ILINA Junior Research Fellowship

Raising $40,000active

A junior research fellowship for recent African graduates that combines ILINA’s spring seminar with a mentored research phase on AI and global catastrophic risks, offering governance and technical tracks.

Endorsed by

Zvi

Ryan

Gavin+2

Endorsements made here support ILINA Program.

Endorsed by

Zvi

Ryan

Gavin+2

Endorsements made here support ILINA Program.

Project Details

Flagship annual seasonal fellowship run by ILINA Program to support talented Africans who are interested in AI x risk-related work.

People

Cecil Abungu

Team Member

Grants Received– no grants recorded

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Funding Asks

grantmaking.ai Launch Round

Applied

We would use the funding to pay more competitive stipends to our Junior Research Fellows (in line with the kinds of stipends other AI x risk fellowships give) and support their travel to…

Minimum

$40,000

Ideal

$120,000

What this ask is

We would use the funding to pay more competitive stipends to our Junior Research Fellows (in line with the kinds of stipends other AI x risk fellowships give) and support their travel to conferences, etc.

Theory of impact

This would expand the ability that talented Africans (who we carefully select) have to learn more about AI x risk and then potentially do high-impact AI x risk work in future. For context, ILINA Program has a creditable record of helping talented Africans to get into AI x risk work, join top fellowships and work at leading AI governance organizations.

How the money will be spent

The money would be spent to pay a 12k USD stipend to each ILINA Junior Research Fellow that we select, and to support conference and co-working travel for each Junior Research Fellow that we select.

Discussion

MMark AikenEndorsement17d

I endorse in principle opportunities to strengthen participation and inclusion in the global south - much of the AI safety focus is US, Europe / UK and China centred. I'm not familiar with your organisation, apart from what you've written here and what's on your website. For this reason, I'd give a qualified endorsement, subject to further enquiries:

I think it would be helpful to include your approximate budget - what share would you give to fellows as a stipend, what share would you use for travel for conferences and other overheads etc?

From your website, it seems like the fellowship is part-time - 7 hours per week for 3 months, then 20 hours per week for 4 months. So the benchmark of 'in line with the kinds of stipends that other x-risk fellowships give' may not be the most appropriate benchmark, if you're comparing full time fellowships with your part-time fellowship. (I'm leaving aside global wage equity questions, except to note that a part-time fellowship paying $12,000 for 7 months would signficantly exceed most local full-time salaries).

https://www.ilinaprogram.org/jrf

CCecil Abungu17d(edited)

Hi Mark. Thanks a lot for the qualified endorsement, and for the further inquiries. Some responses follow below:

What's on the website at the moment is how we've run it in preceding years, but we're now moving towards full time work (40 hours) for the final 4 months. We think this would increase the chances that our JRFs learn more and are better placed to do high-impact AI x risk work. Also, many of our JRFs, in practice, have usually ended up working 40 hours rather than 20 hours (because of the demands we place on them).
With the above context in mind, we think it's only fair that we raise their stipends to 12k USD from the current 7k USD. If you do the math, the stipend would be about 16.5 USD per hour, which we think is very fair given the talent and education level of the people we usually try to recruit. When I used the phrase "in line with other AI x risk fellowships", I didn't mean it literally - my apologies for that.
In terms of the breakdown, we have 9 JRFs this year. If each of them is to receive 5k USD extra (so, 12k USD and not 7k USD), that would amount to 45k USD (hence the minimum amount sought). We also want to have a kitty that we use to fund their travel to any AI safety-relevant conferences and to co-work with our contacts who're doing AI safety work. Ideally, this would be 5k USD per JRF, which would come to a total (this year) of 45k USD. Then ofc there's the 10 pc of the total which our fiscal sponsor will take. The remaining 20k USD would be carried forward.

MMark Aiken17d

-1

thank you for your quick response and this additional information - it gives a clearer picture of how you plan to run the fellowship this year and the budget allocation. Much appreciated.

Pim KangEndorsement12d

This project is greatly needed, and ILINA has a strong track record demonstrating its effectiveness. Many AI safety programs require prior experience, creating a barrier for talented people who have not yet had an opportunity to enter the field. As an application reviewer for a few of these programs, I've seen how initiatives like ILINA, which focus on underrepresented regions, can identify and support individuals with the talent and perspectives needed for more globally representative AI safety efforts. These programs provide opportunities that many promising candidates might not otherwise have access to.

CCecil Abungu12d

Thank you so much for this, Pim! Super appreciate you using your important voice in this way.