Grantmaker · Funders · Suite, San Francisco · Est. 1986
Foresight Institute is a San Francisco-based nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 that supports beneficial emerging technologies through grants, prizes, fellowships, and convening. Its public framing centers on advancing science and technology “for the benefit of life,” with current focus areas including Secure AI, Neurotechnology, Longevity Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Space, and Existential Hope.
Institutionally, Foresight operates as a bridge between early-stage technical communities and funding mechanisms that reward tractable progress on frontier problem areas—especially where legacy institutions may be slow to fund interdisciplinary or speculative work. Core operating “offerings” include its flagship Vision Weekend conferences, technical workshops, the Foresight Fellowship (a year-long program for early-career scientists, engineers, and innovators), ongoing seminars, and two “AI Nodes” (San Francisco and Berlin) intended to provide funding, compute, office/community space, and a local ecosystem for builders working on AI for science and safety. On the prizes side, Foresight runs long-running recognition programs for nanotechnology (Feynman Prizes) and for “usable security” / secure-system design and interaction (Norm Hardy Prize).
Publications are not yet indexed for this organization. Read them on foresight.org ↗.
Foresight announced the 2025 Norm Hardy Prize winners and described their work advancing usable security via a layered cybersecurity label for smart home devices.
Foresight announces 2025 Feynman Prizes winners for nanotechnology advancesForesight announced the 2025 Feynman Prizes winners (Theory and Experiment) and linked the awards to advancements in atomically precise materials discovery and control of molecular motion.