Anthropic announced its AI for Science programme on Monday. The new initiative is aimed at accelerating scientific research and discovery. The artificial intelligence (AI) firm said it wants to support researchers working on “high-impact scientific projects, with a particular focus on biology and life sciences applications” via this initiative. The projects that are selected for this programme will be supported by Anthropic with free application programming interface (API) credits. Notably, the new initiative was announced a month after the company released its agentic feature, Research, in Claude.
Anthropic Details AI for Science Programme
In a newsroom post, the AI firm stated that the AI for Science programme is sponsored by the Anthropic public benefit corporation (PBC). The company highlighted that generative AI technology can help scientists and researchers in analysing complex scientific data, generating hypotheses, designing and simulating experiments, and collating the results to highlight actionable insights.
Researchers who are affiliated with a research institution can apply for the programme. The company has shared a detailed application form that needs to be filled out and submitted to be eligible. Once submitted, the applications will be reviewed by Anthropic’s team and subject matter experts in relevant fields. On the first Monday of each month, the company will select winning applicants from all entries.
The eligible researchers shortlisted for the AI for Science programme will be offered “significant API credits” for Anthropic’s AI models. This could be up to $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16,91,400) in Anthropic API credits, as per the official page of the initiative. Selection is said to be on the basis of the researcher’s contributions to science, the potential impact of the proposed research, and AI’s ability to meaningfully accelerate the work.
Notably, each application will undergo a biosecurity assessment to ensure that the research projects do not raise concerns around accelerating harmful applications.
Anthropic said that the programme fits in with the company’s vision of using AI to bring value to humanity. In particular, the AI firm is looking for research projects related to understanding complex biological systems, analysing genetic data, accelerating the process of drug discovery, increasing agricultural productivity, and more.
