The Anthropic Sciences Guest Investigator Program (the “Program”) is sponsored by Anthropic, PBC (“Anthropic,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). The Program and all applications and participation are subject to and governed by Anthropic’s privacy policy available at https://privacy.claude.com/en/ (“Privacy Policy”) and these terms (together with the Privacy Policy, these “Terms”). By applying to or participating in the Program, you agree to these Terms.
1. Program
1.1 Program. The Program is a call for research proposals. Researchers at academic institutions, government labs and nonprofit research organizations working in biology, chemistry, drug discovery, medicine, and clinical science may submit short proposals to collaborate with Anthropic’s research team. Anthropic will select a small number of proposals at a time; for each selected proposal, Anthropic’s researchers will work with the applicant (each, a “Selected Collaborator”) on the proposed problem, and Anthropic and the Selected Collaborator intend to jointly publish the findings, analyses, artifacts, and tools that result and make them openly available to the scientific community. There is no fee to apply, and no purchase or payment is required. Anthropic selects collaborators on the considerations in Section 4.
1.2 No Obligation. Anthropic has no obligation to select any application, to select any minimum number of applications, or to accept applications during any period.
1.3 What Anthropic Provides. For each Selected Collaborator, Anthropic will provide (a) collaboration time with members of its research team and (b) work by its research team, using Anthropic’s internal models, tools, and research harnesses, on the Selected Collaborator’s problem, in each case at no cost to the Selected Collaborator. Anthropic does not provide Selected Collaborators with access to its models, compute, or other resources, and nothing in the Program grants a license to any Anthropic product or service.
1.4 What Anthropic Receives. Anthropic receives the opportunity to collaborate with researchers who have expertise in the relevant field, review of its findings by those researchers, and joint publication of results with Selected Collaborators under Section 9. Anthropic does not receive data from Selected Collaborators or their laboratories (see Section 7).
2. Eligibility
2.1 Age. You must be at least 18 years of age or, if greater, the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence at the time of application.
2.2 Background and Institutional Consents. You (or, for a team, its designated lead) must be a researcher in biology, chemistry, drug discovery, medicine, or clinical science who is employed by or affiliated with a university or other academic institution, government lab, or a nonprofit research organization. Researchers applying on behalf of a for-profit company are not eligible. Graduate students and other student or trainee researchers may submit an application and serve as the main point of contact on behalf of a principal investigator (or equivalent) at their institution. In that case, the application must identify the principal investigator, you represent that the principal investigator has authorized the application and agreed to these Terms, and the principal investigator will be the Selected Collaborator if the application is selected. You represent and warrant that you have obtained all consents from your employer or institution necessary to apply to and participate in the Program and that your participation, and the open release of Research Outputs (defined in Section 8.1), do not conflict with any obligation you owe to that employer or institution, any funder, or any third party. Selection is conditioned on the institutional acknowledgment described in Section 5.3.
2.3 Restricted Jurisdictions and Persons. You may not be a legal resident of Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Crimea, or the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic or Luhansk People’s Republic. You may not be a person prohibited from participating in the Program or receiving funds or services under U.S. or other applicable laws, regulations, or export controls.
2.4 Excluded Persons. Employees, officers, directors, agents, and representatives of Anthropic, their immediate families (spouse, parents, children, siblings, and each of their spouses, regardless of where they live), members of their households, and anyone connected with the operation of the Program are not eligible to apply or be selected.
3. Applications
3.1 Responsibility. All applications are made by, and are the responsibility of, the applicant. Anthropic will correspond and, if applicable, collaborate with the applicant. If the application is made on behalf of a team, the applicant will be considered the team’s designated lead and Anthropic will collaborate with the team through its designated lead. If there is a dispute about the identity of an applicant, Anthropic will determine the applicant’s identity in its sole discretion. Team members must resolve any dispute among themselves, and a dispute among team members may result in disqualification.
3.2 Rights and Accuracy. You must have all necessary rights to submit your application. You represent and warrant that your application is accurate and complete, contains only your original work or material you have the right to submit, does not contain any confidential information as specified in Section 3.4, and does not violate any law, regulation, or third-party right.
3.3 Complete Applications. Only fully complete and compliant applications are eligible for consideration, as Anthropic determines in its sole discretion. Anthropic’s interpretations of these Terms and its decisions relating to the Program are final and binding.
3.4 Non-Confidential Proposals; Restricted Information. Applications are not confidential, and Anthropic does not agree to hold them in confidence, except that Anthropic will handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy. You must not include in your application, or provide to Anthropic at any time, any of the following (“Restricted Information”):
(a) confidential or proprietary information of you, your institution, or any third party;
(b) personal information about identifiable individuals, including identifiable or clinical patient data or other health information;
(c) data or materials subject to restrictions on use or disclosure, such as consent limits, data-use agreements, or export controls; or
(d) unpublished results or inventions that you do not want to become public.
