Applications Open for all of our programs!
We’re running 3 programs! Apply for one or more of them below! Any questions, read the FAQs or Contact Us
Apply Now for our Lent 2025 Programs
We’re running 3 programmes this term, designed for students at all stages of their journey. This single application form allows you to apply for the programme(s) that suit you best. Find your fit below.
Project Based Fellowship:
Apply by End of Day 28th January!
Choose this if: You want to explore EA principles across multiple cause areas (like AI, animal welfare, and global health) and are interested in completing a research project.
Part 1: The Core Fellowship (5 Weeks, Michaelmas Term)
A 1.5-hour weekly discussion group (with free food!) to explore the foundational ideas of EA.
Time Commitment:** 2.5 hours per week (~1h reading + 1.5h discussion).
Culminates in: A "Celebration Social" with your cohort.
Part 2: The Research Project
Receive 1-on-1 mentorship to produce a presentation on an EA topic of your choice. Get accountability from your facilitator, mentor and, during our weekly, drop-in coworking .
Time Commitment: An additional 10-20 hours of flexible, self-directed work.
Culminates in: Presenting at our End of Term presentations.
Project Based Fellowship Key Links:
Cambridge High Impact Research Project (CHIRP)
See the dedicated website for CHIRP here.
Apply by End of Day 21st January
The Cambridge High Impact Research Project (CHIRP) is an 8-week student research programme run by Effective Altruism Cambridge, where teams of students tackle policy-relevant research questions across four key focus areas:
Focus Areas:
Existential risk
Biosecurity
Global health
Animal welfare
Expert Mentorship
Each team receives weekly guidance from a mentor with domain expertise. Work directly with established researchers and practitioners who can open doors to further opportunities.
Current Mentors Include:
Dr SJ Beard (Existential Risk) - Borysiewicz Interdisciplinary Fellow at Cambridge, BBC New Generation Thinker, and advisor to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations. Author of the forthcoming book Existential Hope (Polity, 2025) and editor of two introductory volumes on Existential Risk Studies. Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER).
Adrian Worrall (Biosecurity) - Co-founder of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre for Quality Improvement and elected President of the Royal Society of Medicine's Quality in Health Care Section. Co-founded and chaired the Global Health Film Initiative, which organised the world's largest Global Health Film Festival. Brings expertise in health systems, quality improvement, and learning from incidents in high-containment laboratories.
George Bridgwater (Animal Welfare) - Co-Founder and Head of Research at Animal Ask. Former Research Analyst at Charity Entrepreneurship and Policy Advisor at Animal Policy International, where he led policy advocacy on welfare import restrictions in New Zealand. Specialises in evidence-based animal advocacy and translating research into policy impact.
See the full list of mentors and their backgrounds here
Research Projects
Projects range from analysing the cost-effectiveness of interventions in neglected tropical diseases to evaluating AI governance frameworks and biosecurity policy proposals. Many projects have pathways for extension beyond the initial 8 weeks, with successful teams presenting their work at academic conferences like the European Biosafety Association conference or publishing findings with partner organisations.
See the complete list of available projects here
Programme Structure
Week 1: Kick-off weekend, team formation, and initial project scoping with mentors
Weeks 2-7: Weekly team meetings, mentor check-ins, and independent research
Week 8: Final presentations and closing ceremony
What You'll Gain
Weekly mentorship from professors and domain experts
Hands-on experience with research methods and policy analysis
Opportunities to present at professional conferences
Up to £2,000 in prizes for outstanding projects
Connections to organisations hiring in your cause area
A concrete research output for your CV
Apply by 21st January - No prior research experience or Effective Altruism familiarity required.
Career Planning Program
Our Career Planning Program is based on this syllabus. We’ll find a time for the rest of the term, starting from w/c 2nd February
Book a call with me if you’re interested! We’ll talk through the kinds of global issues you’re most interested in working on, to help match you up with a group that can compliment these interests!
Choose this if: You've already engaged with EA, have a draft career plan (even a basic one!), and want to stress-test it with a high-trust peer group.
What it is: This is an active 6-week workshop, not a reading group. In a small cohort (4-6 people), members take turns in the "hot seat" to present their career plan. The group will first 🔴 Red Team it (poking holes, stress-testing assumptions) and then 🔵 Blue Team it (offering active help, new ideas, and network connections).
Goal: To get share goals, and build a concrete, robust plan for your career.
Time Commitment: One 2-hour workshop per week for 6 weeks. Requires drafting a 1-2 page career plan before the program begins.
FAQ
PBF FAQs
Project Based Fellowship FAQ
Can I apply to both programs?
Yes, you're welcome to apply to both CHIRP and Project-Based Fellowship! However, you can only participate in one program this term due to the time commitments involved. If you're accepted to both, we recommend joining CHIRP since it offers more intensive support (expert mentors, prize money, and deeper research training). If you're accepted to PBF but not CHIRP, PBF is a great way to explore impactful careers - and you could always apply to CHIRP in a future term if you want to go deeper into research. We encourage applying to both if you're interested in either - it gives you the best chance of joining a program this term!
Who can apply for Project-Based Fellowship?
Any Cambridge student can apply.
Do I need to know about effective altruism to apply?
No. The Project-Based Fellowship is designed to be an entry point to EA. You’ll learn EA principles through your assigned readings and facilitated discussions.
