Frontier Biodefense Fellowship
Spend 9 weeks in London doing high-impact biodefense projects with expert mentorship.
Know someone who'd be great? Recommend and receive $1,000 if we accept them.
The fellowship
Why we run it, and what you get
Biodefense talent is bottlenecked. The field needs more serious researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, executors working on frontier threats — including PPE, biohardening, detection, and adjacent areas. The fellowship exists to grow that group.
Expert mentorship
Weekly 1-on-1s with established experts providing methodological expertise, critical feedback, and strategic direction.
Management
Pivotal's dedicated project and research managers help you scope projects, stay on track, navigate blockers, and plan your career.
LISA workspace
In-person co-working at the London Initiative for Safe AI. Lunch and dinner included weekdays.
Financial support
Stipend plus travel to London, housing support for non-London fellows, and the resources you need for your research to succeed.
Workshops & speakers
Q&A sessions with leading domain experts and hands-on workshops to sharpen your thinking and expand your network.
Extensions
Up to 2 months of continued financial support, mentorship, management, and workspace for strong projects.
Focus Areas
Areas we're excited about
Fellows work on projects defined by their mentors. We're particularly excited to support projects on:
PPE
Next-generation personal protective equipment for catastrophic biological threats.
Transmission suppression
"Biohardening" — interventions that reduce transmission at population scale.
Detection
Early-warning systems and pathogen-agnostic surveillance approaches.
…plus adjacent areas of biosecurity. Fellows produce research papers, policy reports, blog series, open-source tools, documented repos, and similar outputs.
Mentors
Meet the mentors
A glimpse of the experts you'll work with. Explore the full directory for bios and research areas.
FAQ
Common questions
Application
Primarily PhD students and early-career professionals, plus outstanding undergrads. Backgrounds we've seen across our fellowships include biology, public health, ML, policy, and physics. Your background matters less than motivation and ability.
If you're reading this, probably yes. The fellowship is selective, but that alone shouldn't put you off. If your interests and background seem like a plausible fit, applying is often worth it. Here's a short post we wrote on this.
You need to apply to at least one mentor. That said, there's often room to shape the project together with the guidance of your mentor.
A written application (~1–2 hours), then for shortlisted candidates: a short video interview, a mentor-specific work task, and a personal interview.
Fellowship
Fellows are in-person at LISA in London. We make rare exceptions for people with a strong independent research track record. If you can't fully be in-person, apply either way and flag it in the form.
The fellowship is full-time. Small side commitments are usually fine and you can mention them in your application.
Some mentors have fellows work in teams, others work one-on-one. Either way, collaboration between fellows is common and encouraged.
Research papers, policy reports, blog series, open-source tools, documented repos, and similar formats — depending on what suits the project. You retain ownership over your research.
No, Pivotal will not employ you, but we'll have a stipend agreement. Meeting entry requirements is your responsibility — we have an info doc on entry requirements and can sometimes help with the process.
We cover travel to and from London. If you don't already live here, you'll receive housing support on top of the stipend.
About Pivotal
The field needs more good researchers working on frontier biological threats. The Frontier Biodefense Fellowship is our first dedicated biosecurity programme, alongside our existing AI safety fellowship.
Yes, have a look at Work With Us or just get in touch.
Start your application
The Frontier Biodefense Fellowship is open for applications until May 31st. We look forward to reading yours.