Describe your problem using publicly available information only.
3.5 Independent and Similar Work. You acknowledge that Anthropic and others may be pursuing, or may later pursue, research, products, or materials similar or identical to your application, independently of the Program. You waive any claim arising from such similarities. Nothing in these Terms obligates Anthropic to refrain from independent research or development in any field.
3.6 Review of Applications. Anthropic may review applications with its personnel and with the contractors, advisors, and external reviewers who need to evaluate them, including for safety and biosecurity review. Anthropic is not required to return applications.
4. Selection
4.1 Considerations. Anthropic will consider factors including (a) scientific merit; (b) fit with the research mission of Anthropic’s research group; (c) feasibility; (d) the applicant’s commitment to open sharing of results; (e) the safety and biosecurity review in Section 4.2; and (f) the research team’s capacity. Anthropic makes selections in its sole discretion, and its decisions are final and binding.
4.2 Safety and Biosecurity Review. Applications undergo a biosecurity assessment to ensure they do not raise concerns about accelerating harmful applications. Anthropic may decline any application that raises safety, biosecurity, security, or legal concerns.
4.3 Disqualification. Applications that fail to meet the eligibility criteria or application requirements in these Terms are incomplete and, at Anthropic’s discretion, may be disqualified. Anthropic may disqualify any application submitted in bad faith or that raises concerns about compliance with these Terms.
4.4 Notice to Unsuccessful Applicants. Anthropic will tell unsuccessful applicants only that their applications were not selected. Anthropic is not required to provide feedback, scores, or reasons.
5. Notification and Conditions of Selection
5.1 Notice. Anthropic will notify potential Selected Collaborators by email at the address provided in the application. Becoming a Selected Collaborator is subject to validation and verification of eligibility and compliance with these Terms.
5.2 Response. If a potential Selected Collaborator does not respond within five (5) business days after Anthropic’s first notification attempt, Anthropic may disqualify the application and may select an alternate application based on the considerations in Section 4.
5.3 Confirmation and Institutional Acknowledgment. In the application, you must confirm that your institution has approved your participation in the Program and provide the name and email address of the person at your institution who gave that approval (the “Institutional Approver”). You represent that the Institutional Approver is authorized to give that approval on the institution’s behalf. Anthropic will include the Institutional Approver on its selection notice. Within fourteen (14) calendar days after Anthropic’s request, each potential Selected Collaborator (and, for a team or entity, each natural person associated with it) must return confirmation by email from the Institutional Approver that it will comply with these Terms, in the form Anthropic requests, which may include a signed confirmation (the “Institutional Acknowledgment”). The Institutional Acknowledgment must confirm that the institution consents to the collaboration, to joint publication of Research Outputs with Anthropic researchers as co-authors, to Anthropic identifying the institution in connection with the Program and the Research Outputs, and to the open release of Research Outputs (defined in Section 8.1), will not assert rights in Research Outputs that conflict with Section 8.2, and must identify any institutional policy or obligation that affects any of them. Anthropic will not begin work on a selected proposal until it receives the Institutional Acknowledgment. If Anthropic does not receive these items on time, Anthropic may withdraw the selection and select an alternate.
6. The Collaboration
6.1 Scope and Timeline. After selection, Anthropic’s research team and the Selected Collaborator will agree on the scope and timeline of the collaboration in writing. Anthropic expects each collaboration to last approximately eight (8) to twelve (12) weeks. Anthropic decides which personnel, models, tools, and harnesses it uses and how it uses them.
6.2 Collaborator’s Role. The Selected Collaborator will describe the problem, provide scientific guidance, and review Anthropic’s findings in good faith. Review of findings does not require the Selected Collaborator to endorse them. A Selected Collaborator who is named as an author will review and approve the final version of the publication. During the collaboration, the Selected Collaborator will send Anthropic a one-paragraph update each month on its engagement with Anthropic’s findings. At the end of the collaboration, the Selected Collaborator will send Anthropic a short note with specific, constructive feedback on where, in its view, the models performed well and where they fell short. These updates and notes must comply with Sections 3.4 and 7.1.
6.3 Independent Verification. A Selected Collaborator may, but need not, conduct independent experiments or validation of Research Outputs. Anthropic does not review, direct, or take responsibility for those activities. The Selected Collaborator is solely responsible for planning and conducting them and for obtaining all required institutional, ethical, regulatory, and biosafety approvals.
