Digital Sentience Research Fellowship
Application: Research Fellowship on Digital Sentience
Longview Philanthropy, The Navigation Fund, and Macroscopic Ventures invite applications for fellowships to pursue research in computer science, neuroscience, or other technical disciplines on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, or welfare of artificial intelligence systems. We will also consider fellowship applications from exceptional legal scholars or applied social scientists for research on the social implications and legal treatment of potentially sentient AI.
Funding includes one to two years’ salary, research and travel support, networking opportunities, additional benefits, and support for access to computational resources for those conducting compute-intensive machine learning research. We invite both recent PhD graduates and those at advanced career stages to apply. Funding may be disbursed to an academic institution on behalf of the selected fellow, with a comparable compensation package where feasible.
See our website for more details. For questions about the application, please email Zach Freitas-Groff. The application deadline is July 9, 2025.
Basic Information
- Full name
- Phone number
- Current institution/organization
- Current position/title
- Expected PhD completion date If not already completed mm/dd/yyyy
- PhD field/discipline
- Country of residence
Academic Background and Research Experience. Academic CV Please upload your CV that includes degrees, academic achievements, and publications.
References Please provide contact information (full name, email, relationship to applicant) for 2-3 academic of professional references (if not included in your CV)
Research Proposal and Career Goals
Possible research directions
Please describe potential research directions you would pursue during this fellowship (approximately one page or five paragraphs). Include how your proposed research relates to digital sentience.
Intended outcomes of research directions (e.g. papers, conferences) Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.
What would you do if you did not get this fellowship? Answers could include "get funding elsewhere" (please specify best guess of source and likelihood), or "work on something else" (please specify what). Please write one to two paragraphs.
Career goals Please discuss your overall career goals and how this fellowship helps you achieve them (around two paragraphs).
Fellowship Logistics
- Preferred fellowship start date mm/dd/yyyy
- Preferred fellowship duration. Standard fellowship duration is 1-2 years, with possibility of renewal in some cases to be determined at a later point. 12 months, 18 months, 24 months
University affiliation
- Please indicate whether you plan to use the funding at a university.
Compute funding requirements Please indicate whether you require funding to cover compute costs. Estimated compute budget (USD). Approximately how much compute funding (in USD) will you require? Please enter a single number and do not include commas or currency symbols.
Compute funding (description). Briefly explain your compute requirements and estimated budget.
Additional funding requests. Please describe any additional funding needs beyond the standard package.
Additional documents. Please upload any additional documents that support your application (e.g. budget, unreleased working papers, research samples). Additional documents (description).
If you uploaded any additional documents, briefly describe them and their relevance to your application.
Grant Logistics and Due Diligence Information. Legal name of funding recipient.
Please include your full legal name as shown on a government ID.
Type of entity. Please confirm the type of entity receiving the funds e.g. individual, organization (if you will be receiving funds through an institution).
Location where research will take place. Please note the country or countries where your fellowship activities will take place.
Conflicts of interest. Please disclose any known conflicts of interest between yourself and the Navigation Fund or Longview Philanthropy.
Other Confidential information. By default, we will share your application with the selection committee, which may include external advisors. If there’s any information that you’d like to keep confidential, please share it here.
Is there anything else you would like us to know?
Right to share application materials. By submitting this application, you acknowledge and consent that your application materials may be shared with third-party funding organisations for the sole purpose of evaluating your submission for potential funding opportunities. All third-party funders will be required to maintain the confidentiality of your application materials and use them exclusively for funding consideration purposes. Please confirm that you have read and understood this declaration.