MATS Research

MATS empowers researchers to advance AI alignment, transparency, and security

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

🚨 MATS Winter 2027 applications are now open.

Fully-funded, 12-week fellowship for aspiring & established AI alignment, interpretability, security, governance researchers & field-builders

📍 Berkeley/London
📅 Jan 19–Apr 10
💰 $6.4k/mo + $8k - 16k/mo compute
Apply by Sep 6 ↓

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

Our Research Managers are excellent coaches!

If you can push brilliant researchers toward their best, most impactful work, MATS wants to talk to you.

Apply for the Research Manager role by October 1st: https://t.co/ILuZWoZJCO

[Luke Drago @luke_drago_]

I've added the reading list for our MATS stream (co-led with @LRudL_) to my website. It's a good starting place for AI strategy & governance work, especially if you're focused on distributing power/preventing power concentration.

A 🧵 on some of my favorite recommendations:

[Benji Berczi @benji_berczi]

🤖👿 New paper on Misalignment via In-Context Persona Induction! 🤖👿

We show that one can induce personas in-context, on frontier LLMs (~5+ months old models, things move quick!), which can dramatically degrade their alignment!

Link: https://t.co/ji36tJx59A

[Tom Kimpson @KimpsonTom]

This summer I was in Berkeley as part of @MATSprogram working on technical governance.

At the end of the program I gave a short symposium talk. You can check it out here: https://t.co/7FKwRJMCSo

[Nathan Barnard @NathanB60857242]

I'm building a new org to try to understand how close we are to RSI and explosive economic growth by systematically estimating the elasticities of substitution, as part of the @MATSprogram.

https://t.co/Ldyqt5RFKH

[Pierre Beckmann @BeckmannPierre]

New paper: World Modeling in Transformers
with @matthieu_queloz @andrenfreitas @MATSprogram
Can AI models recover world models just from data? We find a faithful internal map and more inside of taxiGPT! We trace failures to how that the map is stored in superposition. 🧵(1/11)

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

@mojoshi_ Not yet!

[Jan Wehner @jan__wehner]

I'll be mentoring for @MATSprogram this winter alongside my colleague Sambhav. We will focus on modelling the threats from misaligned & compromised AI agents in national security deployments and on making control sketches to prevent them.

General application due on Sept 6.

[Joschka Braun @BraunJoschka]

MATS helped me move into full-time AI safety research. I learned so much from excellent mentors and really enjoyed working with other MATS scholars. I had the freedom and support to focus on the AI safety problems where I could have the most impact.

Strongly recommend applying!

[Neel Nanda @NeelNanda5]

My MATS applications are due in 1 week! If you're interested in doing research with me, I'd love to get your application

[Evan Conway @evanjayconway]

I wrote a bit about the MATS application process and my advice for new applicants. For anyone interested, I'd definitely recommend applying. The winter applications are still open, and there are lots of great mentors available!

https://t.co/NnBWjPwIXw

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

9/ Researchers with a serious track record in AI safety or adjacent fields (ML, policy, or governance) who want to advance research that reduces catastrophic risk are encouraged to apply.

Questions? Email [email protected].

🔗 Apply here: https://t.co/gPxfgwulsd

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

8/ Every Resident leaves with a substantial body of reviewable work, 4 to 8 weeks of transition support, & ongoing access to the MATS community.

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

7/ Applications for the 2027 Winter intake:
→ Opens 25 August 2026
→ Closes Oct 31, 2026
→ Application outcomes sent late Nov 2026
→ Program begins in early 2027

Up to 30 Residents accepted per year across 3 intake windows.

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

6/ What Residents receive:
→ $155,000–$285,000/yr compensation
→ Full health, dental, vision, & life insurance
→ Relocation support up to $25K + visa assistance
→ Research compute with no preset cap
→ Dedicated conference budget & catered meals

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

5/ Anchor: a staff researcher path.

For applicants who want a 2-year staff researcher role rather than a PhD or postdoc.

An alternative pathway for engineers, evaluators, and technical or policy practitioners whose work is fundamentally research.

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

4/ Bridge: for experienced professionals moving into AI safety.

For academics, researchers, and industry people pivoting from ML, policy, or governance. Strengthen your portfolio and produce work that demonstrates your expertise.

Sabbaticals of up to 2 years supported.

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

3/ Incubation: launching a new research paradigm or organization

For scoping original research agendas or founding new AI safety research orgs.

We help you expand your network, build credibility with collaborators and funders, and access what you need to launch.

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

1/ MATS is launching the Residency program!
A new path for experienced researchers working on AI safety, or moving into it.

📍 Berkeley / London / Washington, DC
💰 $155,000–$285,000/yr + compute, no preset cap
📅 6–24 months

Apply by October 31 AoE ↓
https://t.co/0y8kEMaF90

[MATS Research @MATSprogram]

2/ Having supported 630+ safety researchers who have co-authored 215+ papers with 17,000+ citations, we built the Residency for long-term work that doesn’t fit standard academic or industry settings.

We offer 3 specialized tracks. ↓