6.4 Changes and Termination. Either party may end the collaboration at any time by written notice. Anthropic may also modify, pause, or end the collaboration if it determines in its sole discretion that doing so is necessary for safety, biosecurity, security, or legal reasons, or if the Selected Collaborator breaches these Terms.
7. Data
7.1 No Data Transfer. The Program is designed so that Selected Collaborators send no data to Anthropic. Anthropic does not request, and Selected Collaborators must not provide, datasets, samples, unpublished experimental results, or other data from the Selected Collaborator, its laboratory, or its institution, other than the description of the problem.
7.2 Publicly Available Data. Anthropic’s work uses publicly available data and information, together with the description of the problem that the Selected Collaborator provides (“Problem Information”). Problem Information must not include Restricted Information. You acknowledge that Problem Information may appear in published Research Outputs.
7.3 Privacy. Anthropic processes personal information of applicants and Selected Collaborators in accordance with the Privacy Policy (see https://privacy.claude.com/en/).
8. Intellectual Property
8.1 Background IP and Anthropic Technology; Research Outputs. Each party retains its pre-existing intellectual property and data. Anthropic retains all rights in its models, model weights, tools, harnesses, and methods, and all improvements to them (“Anthropic Technology”). Nothing in these Terms licenses Anthropic Technology to any Selected Collaborator, and no release of Research Outputs includes Anthropic Technology. Anthropic may separately make Anthropic Technology available on its own terms, and anything it makes available that way is not a Research Output. “Research Outputs” means the findings, analyses, artifacts, and tools from a collaboration that Anthropic and the Selected Collaborator elect to publish, excluding (a) Anthropic Technology and (b) either party’s pre-existing intellectual property unless the party chooses to include it.
8.2 Open Release. Anthropic and the Selected Collaborator will make Research Outputs available to the scientific community under open licenses: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) for publications, data, and other written materials, and Apache License 2.0 for software. Neither party will restrict use of released Research Outputs beyond the terms of those licenses. Any journal submission must be compatible with the prior open release of the Research Outputs. If Research Outputs need to be hosted (such as data or code), the parties will discuss who will host them as part of the publication.
8.3 Selected Collaborator’s Independent Work. Data, results, and inventions that a Selected Collaborator generates through its own independent experiments or validation, including validation of Research Outputs, belong to the Selected Collaborator. Anthropic receives no rights in them and no right to receive them. The Selected Collaborator may publish them without Anthropic’s consent, provided that it accurately attributes any Research Outputs it uses.
8.4 Feedback. Anthropic may use any updates, notes, or other feedback that a Selected Collaborator provides for any purpose, without restriction or obligation.
9. Publication and Authorship
9.1 Joint Publication. Anthropic and the Selected Collaborator intend to publish Research Outputs jointly, as co-authors. The parties expect to post a preprint within approximately 2-3 weeks after the collaboration ends. Any follow-up work and any peer-reviewed journal publication are the Selected Collaborator’s responsibility. Anthropic is not required to perform additional work for a journal submission, but its co-authors will reasonably cooperate with one. The parties will decide timing, venue, and content by mutual agreement, subject to Section 9.3.
9.2 Review and Approval. No joint publication will be posted or submitted until each named author has had at least ten (10) business days to review it and has approved the final version. If either party prepares a separate publication, blog post, or presentation about the collaboration, it will share a draft with the other at least ten (10) business days in advance so that the other can review it for accuracy and, in Anthropic’s case, for the safety, biosecurity, security, and legal considerations in Section 9.3. Each party will consider the other’s comments in good faith.
9.3 Safety and Legal Holds. If Anthropic believes that content may present a safety, biosecurity, security, or legal risk, Anthropic may require the parties to delay or omit that content from publication. Anthropic will describe the basis for its belief in general terms.
9.4 If Anthropic Does Not Proceed. If Anthropic ends a collaboration under Section 6.4 other than for the Selected Collaborator’s breach, the Selected Collaborator may publish its own findings (meaning its contributions to the collaboration and its independent work under Section 8.3) without Anthropic’s consent, provided that it (a) does not include Anthropic Technology, (b) uses Anthropic’s name only to describe the collaboration accurately, consistent with Section 10.1, and (c) does not publish content that Anthropic has identified in writing as presenting a safety or biosecurity risk.
9.5 Authorship. Authorship and acknowledgment will follow each person’s contributions under the generally accepted scholarly authorship standards of the relevant publication venue. The parties expect that the Selected Collaborator and the Anthropic researcher who leads the work will be co-authors, together with any other Anthropic researchers or team members who make substantial contributions. The parties will agree on author order before submission. Participation in the Program does not by itself guarantee authorship, and authorship does not require endorsement of Anthropic or its products.