What's the time commitment?
2.5 hours per week for the Core Fellowship (~1 hour reading + 1.5 hour discussion), plus an additional 10-20 hours of flexible, self-directed work for the research project component.
What’s the deliverable?
By the end of the project, you will be expected to present a 5-minute lightning talk on a topic of your choice from one of the cause areas you learn about through the fellowship.
CHIRP FAQs
What is CHIRP? The Cambridge High Impact Research Project is an 8-week intensive research programme where teams of 2-4 students work on policy-relevant research questions in existential risk, biosecurity, global health, or animal welfare. You'll receive weekly mentorship from domain experts and present your findings at the end.
Who can apply? Any Cambridge student—regardless of year, subject, or prior experience with effective altruism or research. We prefer applicants with research experience but encourage applications regardless. No background in EA is required. Graduate students and visiting students from any department or college are eligible.
What's the time commitment? Expect 6-10 hours per week: weekly team meetings (1-2 hours), mentor check-ins (30-60 minutes), and independent research time. There's also a mandatory kick-off weekend on January 24th and a closing ceremony in Week 8.
How do teams work? Teams of 2-4 students are formed during the kick-off weekend based on project preferences indicated in the application form. You'll work collaboratively throughout the programme. Applications are submitted individually; you can request to be paired with a specific person and we'll try to accommodate this.
What mentorship will I receive? Each team gets a dedicated mentor with domain expertise who meets with you weekly. Current mentors include Dr SJ Beard (CSER), George Bridgwater (Animal Ask), and Adrian Worrall (Royal College of Psychiatrists). You'll also have access to research managers for methodological support.
What's the deliverable? A 3000-word policy brief that builds on a literature review. The emphasis is on evaluation and recommendations—not just describing the field, but making a substantive argument about it.
Are there prizes? Yes! There is a cash prize of £1000 for the winning team. We’ll also have £1000 split across prizes for the best individual, and best presentation
What happens after CHIRP? Strong projects can be extended beyond the 8 weeks and presented at academic conferences (like the European Biosafety Association conference) or published with partner organisations. You'll receive invitations to EA conferences, career chats, and regional retreats. Past participants have reported increased ability to be hired for full-time roles.
Do I need to know about effective altruism to apply? No. CHIRP is designed as an entry point for people new to EA. You'll learn EA principles through the kick-off presentation and ongoing conversations with your team and mentor.
Can I apply to both programs? Yes, you're welcome to apply to both CHIRP and Project-Based Fellowship! However, you can only participate in one program this term due to the time commitments involved.
If you're accepted to both, we recommend joining CHIRP since it offers more intensive support (expert mentors, prize money, and deeper research training). If you're accepted to PBF but not CHIRP, PBF is a great way to explore impactful careers - and you could always apply to CHIRP in a future term if you want to go deeper into research.
We encourage applying to both if you're interested in either - it gives you the best chance of joining a program this term!
How do I apply? Complete the application form (link to application) with 4 x 200-word answers. We may request an interview for CHIRP applicants as a next step.
What if I miss the kick-off weekend? Let us know in the form and we may be able to accommodate by sending you resources you missed and arranging a separate time to meet your team. For more information on the kickoff weekend, see here
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Week 1: The Effectiveness Mindset
If you want to use your time or money to help others, you probably want to help as many people as you can. But you only have so much time to help, so you can have a much bigger impact if you focus on the interventions that help more people rather than fewer.
But finding such interventions is incredibly difficult: it requires a "scout mindset" - seeking the truth, rather than to defend our current ideas.
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Week 2: Differences in Impact
Around 700 million people still live in poverty, mostly in low-income countries. Efforts to help them - by policy reform, cash transfers, or provision of health services - can be incredibly effective.
Alongside investigating this issue, we also discuss how much more effective some interventions are than others, and we introduce a simple tool for estimating important figures.
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Week 3: Radical Empathy
Should we care about non-human animals? We'll show how it can be important to care impartially, rather than ignoring weird topics or unusual beneficiaries.
We'll also cover expected value theory (which helps when we're uncertain about the impact of an intervention), and give some ideas for how we could improve the lives of animals that suffer in factory farms.
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Week 4: What could the future hold? And why care?
"Longtermism" is the view that improving the long term future is a key moral priority of our time. This can bolster arguments for working on reducing some of the extinction risks that we covered in the last section.
We’ll also explore some views on what our future could look like, and why it might be pretty different from the present. And we'll introduce forecasting: a set of methods for improving and learning from our attempts to predict the future.
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Week 5: Smarter than Us
Transformative artificial intelligence may well be developed this century. If it is, it may begin to make many significant decisions for us, and rapidly accelerate changes like economic growth. Are we set up to deal with this new technology safely?
As we try to think about these and other difficult questions, how should we update our views? Bayes' rule is a theory designed just for this: it can help us to think more clearly about how to think clearly.
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Week 6: Coworking
You’ll have a chance to present , you’ll have received support to choose and scope a research project. This week we get you into a great position to finish your project over the first two weeks of Christmas break.
If relevant, we’ll help you pair with a subject mentor, and your project can be used to submit an application for our upcoming £2000 research competition!
CHIRP Deadline is End of Day 21st January. Project Based Fellowship Deadline is 28th