A fellowship freeing AI researchers to build what matters. The best minds in AI should be curing diseases and feeding continents, not tweaking chatbots. Pillar VC’s Encode Fellowship gives you one year of freedom: salary, compute, workspace, no equity taken to build tools, systems, and early proof-points for ventures. The Fellowship supports AI talent as they drive breakthrough discoveries across ARIA's Opportunity Spaces.
AI/ML researchers, engineers, and hackers. PhDs, postdocs, senior industry researchers who'd rather ship than publish. If you want to build, we want to talk. You'll need to be based in the UK (we help with visas).
No. You should be fluent in writing code, working with large datasets, and building and evaluating models. We welcome fellows of all educational backgrounds to apply, and look favourably on those who are self-taught.
No. Encode is open to global applicants. However, fellows will need to relocate to the UK for the duration of the program. We can help you with the visa process.
We take time to review every application. You'll hear from us once applications close on 28th March: either to schedule an in-person or virtual interview with the Pillar VC team or because your proposal or profile isn't a fit for this Fellowship. Interviews will take place in April. Final decisions will be made at the beginning of May.
Apply anyway. Most Fellows will start in September, however, we understand that current funding or academic programmes may restrict this. Our operating principle is that contract details will never get in the way of supporting great talent.
High-intensity. Cross-disciplinary. Build-in-public. Fellows can embed directly in world-class faculty labs, rapidly integrating AI into scientific research. Each lab has its own culture. The best fellows adapt fast while keeping their delivery focus sharp. Regular cohort co-working (travel stipend included) keeps you connected with peers across the UK. Your environment will reflect how you choose to engage.
The maximum length of your Fellowship is 12 months. We hope Encode Fellows will build open-source tools that transform fields, novel systems that unlock impossible discoveries, or early ventures that scale beyond labs. If they do, and it no longer makes contractual sense to be an employee, you can end your contract early. Access to our support, advisors, workshops, workspace and community can continue.
No. We evaluate with equal measure applicants who submit scoped projects and partners, and applicants who want the freedom and support to figure both out during the 12-month Fellowship. When you apply, you will be asked to disclose whether you have a clear idea, an early idea, or no idea at all. If you are looking for a particular dataset, model, tool or partnership but have not yet obtained one, we will work with you to scope a collaboration with the hundreds of academic and industry partners who have expressed interest in partnering with an Encode Fellow.
The Encode Fellowship is not just a one-year program, it’s a launchpad. Pillar VC and ARIA will work with Fellows where there are opportunities to continue their research or launch startups to best advance their scientific impact. For those wishing to start ventures, we provide support for company formation and fundraising, funder and investor introductions, as well as hiring and talent recruiting. This is a self-driven journey, we'll do all we can to support you on it.
The Encode Fellowship is fellow-first. We find people with the skill and ambition to lead a fast-paced build within one-year. Encode Fellows can choose academic and/or industry partners - particularly if they bring hard challenges that AI can solve. These partners can act as mentors, collaborators, or colleagues. Typically they'll be domain experts who want to work alongside a Fellow on real science challenges, building new tools, systems, and ventures that matter. Where necessary, we'll help the Fellow set up research agreements that protect IP, equity, and so on, so they can focus on building.
ARIA & Pillar VC will not own or have rights to IP created. Intellectual property generated through the programme belongs to you. If you're working independently, you retain full ownership. If you're based at a university or working with a collaborator, we'll work with you to establish a tech transfer agreement tailored to your situation (one that's structured in your favour so you can build sustainably without IP becoming a blocker). Our approach follows ARIA's standard framework, but agreements are always customised to fit your circumstances.
Encode Fellows can work with partners as mentors, collaborators, or colleagues. Partners can express interest, even if they have never had contact with an Encode Fellow or Pillar VC team member before. We will reach out if we believe a collaboration is possible. To express interest, please go to 'Apply' and click 'Interested in being an academic or industry partner to an Encode Fellow?'.
Come with an idea, or find one here. You can spend up to 12 months collaborating with research partners and institutions. If you require, we'll help you get access to labs, datasets, and domain experts across biomaterials, atmospheric science, neuromorphic computing, neuromodulation, plant protein engineering, robotics, and more. View the 'Cohort 1' page to be inspired by their ambitious ideas.
No. This Fellowship is built by Pillar VC and powered by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), two organisations committed to advancing deep tech and scientific innovation. At Pillar, 40% of our 150 portfolio companies have roots in academic research. We've started working with founders as early as 8 years prior to incorporation, simply because we loved their science. ARIA is a UK R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs. Together, we'll support you as you reach for the edge of what's possible and build things that will benefit everyone.
We strongly encourage alignment with ARIA’s Opportunity Spaces, as they highlight areas with the greatest potential for breakthrough innovation. We expect most Fellows will want to build within these spaces, however, we remain open to a select number of bold, high-potential ideas that extend beyond them. Applicants are invited to present a compelling case for the significance and transformative impact of their proposed work.
Fellows will receive access to state-of-the-art computing resources, datasets, and tooling through Pillar VC's partnerships with leading AI and cloud providers. Each Fellow will receive an individual compute budget of £100k, minimum.
