TL;DR: We’re excited to announce that applications for ILINA Program’s seminar and fellowship are now open. The seminar will run from mid-June to late August 2024 while the fellowship will take place between early September and late November. The program is designed for undergrads and recent graduates from Africa who are interested in learning and working on questions around animal welfare and global catastrophic risk, especially those posed by AI and developments in the bio space. Applications for this year’s program close on April 12 2024.
ILINA is a research program dedicated to finding talented people from across Africa to work on some of the large and neglected problems the world faces. In line with this, we have run a seminar and fellowship for the last 2 years. We hope to do so again this year.
Our alumni have gone on to participate in other fellowships and programs such as the GovAI research fellowship, AI Futures Fellowship, and Animal Advocacy Africa training program.
Our seminar introduces promising undergraduates to new ways of thinking that will prepare them to tackle these big questions. We offer two seminar options: in-person (for participants in Nairobi, Kenya) and virtual (accessible to interested participants across Africa). The seminar will run for 12 weeks from mid-June to late August, you can view this schedule to see what we'll be covering. Applications for the seminar are due on April 12 2024. To apply, please fill out this form.
For the fellowship, we’re keen on supporting recent graduates interested in pursuing a career in research. We’re especially interested in candidates who’d like to work in AI governance, technical AI alignment, animal welfare, and pandemics & bio-risks. Fellows will attend the seminar sessions from mid-June to late August before their dedicated project period which will run from early September to late November. During the project period, fellows will be required to commit a minimum of 20 hours per week to their project work. We encourage all interested applicants to carefully read through our project tips before applying. We will pay 3500 USD to each fellow, and all fellows will benefit from direct mentorship as they work on their projects.
We’ll be hosting 2 information sessions for prospective applicants: the first will be on March 9 2024 from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm GMT, you can sign up for it here; the second is on March 23 2024 from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm GMT and registration for it can be done through this link.
If you know someone who’d be interested in the program please share this with them. Finally, even if you’re slightly unsure whether you’re a good fit for the program, we encourage you to apply.
For any questions, you can email us on [email protected]