Orion AI Governance Initiative
About
Updated 04/03/26The Orion AI Governance Initiative is a project of Arcadia Impact, a registered charity in England and Wales (charity number 1212323) founded in 2022 and based in London. Arcadia Impact operates several talent development programmes aimed at addressing global catastrophic risks, including AI safety and AI governance. The Orion initiative was launched in 2024 specifically to address a perceived talent gap in the AI governance field by supporting students and early-career professionals to transition into AI policy careers. The programme has three flagship components. The AI Policy Accelerator is a 9-week part-time programme that first provides a foundational curriculum covering AI fundamentals, hardware, supply chain considerations, and governance frameworks, followed by a 4-week supervised research project phase in which participants work in small teams to produce substantive research outputs on real AI governance questions. The Mentorship Programme pairs participants with working AI governance professionals, including those from policy teams at frontier AI laboratories and prominent think tanks such as the Centre for the Governance of AI, RAND, and the Ada Lovelace Institute. The Internship Programme places a limited number of Accelerator participants with think tanks and AI governance organisations for approximately 3-month paid placements (at £3,200 per month), with the summer 2026 cohort currently being recruited. The initiative is led within Arcadia Impact by Belle Yeung, who serves as Head of AI Governance. Arcadia Impact's co-directors are Joe Hardie and Erin Robertson, and the broader organisation has approximately seven full-time staff across all its programmes. In 2024, its inaugural year, Orion supported 57 participants and successfully placed 2 individuals into AI policy roles at think tanks and AI governance organisations. Funding for the Orion initiative comes primarily from Coefficient Giving (formerly the Open Philanthropy AI governance grantmaking programme), which has supported Arcadia Impact's broader portfolio.
Theory of Change
The Orion AI Governance Initiative operates on the premise that the AI governance field faces a critical talent shortage, and that the trajectory of AI policy will depend significantly on who enters and shapes the field in the near term. By providing students and early-career professionals with technical literacy, hands-on policy research experience, mentorship from established practitioners, and direct placements into governance roles, Orion aims to accelerate the career development of high-potential individuals and increase the number of skilled people working on AI governance. The causal chain runs from participant recruitment and training through skill development and professional network formation to job placement in high-leverage AI policy positions, ultimately increasing the quality and quantity of expert human capital available to shape beneficial AI governance outcomes.
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