000 in funding for workshops, colloquia, and similar events that support researchers within the fellow’s area of expertise, subject to Director approval.

Travel funds to collaborate with others on research projects

The opportunity to meet Schmidt Sciences grantees in the AI ecosystem

Duration

Initial appointments will be for 12-18 months. We will consider an extension of the term-limited appointment up to a cumulative time of 24 months, if necessary to complete ongoing projects with the AI Institute and mutually agreed upon, at the discretion of the President of Schmidt Sciences.

Fellows will begin work in 2027, with flexibility around exact start and end dates to accommodate academic commitments and other needs.

Location

Fellows will be based at our New York City office. Fellows will be permitted to spend a portion of their time at a university if they have an external affiliation.

Selection Criteria

Fellows will be invited to interview with Schmidt Sciences on the basis of their academic accomplishments and publications, the relevance of their academic research to the AI Institute’s priorities, and the relevance and quality of their proposed research projects.

We expect applicants to demonstrate AI fluency in their daily workflows, i.e. comfort using AI products and tools (for example, Claude, ChatGPT, or similar) to improve the efficiency and quality of their work, along with genuine interest in staying current on how these tools evolve.

Independent Research

Fellows will spend half their time continuing their own independent research. Fellows will be permitted to have unpaid, external academic appointments, as long as they do not conflict with either institution’s policies (e.g., conflict of interest policies). Past fellows have maintained affiliations with Stanford, MIT, and JHU, for example.

We expect independent research to be aligned with the applicant’s area of expertise. Publications by fellows will list their Schmidt Sciences affiliation and require a lightweight legal review by Schmidt Sciences staff.

Grantmaking Activities

We expect the other half of fellows’ time to involve supporting grantmaking activities of the AI Institute. These may include:

Reading and assessing research proposals in multiple areas of AI, including safety, AI and science, AI and economics, etc.

Matching research proposals to expert reviewers to facilitate our grantmaking decisions

Organizing a series of workshops to build the research community in one of our focus areas. This work could also take the form of a series of smaller grants that the fellow helps applicants in an area to develop.

Attending gatherings we organize for our grantees, as well as representing Schmidt Sciences at external conferences