Centre for AI Security and Access

The Centre for AI Security and Access (CASA) is a research and policy organization founded in late 2025 by Sumaya Nur Adan and Joanna Wiaterek. Based in Brussels, Belgium, CASA operates as a fiscally sponsored project of Rethink Priorities, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

CASA's mission is to bridge the critical gap between equitable access to AI technologies and essential security considerations. The organization works to ensure that the benefits of AI technology can be widely and equitably distributed without compromising essential security, while prioritizing participation from the Global Majority in shaping AI governance.

The organization's 2025-2026 priority centers on scoping a research agenda regarding Global Majority AI access and security. CASA's research outputs include white papers, research papers, op-eds, and commentaries published through outlets including the Brookings Institution and TechPolicy.Press. Their flagship white paper, the AI Benefit-Sharing Framework, addresses equitable and safe AI access governance.

In 2026, CASA launched the Africa AI Safety Prize Competition, a $10,000 prize competition focused on building practical, context-appropriate AI safety tools for African communities. The competition features two tracks: community-level tools to monitor and track AI-related harms, and context-appropriate safety evaluation methods for African deployment. Partners include the Masakhane African Languages Hub, DAIvolve Technologies, the UCT AI Initiative, Action Lab Africa, and the Wits MIND Institute.

Co-founder Sumaya Nur Adan is an AI governance researcher with a background in law and AI, holding an MPhil with distinction in Ethics of AI, Data, and Algorithms from Cambridge. She has served as an AI Risk Advisor at the UK Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology and is a Research Affiliate at the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative. Co-founder Joanna Wiaterek is a social anthropologist working at the intersection of global development and AI governance, with an undergraduate degree from Cambridge and a Masters from the LSE. She has worked on AI benefit-sharing, global AI safety, and Vatican engagement in AI governance.