Our Mission

Certes Institute exists to accelerate Australia's contribution to AI safety research and the understanding and mitigation of catastrophic and existential risks. We provide the research infrastructure that lets researchers focus on the work instead of the paperwork.

Three objectives guide everything we do:

• Advance catastrophic and existential risk research — provide infrastructure for researchers working on AI safety and related catastrophic and existential risk areas, and publish the resulting work under the Certes name
• Enable Australian philanthropic funding — build the charitable infrastructure needed so Australian donors can fund catastrophic and existential risk research for the first time
• Build operational capacity — serve as the administrative and logistical backbone that enables researchers, government, and partners to work effectively

What We Do

Certes provides research infrastructure for AI safety and catastrophic and existential risk work in Australia. Concretely, this means:

• Grant housing and administration — a charitable home where researchers can house grants, including grants received through overseas fiscal sponsors, without needing a university affiliation
• Researcher employment free from institutional constraints — researchers who don't want universities entangling them with institutional constraints can work under Certes instead. Fast, clean, no institutional overhead.
• Agile workforce deployment — deploying skilled personnel with agility in accordance with stakeholder needs, without government-speed constraints
• Research hosting and publication — Certes publishes work by its housed researchers under the Certes name
• Residential research programs — facilitation of research retreats and residential programs in Tasmania, when funded
• Training ecosystem support — handling logistics and operations for training partners, so they can focus on education and curriculum