Episode Details
Back to Episodes“Launch a biosecurity group on your campus” by sharmaayushmaan
Description
Disclaimer: Although I work on the Groups Team at CEA, I’m offering this in a personal capacity, and this post does not constitute an endorsement or service offered by CEA.
TL;DR: I'm offering personal mentorship to anyone serious about starting a biosecurity group at a top university. I work on CEA's Groups team (whilst also being an Epidemiology student at Oxford) and spend most of my time supporting people launching new groups. I think biosec-specific university groups are especially high-leverage right now, and I want to make it easier for more of them to exist.
Why university biosecurity groups
Biosecurity is talent-constrained, especially for more experienced grad students/seniors who might have high entrepreneurial fit to start new orgs or own a particular part of the ecosystem. Funders I've spoken to consistently say they could deploy more money if they had the people, especially generalists who can start new orgs. It's relatively clear that the bottleneck for the community is in talented, agentic people who can start their own initiatives.
AI safety had a version of this problem five or six years ago, and university groups turned out to be one of the most effective interventions for fixing it. [...]
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Outline:
(00:49) Why university biosecurity groups
(03:08) Why I'm offering this
(03:46) Apply
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First published:
June 12th, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.