What Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative does
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI) is an independent U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2017 that provides operational infrastructure and fiscal sponsorship to existential-risk–related research and policy work, with a current emphasis on AI safety and existential risk reduction. BERI positions itself as an “operational hub” for collaborators: it handles administrative complexity (for example, financial management, HR/employment administration, grant administration, and compliance support), allowing university-affiliated and fiscally sponsored projects to focus on their mission-critical research and programs. Its work is organized around university collaborations and fiscally sponsored projects, including program tracks such as “Technical AI Safety” (an administering role for Coefficient Giving’s Technical AI Safety RFP) and a “Kairos Project: Pathfinder” fellowship program track. BERI’s stated approach is to enable capabilities that are difficult to carry out within normal university timelines or without nonprofit infrastructure (e.g., purchasing and delivering computing infrastructure faster than university procurement cycles, or administering multi-country research support logistics).