OpenAI recently announced a new program for funding faculty research and graduate student fellowships: Superalignment Fast Grants. The initial announcement included IP and liability terms that UW could not agree to, so UW communicated to OpenAI that our faculty would not be eligible. However, after we communicated the barriers, they changed the program and clarified their willingness to negotiate with us on the resulting awards.
As a result, we’ve identified a path forward. UW researchers eligible to serve as a PI can directly submit a proposal through the OpenAI portal. Still, they must submit an eGC1 with the submitted proposal version no later than Feb 20, 2024. Researchers should be aware that OpenAI does not keep the grant application confidential. No confidential or proprietary information should be included.
We also caution proposers that there is potential individual liability under the indemnification and representation that they are not infringing on third-party rights. The submission asks you to represent that you are authorized to enter into the submission agreement. We have communicated with OpenAI that you are not authorized to obligate the university and that authorization will be through the subsequent eGC1 process. This is a one-time arrangement due to this unusual change of events.