The legal entity behind the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR), a UK-based independent think tank working to transform global resilience to extreme risks, particularly in AI safety and biosecurity.
The legal entity behind the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR), a UK-based independent think tank working to transform global resilience to extreme risks, particularly in AI safety and biosecurity.
People
Updated 04/02/26Director of Communications & Advocacy
Consultant
Operations Contractor
Senior AI Policy Manager
Funding Details
Updated 04/02/26- Annual Budget
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Org Details
Updated 04/02/26Alpenglow Group Limited is the registered UK company behind the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR), an independent think tank with a mission to transform global resilience to extreme risks. The company was incorporated on 11 November 2019, and began operating as CLTR in 2020. CLTR was co-founded by Angus Mercer and Sophie Dannreuther, both former senior UK civil servants. Mercer, a lawyer by training, previously served as Head of External Affairs at the UK Department for International Development. Dannreuther worked across seven government departments, most recently as a Strategy Consultant at the Cabinet Office. Both are Research Affiliates at the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER). Based in London near Whitehall, CLTR operates as a non-partisan bridge between academic research on extreme risks and government policymaking. The organization concentrates on three domains: AI risks, biosecurity threats, and improving government risk management capacity. Its work includes providing policy advice to senior government officials, conducting research to generate policy proposals, red-teaming exercises, cross-sector convenings, expert placements in government roles, and public advocacy through parliamentary testimony and media engagement. CLTR has had notable policy impact in the UK. In the AI domain, it contributed to the Ministry of Defence's AI Strategy and the UK Government's approach to regulating frontier AI models. On biosecurity, its recommendations were incorporated into the UK's 2023 Biological Security Strategy. On risk management, CLTR helped extend the time horizon for the National Security Risk Assessment from two to five years. The organization has grown from a two-person founding team to a team of approximately 19 staff, organized into small policy units covering AI, biosecurity, and risk management. It has published extensive research on topics including AI security incidents, AI-enabled biological risks, and capability-based risk assessment frameworks. CLTR is a registered non-profit (private company limited by guarantee without share capital) that relies on voluntary donations and does not receive government funding.
Theory of Change
Updated 04/02/26CLTR believes that relatively small and inexpensive changes to government governance, processes, and decision-making can substantially reduce the likelihood of extreme events and improve response capacity when they occur. Their theory of change operates through several mechanisms: directly advising senior government officials on AI safety and biosecurity policy, translating academic research on extreme risks into actionable policy recommendations, placing experts within government to build institutional capacity, red-teaming government plans and strategies, and advocating publicly for improved risk management. By focusing on the UK government as a permanent UN Security Council member and major economy, they aim to influence global norms around AI governance and biosecurity. They believe there is currently a crucial window of opportunity to shape the course of AI development and biosecurity governance before risks become unmanageable.
Grants Received
Updated 04/02/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 04/02/26Discussion
Key risk: Their moderate, incremental asks in a crowded UK AI governance landscape, combined with a large budget, may yield low counterfactual impact per marginal dollar—especially if UK political shifts limit global influence on frontier model norms.
Case for funding: CLTR has unusually strong UK policy access and a proven track record—shaping frontier‑model regulation, the MoD AI Strategy, and the 2023 Biological Security Strategy—making it a high‑leverage bridge from x‑risk research to concrete government decisions at a pivotal time.