# Fellowship opportunity - Ph.D. level

**URL:** <https://awg.osdr.space/t/fellowship-opportunity-ph-d-level/4709>\
**Category:** Announcements/Jobs\
**Created:** [October 6, 2026, 2:29am UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/fellowship-opportunity-ph-d-level/4709 "2026-10-06T02:29:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![slantin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/awg.osdr.space/slantin/32/4346_2.png) [@slantin](https://awg.osdr.space/u/slantin)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 2:29am UTC](https://awg.osdr.space/t/fellowship-opportunity-ph-d-level/4709/1 "2026-10-06T02:29:46Z")

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Do you have a Ph.D. and a world-changing idea but don’t know if it’s a good fit for academia, government, or industry? Speculative Technologies introduces you to the world of ARPAs and philanthropy-funded focused research organizations through its Brains fellowship program. I went through the fellowship and found it incredibly valuable; great network as well!

**About Brains:**

[Brains](http://spec.tech/brains) is a four-month fellowship that helps talented scientists and technologists develop ambitious ideas that don’t make sense in a startup or academic lab. For example, these ideas may be too big or engineering-intensive for a single academic lab, but too research-heavy for a startup. Brains Fellows receive training, mentorship, and networking opportunities to enable them to execute on their ideas by starting ARPA programs, [focused research organizations](https://www.convergentresearch.org/about-fros), or something entirely new. This will be the 5th cohort of Brains and will run from January through May 2027. Brains welcomes ideas from any scientific field.

**Application link:** [Interface Form - Airtable](https://airtable.com/appmlU6No189UaXqy/pagxb3X11jbAgy6UE/form)

**Deadline:** October 26th, 2026

**Virtual Q&A sessions:**

- October 14, 8–8:30 pm ET: [Brains Fellowship Q&A · Zoom · Luma](https://luma.com/33yi0rjo)
- October 20, 12:30–1 pm ET: [Brains Fellowship Q&A · Zoom · Luma](https://luma.com/l5t5ybyz)

**Links to social media announcements:**

- X: [Speculative Technologies on X: "Applications are now open for the 2027 Cohort of Brains Fellows! If you have an ambitious technical research idea (in any discipline) that is beyond the scope of an academic lab or VC-funded startup, we want to hear from you! https://t.co/bFySeFZHwE" / X](https://x.com/Spec__Tech/status/2107121832440812029?s=20)

- LinkedIn: [Home | Speculative Technologies | Benjamin Reinhardt](https://lnkd.in/p/ejBvku46)

- Substack: [[Announcement] It’s time to Brains! - by Eileen Nakahata](https://open.substack.com/pub/parpa/p/announcement-its-time-to-brains?r=35z2pi&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web)