$20K Travel Grant Program, Supported by Robocurve

We’re excited to announce the ten recipients of the SPAIS 2026 Travel Grant, supported by Robocurve. Selected from 131 applicants, these students and early-career researchers are the next generation of physical AI safety talent, from Berkeley, Columbia, ETH Zurich, Georgia Tech, Keio, MIT, Oxford, Stanford, UCSD, and UPenn. Each grant provides up to $2,000 toward travel, accommodation, and CoRL '26 registration.

Why this program

Robot foundation models are moving quickly from research labs into the physical world, but the field working to make them safe is still small. Few researchers today combine deep expertise in both robotics and AI safety, and early-career researchers often face the steepest barriers to joining the conversations where the field’s direction is set. This program exists to lower one of those barriers: the cost of being in the room.

How recipients were selected

We asked applicants to tell us why physical AI safety matters and what they would bring to the workshop. Applications were reviewed by the PAISI organizers together with Robocurve, which held a seat on the selection committee. With 131 applications for ten grants, the decisions were difficult, and we were encouraged by the depth and range of interest in this emerging research field.