CyberSafe x SANS AI Security Fellowship 2026: Fully Funded for African Women

The CyberSafe SANS AI Security Fellowship 2026 is one of those opportunities that addresses a very specific gap and does it properly. It is a fully funded, nine-month advanced training and certification programme for African women who already have cybersecurity experience and are ready to move into one of the fastest-growing and most undersupplied specialisations in the industry: AI security. Applications are open now and close on September 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM WAT.

If you are a practising cybersecurity professional with at least three years of hands-on experience and you have been trying to figure out how to position yourself in a market being reshaped by artificial intelligence, this fellowship is built precisely for you.

The Two Organisations Behind It

CyberSafe Foundation is a Nigerian nonprofit that has spent years building a pipeline of capable women across Africa’s cybersecurity community. Their flagship programme, CyberGirls, has trained thousands of women from entry level into working careers in cybersecurity. The SANS AI Security Fellowship is a natural next step in that pipeline, moving the focus from entry-level training to advanced specialisation for experienced professionals.

SANS Institute is the other half of this partnership. SANS is the world’s most trusted source of cybersecurity training and certifications. Their courses are used by security teams at governments, financial institutions, and technology companies globally. Their certifications, issued through GIAC, are among the most respected credentials in the industry. Getting access to SANS training is expensive under normal circumstances. This fellowship removes that cost entirely.

What the Fellowship Covers

The nine-month programme is structured around four sequential SANS courses, each building on the previous one. Training is delivered through SANS OnDemand, which is self-paced and online with hands-on labs embedded throughout. Courses are released in sequence rather than all at once, and the programme includes biweekly progress reviews to keep fellows on track.

SEC411: AI Security Principles and Practices (GenAI and LLM Defense)

This is the foundation course. It covers how large language models work at a technical level, tokenisation security, AI attack surfaces, prompt injection, and jailbreaking. The goal is to build genuine fluency in how AI systems can be exploited before moving into how to defend them.

SEC495: Leveraging LLMs: Building and Securing RAG, Contextual RAG, and Agentic RAG

Fellows build a Retrieval-Augmented Generation system from the ground up, self-hosted end to end. The course teaches how to implement access controls, defend against prompt injection in RAG pipelines, and protect sensitive information within these architectures.

SEC545: GenAI and LLM Application Security

This course goes deeper into securing real-world generative AI applications, covering vector databases, LangChain agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and Kubernetes deployments. Fellows work through AI threat modelling using the MAESTRO framework and complete a capstone capture-the-flag exercise.

SEC598: AI and Security Automation for Red, Blue, and Purple Teams

The final course shifts into automation, covering SOAR playbooks, infrastructure as code, and AI-driven detection and response workflows across AWS and Azure. This is where the programme brings together offensive and defensive perspectives in a unified automation practice.

Certifications Included

The learning path is designed around two GIAC certifications:

GIAC AI Platform Security (GAIPS) and GIAC AI Security Automation Engineer (GASAE)

Both are industry-recognised credentials in a certification category that barely existed two years ago. Being GAIPS and GASAE certified in 2027 puts a fellow at the front of a market where demand is already outpacing supply and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Who Can Apply

The fellowship is open to any African woman who meets all of the following:

• Older than 21
• African, English-speaking, and currently resident in an African country
• At least three years of hands-on cybersecurity experience in any specialisation
• A genuine interest in AI security as a career direction
• Able to commit to the full nine months, including exam preparation windows
• Willing to complete the prerequisite AI security course as part of the application process

No prior AI experience is required. The fellowship is open to any eligible applicant, not only alumnae of CyberSafe Foundation’s previous programmes. If you have built your career in network security, application security, GRC, cloud security, or any other cybersecurity discipline and you meet the experience threshold, you are eligible to apply.

The Application Process

Applying is not as simple as filling out a form. The process has several stages and requires some preparation before you submit.

First, applicants must complete a designated prerequisite AI security course and submit the required credential before the application proceeds to formal review. This is not optional and it is not a formality. It is part of how the programme assesses readiness. Start this now if you have not already.

The application itself requires your contact and location details, LinkedIn profile, current role and organisation, total years of cybersecurity experience, a CV of no more than two pages in PDF format, and written responses to application questions. Any published AI-related articles or technical writing is optional but encouraged.

After submission, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Eligible applicants who pass the prerequisite stage are shortlisted and invited to an online blind interview and identity verification before final selection.

Key Dates

Milestone	Date
Applications closed	September 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM WAT
Selection and feedback	September 30, 2026
Orientation	October 21, 2026
Training begins	October 26, 2026
Fellowship completion	July 30, 2027

What Fellows Pay

Nothing. The fellowship is fully funded. SANS provides the training and certification pathway as an in-kind contribution. Fellows pay no tuition, no course fees, and no certification exam fees.

The one thing fellows are expected to bring is their own laptop that meets the programme’s technical requirements and reliable internet access for the duration. That is the full extent of the personal cost.

How to Apply

The deadline is September 10, 2026 at 12:00 PM WAT. That is 11 days from the date of this post. If you meet the eligibility criteria, the most urgent thing you need to do is read the full application guide before starting your application.

Download the Application Guide: https://cybersafefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CSF-X-SANS-AI-Security-Fellowship-Application-Guide.pdf

Application Link: https://cybersafefoundation.org/cybersafe-x-sans-ai-security-application/

Programme page: https://cybersafefoundation.org/our-programs/cybersafe-sans-ai-security-fellowship/

The CyberSafe SANS AI Security Fellowship 2026 is not one of those programmes that looks good on paper but delivers something generic. The curriculum is specific, the certifications are real, and the gap it is filling in the market is measurable. If you are the right person for it, apply before the window closes.

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