Autumn 2026 applications are now open
The Autumn cohort will connect fellows with mentors from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Redwood Research, ARC, and more on research and field-building efforts to reduce frontier AI risk. MATS provides fellows with support in the form of funding, compute, housing & meals, research management, and a driven community, so fellows can focus fully on doing impactful work. Applications close June 7th.
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MATS application process
MATS supports researchers and field-builders across seven tracks: Empirical, Theory, Strategy & Forecasting, Policy & Governance, Systems Security, Founding & Field-Building, and Biosecurity. You can apply to one or more of these tracks in the stage 1 application.
Stage 1 - General application (open until June 7th)
The general application should take around 1 to 2 hours depending on how many tracks you apply to. It asks for:
- Your background
- Short responses to questions for each track you're applying to.
- Contact details for two references. We won't reach out to them until later in the process.
Returning applicants from Summer 2026 can sign in to pre-fill their application.
For more on what we and mentors are look for, see getting into MATS.
Stage 2 - Central evaluations (early to late June)
After passing stage 1 evaluations, stage 2 uses standardized assessments to evaluate the skills most predictive of success for certain tracks.
- Empirical: one or two assessments on research taste and technical implementation skills.
- Policy & Governance: a writing and analytical reasoning assessment.
- Other tracks: proceed directly to stage 3 stream applications.
Stage 3 - Stream applications (June to late July)
Each track contains multiple streams, one or more mentors with a shared research agenda. If you advance, you'll apply to and rank the the specific streams you'd like to join. For each, you'll:
- Answer stream-specific questions, usually short responses, sometimes a longer research proposal.
- Complete an interview or work test, if the mentor requests it.
Offers (late July/early August)
In the last stage:
- Mentors review applications to their streams and submit applicant rankings.
- A final matching process uses both sides' rankings to send offers.
Offers go out in late July, and the program starts September 28th.