Heron AI Security Research Fellowship — Fellowship

Heron AI Security places working cybersecurity practitioners on research problems at the intersection of security and frontier AI. Fellows join a small team built around one expert advisor, two to four cybersecurity professionals, a project manager and a technical advisor, and commit 8 to 30 hours a week for three months. The autumn 2026 cycle supports 10 to 12 research teams, launching projects on 1 September 2026 and closing with final submissions and a showcase event in November 2026.

Projects sit in five tracks: AI infrastructure and hardware security, technical AI governance, adversarial and model security, AI control and containment, and cybersecurity evaluations and demos. The programme is remote-first, with optional coworking access in London, Tel Aviv and San Francisco. Heron is a non-profit based in Tel Aviv, launched in December 2024, run as a project of Effective Altruism Israel and funded by Coefficient Giving.

Benefits & funding

The fellowship is not paid. There is no salary and no stipend.
Compute support of US$1,000 or more per team.
Claude Code Team Accounts for every team, for the duration of the fellowship.
Conference travel support of up to US$5,000 per team.
Research guidance, API access, and an expert advisor attached to each team.
Access to the Heron network of AI security researchers and practitioners, including speakers drawn from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Irregular and RAND.
Applicants who are not matched to a team stay in the Heron network for future projects.

Eligibility

Experienced cybersecurity professionals with at least 5 years of experience.
No AI background is required; cybersecurity or cryptography depth is what the programme values most.
Availability of at least 8 hours per week, up to 30 hours per week. Participation alongside a full-time job is allowed at that minimum.
Open to applicants of any nationality. The programme publishes no residency, degree, age or gender requirement.
Skills the programme names as useful: cryptography, including zero-knowledge proofs and verifiable compute; AI and machine-learning implementation or agent security; red-team operations and adversarial testing; secure systems and infrastructure design; building proofs-of-concept or attack simulations.
Heron asks candidates blocked by lack of funding to apply anyway. It may be able to connect them with external funding or scholarships, without committing in advance.

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Application process

1
Submit the online application form while a cycle is open.
2
Complete a work trial.
3
Attend a short interview.
4
Accepted candidates are matched to a project based on team fit.
5
Between cycles, submit the expression-of-interest form to be notified about the next cohort. Applications for the autumn 2026 cycle opened in June 2026 and are now closed.

Program timeline

Applications open for the autumn cycle
June to July 2026
Teams announced
Early August 2026
Projects launch
1 September 2026
Weekly research meetings
September to November 2026
Mid-project presentations
October 2026
Final submissions and showcase event
November 2026