Anthropic is extending its AI for Science program, launched in May 2025, from individual researchers to institutions: six science funders (including the US NSF, Simons, Sloan and Schmidt Sciences) will distribute Claude credits to researchers, six institutions (such as STScI, Sanger, the Crick and EMBL) will use credits in-house, and six public-good research projects (such as gnomAD, FlyWire and the Lean math library Tau Ceti) get direct support. Anthropic did not disclose the total value of the credits.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Anthropic names 20 partners in three groups: funders and societies, research institutions, and specific research projects (per Anthropic)
- ✓Funders include the roughly $9B-a-year US NSF, Simons, Sloan, Schmidt Sciences and CAS (American Chemical Society), which will pass Claude credits on to researchers
- ✓Institutions include STScI, which runs science operations for Hubble and Webb, plus Wellcome Sanger, the Francis Crick Institute, EMBL and Gladstone
- ✓Projects include gnomAD (DNA data from 800,000+ people), the FlyWire fruit-fly connectome and Tau Ceti, a Lean autoformalized math library
- ✓Total credit value, grant sizes and how to apply were not disclosed; Anthropic earlier launched a discounted Team plan for scientists
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Background and the problem
Research teams want frontier models for hypotheses, experiment design and data analysis, but API costs and procurement often block academics. Anthropic started AI for Science in May 2025 with free Claude credits for individual researchers. This update (published on Anthropic's site Oct 28 and announced by the Anthropic account on X on Oct 29) moves to institutional partnerships so credits reach more people.
How it works
There are three layers. Funders and societies (NSF, Simons, Sloan, Schmidt Sciences, Renaissance Philanthropy's Open Source for Science Fund and CAS) pick projects and pass credits on. Institutions (STScI, Sanger, the Crick, Imperial College London Life Sciences, EMBL, Gladstone) use credits in-house. Projects (gnomAD, FlyWire, LEAP, AstroPath, Tau Ceti, the Centre for Population Genomics) get direct support. Anthropic also cites the Model Hardware Standard built with HHMI Janelia so agents can safely run lab instruments (research preview), and the Allen Institute building agent teams to analyze open datasets.
Benchmarks
This is a funding and partnership announcement. Anthropic published no benchmarks and did not disclose the total value of the credits. The claim that months of analysis become hours is Anthropic's description of the Allen Institute work, not an independent result.
Getting started
If you work at a university or institute, check whether your institution or funder is on the list and apply through it; individual researchers can still use the original AI for Science application or the discounted Team plan for scientists. Many projects promise open datasets, open-source software and open standards, so tool builders should watch MHS and Tau Ceti for releases.
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