9.6 Declining Attribution. Either party may decline to be named as an author or acknowledged by notifying the other party before submission. The publication and open release of the Research Outputs will then proceed without identifying the declining party or its institution or personnel, and the other party will describe the collaboration only in terms that do not identify them.
10. Publicity and Public Statements
10.1 Use of Names. Neither party will publicly use the other party’s name, institutional affiliation, photograph, likeness, or quotations in connection with the Program, the Research Outputs, or communications describing them without the other party’s prior consent, which may be given by email. This Section 10.1 does not restrict (a) listing authors, affiliations, and acknowledgments in a publication as agreed under Section 9, (b) accurate citation of, or attribution required by an open license for, published Research Outputs, or (c) disclosures required by law or by a publication venue, funder, or institution. Selected Collaborators may state that they participated in the Program.
10.2 Independence; Disclosure. No Selected Collaborator is required to endorse Anthropic, its products, or any finding. Any public statement a Selected Collaborator makes about Anthropic or Research Outputs must reflect that person’s honest views and should disclose the relationship with Anthropic, including the collaboration and any co-authorship, except that a statement about Research Outputs for which Anthropic has declined attribution under Section 9.6 need not identify Anthropic. Anthropic will not provide or promise compensation for any statement, and will not state or imply that a Selected Collaborator endorses Anthropic, its products, or any finding beyond what that person has actually said.
10.3 Accuracy; No Guarantee of Outcomes. Anthropic will describe the Program and Research Outputs factually. Anthropic does not guarantee that any collaboration will produce a discovery, result, publication, or other outcome. Selected Collaborators must not make unsupported claims about the outcomes of the Program or the capabilities of Anthropic’s models.
10.4 Trademarks. Neither party may use the other’s trademarks or logos without prior written permission, except to use names as described in Section 10.1.
11. Relationship of the Parties
Nothing in the Program or these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, or fiduciary relationship between Anthropic and any applicant or Selected Collaborator. Selected Collaborators are not Anthropic employees or contractors, and they receive no compensation or benefits from Anthropic. Each party bears its own costs. Neither party may bind the other.
12. Cancellation, Suspension, or Amendment
Anthropic reserves the right in its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Program and to amend these Terms. Anthropic reserves the right to correct any typographical, printing, computer programming, or operator errors, including errors that erroneously communicate a selection. You may not assert any claim, demand, or action of any kind arising from or in connection with the cancellation, suspension, or amendment of the Program.
13. Disclaimer
Anthropic disclaims all warranties not expressly stated in these Terms. Anthropic does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free work, specific outcomes from the collaboration, or that its findings or any Research Outputs will be accurate, complete, or meet your requirements or expectations. Anthropic’s work and the Research Outputs are research results, are provided “as is,” and require independent verification before any reliance.
14. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ANTHROPIC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE PROGRAM. ANTHROPIC’S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE PROGRAM, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, IS LIMITED TO $1,000. THIS LIMITATION DOES NOT APPLY TO CLAIMS THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.
15. Governing Law and Disputes
These Terms and the Program are governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding all conflict of law rules. The exclusive forum and venue for any dispute arising from these Terms or the Program is San Francisco, California. To the extent permitted by law, you waive your rights to seek injunctive relief. If you are a government entity or public institution that is legally prohibited from agreeing to the governing law, forum, or waiver in this Section 15, that provision does not apply to you to the extent of the prohibition.
16. Miscellaneous
16.1 Entire Agreement. These Terms are Anthropic’s and your entire agreement regarding the subject matter herein and supersede any prior or contemporaneous agreements regarding that subject matter.
16.2 No Third-Party Rights. These Terms are entered into solely between, and may be enforced only by, Anthropic and you. They do not create any rights in, or obligations to, third parties.
16.3 Compliance. Each party will comply with applicable export control, sanctions, and anti-corruption laws in connection with the Program.
16.4 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without Anthropic’s prior written consent. Anthropic may assign these Terms to an affiliate or successor.
16.5 Survival. Sections 3.4, 3.5, and 7 through 16 survive any termination or cancellation, to the extent their nature requires.
16.6 Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only, and “including” and similar terms are construed without limitation. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary so that the rest of these Terms remain in full force and effect.
16.7 Waivers and Amendments. Waivers must be signed by the waiving party’s authorized representative and cannot be implied from conduct. Except for amendments by Anthropic under Section 12 and except as otherwise expressly stated in these Terms, any amendment, modification, or supplement must be in writing and signed by each party’s authorized representatives or agreed through electronic means that Anthropic provides.