Mentor at Pivotal
A strong early-career researcher works full time on one of your research projects. You support them with two to four hours a week. We handle recruitment, screening, compute, logistics and day-to-day research management.
Upcoming fellowships
Our upcoming fellowships focus on AI safety and biodefense. We find the strongest new researchers and put them to work on these challenges, with people like you.
Express interestWe welcome expressions of interest throughout the year. The form takes as little as two minutes and is not a commitment.
In brief
Dates
15 weeks. The next cohort is provisionally expected to start in early May 2027; dates are to be confirmed.
Location
Remote mentorship is fully supported. Fellows will be in-person at the LISA coworking space in London.
Outputs
Research papers, policy reports, blog series, open-source tools. See examples.
Compute
£3,000+/month per fellow
We want to support ambitious projects.
Streams
Technical AI safety, AI governance, technical AI governance and AIxBio.
We welcome other projects that may still be a good fit! Please mention this in your expression of interest.
Cohort
> 30 fellows (~2% acceptance rate), typically 1–3 per mentor with group projects possible.
Strong graduate (primarily PhD) students, professionals, and outstanding undergraduates.
Who does what
Each fellow has a Pivotal Research Manager. The work divides like this:
Direction
- You
- Set the research direction
- Your fellow
- –
- Pivotal
- Help scope the project
Proposal
- You
- Approve the proposal
- Your fellow
- –
- Pivotal
- Draft, edit and format the proposal
Selection
- You
- Interview and choose your fellow
- Your fellow
- Applies, then does a work test and interviews
- Pivotal
- Source, screen and shortlist candidates
Research
- You
- Advise on research each week
- Your fellow
- Does the research, full time
- Pivotal
- Keep the research on track and unblocked
Networking
- You
- Help your fellow build connections
- Your fellow
- Joins the cohort at LISA
- Pivotal
- Provide networking and professional support
Authorship
- You
- Co-author, typically
- Your fellow
- Often first author
- Pivotal
- Co-author if warranted
Admin
- You
- –
- Your fellow
- –
- Pivotal
- Handle compute, stipends, visas, scheduling and admin
Aims for the fellowship
Aim 1: A high-quality output
Every project produces a high-quality output within the 15 weeks. This can be a paper, a policy report, a tool or something similar.
Aim 2: Career success
Every fellow ends the fellowship on track for an impactful career.
After the 15 weeks
Hired or funded
Fellows get hired, sometimes by their mentor's organisation, or receive follow-up funding to continue their research.
Extended by Pivotal
For a few highly promising projects that would not continue elsewhere, Pivotal provides extended funding.
Seed funding
Pivotal has the connections to secure seed funding for projects or organisations that grow out of the fellowship. If that looks promising, we're keen to help.
Timeline for the next fellowship (~May 2027)
Express interest
Now – January 2027
- Step 1
Express interest
Note: the detailed timeline is subject to change. Takes as little as 2min, no commitment yet.
Any time; ideally by early January for this cohort
Express interest - Step 2
Short chat
Have a call with us about your project idea and motivation.
January 2027
- Step 1
Select fellows
January – early April 2027
- Step 3
Send us the details
If accepted, provide your project description, logistics, and the information for your page on our website.
Mid-to-late January 2027
- Step 4
Choose your fellow
We provide shortlists, automated interviews and support for a work test. You run personal interviews and make the final decisions.
By early April 2027
- Step 3
Fellowship
Early May – mid-to-late August 2027 (15 weeks)
Past mentors
Our mentors have come from
- Google DeepMind
- UK AI Security Institute
- RAND
- IAPS
- GovAI
- Apollo Research
- Redwood Research
- Goodfire
- Forethought
- AI Futures Project
- SecureBio
- Timaeus
- OpenAI
Mentors from our most recent cohorts
Alfie Lamerton
Founder and Research Lead, Formation Research
Peter Peneder
ML Researcher and Bioinformatician, SecureBio
Guy
Member of Technical Staff at Security Level 5 Task Force
Ben Bucknall
PhD student / Affiliate, University of Oxford / Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
Patrick Levermore
Senior Policy Manager, Centre for Long-Term Resilience
Gabriel Kulp
Executive Director, Intelligence Security Laboratories (ISL)
Abra Ganz
AI Oversight Lead at CARMA
Charles Martinet
Researcher, Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
What mentors say
“Overall, the Pivotal fellowship is super well-organised, and mentors receive a great amount of administrative and organisational support in choosing and mentoring their fellows.”
“Very smoothly organized with lots of support for the mentees and not too much overhead for me as a mentor.”
“I was able to find high-quality people who understand AI safety to help me with a small project. They did amazing work and made me realize that this project is more important than I first realized. I'm glad Pivotal was able to support them while they did all of this.”
“Pivotal is my favourite program through which to mentor AI safety mentees. I've consistently had top applicants and found many amazing mentees through the program. The organizers respond quickly and have always been really helpful and accommodating!”
“The Pivotal mentees were highly talented and motivated. The program was well-organized and run. I would happily do this again.”
“I was very impressed by the quality of applications I received via Pivotal and by the strength of the people I ended up working with.”
- 8.6/10Average mentor recommendation score
- 7.9/10Average satisfaction with their fellows
- 43Net promoter score
Where our alumni are now
Several past mentors have gone on to hire, co-author with or continue collaborating with their fellows.
Kristina Fort
Research Manager, LawAI. Previously Policy, Google DeepMind
Soroush Ebadian
Research Fellow, Anthropic
Monika Jotautaitė
Member of Technical Staff, Apollo Research
Elsie Jang
Emerging Scholar, Mercatus Center
Theodore Ehrenborg
Research Engineer, Apollo Research
Nick Marsh
Grantmaker, Macroscopic. Previously Policy Researcher, AI Futures Project
Hamza Tariq Chaudhry
AI and National Security Lead, FLI
Reilly Haskins
Research Scientist, METR
Patricia Paskov
Director of Standards, AVERI
Aidan Homewood
Technical Governance Lead, UK AI Security Institute. Previously Research Scholar, GovAI
Questions
What does a good project look like?
A project a fellow can start in week one and get to a first result in ten weeks. See past projects for examples. Your Research Manager helps you scope the project before the fellowship starts.
What is the time commitment?
Two to four hours a week for fifteen weeks. Before the fellowship, two or three scoping calls. During it, a weekly meeting with your fellow and availability on Slack. We also ask you to fill in a short survey before and after, and to help promote your stream. Selecting your fellow takes 2–12 hours in total, depending on how involved you want to be and how many applicants you interview.
Do mentors receive an honorarium?
By default, no. If this is a barrier for you, write to us and we'll do our best to support you.
Can I take more than one fellow?
Yes. Many mentors take two or three fellows, on separate projects or as a group on one larger project. We ask how many you want during onboarding.
Can I co-mentor with someone else?
Yes. We're happy to consider this and it has worked well in the past. Please indicate in the form if you're interested.
Does remote mentorship work from other time zones?
Yes. You and your fellow agree on a meeting time that suits you both. Your Research Manager covers day-to-day support in London hours.
What about authorship and intellectual property?
Fellows do most of the research work. They are co-authors and often first authors. Mentors are typically co-authors. Pivotal never owns the IP. Where IP matters, fellow and mentor agree the arrangement case by case.
Express interest in mentoring
We review expressions of interest on a rolling basis and will get in touch when there may be a suitable opportunity. If you have questions, write to Tilman or Tobias at any time.