What ERA does
ERA (Existential Risk Alliance) is a Cambridge-based talent and research organization focused on reducing existential and catastrophic risks from frontier technologies—especially advanced AI—by developing researchers and building durable research and institutional capacity. ERA describes its mission as advancing the research, talent, and institutions needed to make the transition to advanced AI safe, emphasizing both technical safety work and the governance, verification, and institutional safeguards that shape how advanced AI systems are developed and deployed.
Programmatically, ERA runs a portfolio of in-person, paid fellowships and research/field-building events in the UK and (through partners) connects fellows with mentors and institutions in government, academia, and industry. Its current portfolio includes: (1) the Cambridge ERA:AI Fellowship, which supports full-time research projects across technical AI safety, AI governance, and “technical AI governance”; (2) an AI×Biosecurity fellowship (partnered with AIxBiosecurity.com); (3) the Frontier AI Security Residency (run by ERA with partners including Heron AI Security and Oxford’s Hardware AI Governance Lab); and (4) a Technical AI Governance Forum intended to convene technical and policy leaders around a “technical roadmap” for governing frontier AI.
ERA’s organizational differentiation (as described on its site) is its focus on pairing deep technical research management with governance and verification perspectives, and then creating multi-program pathways for research talent to move into high-impact roles at organizations such as RAND and the UK AI Security Institute, based on alumni outcomes ERA reports.