grantmaking.ai Launch Round
$15,500
$45,000
Support an already active early-career researcher with international AI achievements and ongoing research collaborations to transition into long-term technical AI safety research while producing open research outputs during underg
Support an already active early-career researcher with international AI achievements and ongoing research collaborations to transition into long-term technical AI safety research while producing open research outputs during underg
Project Details
Updated 07/14/26 · Provided via application · VerifiedThis project is an investment in my technical AI safety research at an unusually early stage of my career.
Proposal:
Most technical AI safety researchers begin serious research during graduate school or after entering industry. My goal is to compress this timeline by several years. Funding at this stage has unusually high leverage because it increases the total number of years I can spend contributing to AI safety over my career and the depth I can delve into.
Over the past several years, I have focused my work almost entirely on AI research and technical problem solving. I represented India at the International AI Olympiad, currently am collaborating on research with Texas A&M University and IIT Roorkee, was selected as a trainee in the Non-Trivial Research Foundation, ranked internationally 9th amongst all college and high school teams in Cambridge Battlecode (heuristic competition) and much more. In essence, by the end of high school, I have already represented India internationally in AI, collaborated with researchers, completed selective AI safety training, and begun developing independent research agendas. This trajectory suggests I can begin contributing meaningfully to AI safety substantially earlier than is typical.
Alongside research, I have also built AI communities and educational initiatives, including serving as an AISC National Leader and founding SOTA, which has attracted over 70,000 members across AI communities. These experiences have convinced me that my long-term comparative advantage lies in technical AI safety research rather than general software engineering or industry work.
I have already submitted two research proposals through grantmaking.ai: one investigating alignment persistence through explicit behavioral memory during continual learning, and another focused on discovering multilingual technical talent from underrepresented communities. This proposal complements those projects by funding the transition that allows me to pursue this research trajectory continuously over the coming years.
Rather than funding education itself, this grant would fund the conditions that allow sustained AI safety research throughout my undergraduate studies.
Concrete Outputs:
During the funded period, I plan to:
- Continue collaborating with existing research mentors while expanding into technical AI safety.
- Produce independent technical safety research suitable for public release.
- Apply to and submit to atleast 3 A* conferences and workshops.
- Publish open-source implementations, technical reports, and research writeups.
- Apply to leading AI safety research programs and fellowships.
- Build collaborations with researchers working in alignment, interpretability, and evaluations.
- Continue developing my existing research ideas while generating new ones.
Theory of Impact
Updated 07/14/26 · By grantmaking.aiAI safety is fundamentally constrained by the people working on it.
As frontier AI systems become more capable, the limiting resource is increasingly the number of researchers able to make meaningful technical contributions. Developing such researchers typically requires years of training, mentorship, and sustained exposure to active research environments.
I believe I have already demonstrated unusually strong evidence that I can contribute to this ecosystem. Before entering university, I have represented my country internationally in AI, collaborated with established research groups, completed highly selective AI safety training, and consistently pursued technically demanding research and competitions.
However, maintaining this trajectory requires time and continuity. Financial constraints coupled with university tuition costs often push talented students toward unrelated employment or short-term optimization rather than difficult research whose payoff may take years. This grant would instead allow me to devote substantially more time toward AI safety research, mentorship, collaboration, and open scientific contributions.
Unlike funding a completed research project, this proposal represents an investment in my long-term research capacity. The expected return is not only the outputs produced during the funded period, but the creation of another researcher whose career remains focused on reducing catastrophic risks from advanced AI.
People
Updated 07/14/26 · By grantmaking.aiTeam Member
Funding Asks
Applied
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