Applications Open for all of our programs!

We’re running 5 programs! Apply for one or more of them below!

Apply by 11.59pm, Friday 24th October.

Apply Now for our Michaelmas 2025 Programmes!

Application Deadline: 11.59pm, Friday 24th October.

Apply Here.

We’re running 4 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.

Introductory Programmes (For New Members)

Choose one of these if you are new to effective altruism and want to learn the core principles.

Option 1: The Research Project Fellowship (The "Broad" Intro)

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 professional research poster. Get accountabaility from your facilitator, mentor and, during our weekly, drop-in coworking sessions on Saturday afternoons.

    • Time Commitment: An additional 10-20 hours of flexible, self-directed work.
    • Culminates in: Presenting at our Lent Term Poster Conference, with the chance to network and compete for the £2,000 Cambridge High Impact Research Prize.

  • RPF Key Links:

Option 2: The Global Health & Development (GHD) Working Group (The "Deep" Intro)

Choose this if: You have a specific interest in global health, or you want to learn EA principles by applying them to a single, high-impact cause.

  • What it is: A 5-week reading and discussion group. You'll learn the core EA principles (scale, tractability, cost-effectiveness) by applying them directly to real-world global health challenges.
  • Structure: This is a reading and discussion group only (no project). It includes weekly 2-hour sessions and 1-on-1 career planning calls.
  • Time Commitment: Weekly 2-hour sessions for 5 consecutive weeks.
  • Aimed at: Open to students at all stages as well as non-students based in Cambridge.
  • View the Full Reading List Here.

Advanced Programmes (For Experienced Members)

Choose one of these if you have already completed an introductory fellowship or have a similar level of experience with EA concepts.

Option 3: Red & Blue Teaming Your Career (Advanced Career Workshop)

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.

Option 4: Animal Welfare Reading Group (Expression of Interest)

Choose this if: You have a specific interest in Animal Welfare and would like to join a reading group on this topic.

  • What it is: We are currently gauging interest for a potential 5-week reading group focused on farmed and wild animal welfare.
  • What this means: This programme is not guaranteed to run. By selecting this option on the application form, you are registering your interest.
  • Outcome: If there is sufficient interest, we will contact you to form a group. At a minimum, we will connect all interested participants with each other.

FAQs (For All Programmes)

What's the difference between the Introductory programmes? The Research Project Fellowship (RPF) is broad: you'll learn EA principles by looking at many cause areas, and it has a significant, optional research project. In the GHD Working Group ** you'll learn the same EA principles but apply them only to global health. It is a 5-week reading group with no project and includes 1-on-1 career planning calls.

Who are the programmes for? We have programmes for all levels. The RPF and GHD Working Group are designed for anyone new to effective altruism. Our Advanced Programmes are for students who have already completed an intro fellowship or have equivalent experience.

What are the requirements? To take part, you should be:

  • Committed to attending all 5-6 sessions (unless unforeseen circumstances arise).
  • Excited about making a positive impact.
  • Open to changing your mind.

What time are the weekly sessions? When you fill in the application, you can state your availability! This allows us to find a time that you, your facilitator, and your 4-8 group members can all make.

I’ll have difficulty with a written application! We recognise that written applications don't showcase everyone's strengths. We offer two ways to complete your application:

  • Option 1: Written Application: Complete all sections of the application form.
  • Option 2: Video Interview: If you prefer to discuss your application verbally:
    1. Complete Section 1 of the application form.
    2. Book a 15-minute slot here
    3. Write "Doing interview instead" in the two long-answer questions.
    4. Submit the form.

Note: Interview slots must be booked before October 24.

We strongly encourage applications from students of all backgrounds.

A note on AI: Please don't use AI in your application (even just to clear up your language). We are far more interested in your original thoughts than in your polish.

Apply Here for Michaelmas 2025!

If you have any questions at all, reach out to me (Jian Xin) at jianxin@eacambridge.org

  • A group of people, possibly scouts, gathered around and studying a large outdoor map placed on the ground, sitting in a grassy area.

    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.

  • Map of the world with countries outlined, showing dense red circles over Europe and parts of Africa, indicating data points or activity.

    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.

  • Close-up of a sheep with curly fleece, surrounded by other sheep grazing on green grass in the background.

    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.

  • A deep space image showing numerous galaxies of various shapes, sizes, and colors scattered across a black background.

    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.

  • Silhouettes of people standing in a dark room filled with hanging blue lights, creating a starry or cosmic effect.

    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.

  • Close-up of a partially assembled wooden jigsaw puzzle on a table.

    Week 6: Coworking

    Over the last 5 weeks, 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!

Apply by 11.59pm, Saturday 24th October.

Apply here for our Michaelmas 2025 Fellowship!