Applications for the Summer 2026 program are due January 18th
The MATS Program is an independent research program that connects talented fellows with top AI alignment mentors in interpretability, governance, and security. For 12 weeks, MATS fellows conduct research while also attending talks, workshops, and networking events with other members of the alignment research community. Neel Nanda’s stream has a separate application that closes on January 2nd and can be found here.
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MATS application process
MATS supports researchers in a variety of research tracks, which include technical governance, empirical, policy & strategy, theory, and compute governance. You can specify which tracks and streams you'd like to apply to in the general application.
Applications for the Summer 2026 fellowship are now open.
All applicants submit the general application here. We estimate that it will take 1-2 hours to complete. You'll be asked to:
- Submit general information relevant to all mentors.
- Answer specific questions for the high-level research areas (tracks) that you are interested in.
- Express interest in working with particular groups of mentors (streams). See a list of streams here.
- Submit two references. They will be contacted in a latter stage.
- Read more about getting into MATS here.
Additional evaluations
Applicants complete additional evaluations in further stages depending on which tracks and streams they apply to.
- Applicants to the Empirical track will need to complete a code screening in the second stage of the application process.
- Other evaluations may include work tests, project proposals, or intermediate interviews.
Interviews and final offer
- In the final stage of the application process, selected applicants interview with potential mentors to assess mutual fit.
- Using their own selection criteria, mentors will indicate which candidates they most want to work with during MATS and offers are sent out.