Anthropic Opens Guest Investigator Call for Life Sciences Research with Claude
TL;DR: Anthropic has opened a call for guest investigators in the life sciences, inviting principal investigators and their research groups at academic institutions, nonprofits, and government labs to spend 8–12 weeks working directly with Anthropic researchers on problems in causal human biology, structural and computational molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and clinical science — with Anthropic running its models and harnesses at no cost to participants.
What Anthropic announced
Anthropic is inviting members of the life sciences community to apply to work with the company on special projects. The program is aimed at principal investigators and their research groups at academic institutions, nonprofits, or government labs who want to use Claude to investigate key questions in the life sciences.
The five named areas of interest are:
- Causal human biology
- Structural and computational molecular biology
- Medicinal chemistry
- Drug discovery
- Clinical science
Proposals are submitted through Anthropic's guest investigator program page.
How the collaboration works
The collaboration runs over 8–12 weeks. During that period, guest investigators work directly with Anthropic researchers on a problem of interest and produce the analyses, artifacts, and tools that will be most helpful for them in their work.
Anthropic states that its team will run its models and harnesses at no cost to the guest investigators. There may be an option for extension beyond the initial collaboration period for some projects.
Publication, open source, and data rights
Anthropic says the two parties will work together to publish the outputs and to open-source the accompanying data and code.
On ownership, the announcement is explicit on two points:
- Guest investigators retain the rights to their data at every step during their project.
- Guest investigators will also have the rights to any independent follow-on research that might come out of the collaboration.
Anthropic also states that it is not asking guest investigators to give the company their data, either in the application or during the collaboration, and that applicants should include only publicly available information in their application materials.
Who should apply
Anthropic describes two criteria for applicants.
First, applicants should clearly explain how they would benefit from direct collaboration with Anthropic's researchers.
Second, applicants should make a reasonable case that their outputs — such as preliminary discoveries, answers to open questions, open-source datasets, or public resources — can be produced within the 8- to 12-week collaboration period.
Anthropic acknowledges that results for most open problems of interest will take much longer to validate, and says it is looking for proposals that can produce some preliminary evidence in a relatively short amount of time.
Application timeline
- Applications are open for approximately 14 days.
- Anthropic says it will strive to notify selected participants by email approximately 14 days after applications close.
- Anthropic says it looks forward to potentially expanding the effort in the future as it learns more about how best to support the scientific community.
Where this fits in Anthropic's life sciences efforts
Anthropic describes the guest investigator program as one of several initiatives it is pursuing to invest more heavily in the life sciences and the broader scientific research community. Two related programs are named in the announcement:
- The Life Sciences Verification Program, for scientists who want direct access to Anthropic's most capable publicly available models for biology.
- The AI for Science initiative, which provides scientists with Claude credits to accelerate their progress toward making scientific discoveries.
Key facts at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Program | Guest investigators in the life sciences |
| Host | Anthropic |
| Eligibility | Principal investigators and their research groups at academic institutions, nonprofits, or government labs |
| Duration | 8–12 weeks, with possible extension for some projects |
| Cost to participants | Anthropic runs its models and harnesses at no cost |
| Outputs | Analyses, artifacts, and tools; published jointly with open-sourced data and code |
| Data rights | Investigators retain rights to their data at every step and to independent follow-on research |
| Application window | Approximately 14 days |
| Notification | Approximately 14 days after applications close, by email |
| Application materials | Publicly available information only |