Semi-relatedly, I’d also be interested in hearing about some of EAIF’s past grants that you think were particularly exciting/successful (this might have already gotten covered in one of the other posts — apologies if so!).
Good Question! We have discussed running RFP(s) to more directly support projects we’d like to see. First, though, I think we want to do some more strategic thinking about the direction we want EAIF to go in, and hence at this stage I think we are fairly unsure about which project types we’d like to see more of.
Caveats aside, I personally[1] would be pretty interested in:
Macrostrategy / cause prioritization research. I think a substantional amount of intellectual progress was made in the 2000s / early 2010s from a constellation of different places (e.g. early FHI, the rationality community, Randomistas, GiveWell, etc) which led to the EA community developing some crucial ideas. Sadly, I think we have seen less of that “raw idea generation process” in recent times. I’d be pretty excited if there was a project that was able to revive this spirit, although I think it would be (very) difficult to pull off.
High quality communications of EA Principles. Many core EA ideas are hard to communicate, especially in low bandwith formats. In practice I think this means that discourse around EA (e.g. on twitter) is pretty poor (and worsening). Whilst there’s been work to remedy this in specific cause areas (like AISCC), there don’t seem to be many public communications champions of EA as an intellectual project, nor as a community of people earnestly aiming to improve the world. Again, I think this is hard to remedy, and easy to get wrong, but I would be pretty excited for someone to try.
Fundraising. Promising projects across all cause areas are going unfunded due to funding constraints (EAIF included). I’m additionally worried that there are several fundraising organisations - who’s principle goal is “fund EA/EA-ish projects”—are distancing themselves from the EA label, leaving projects (especially in the EA community) without a source of funding.
What are some kinds of projects you’d like to see more of (in terms of applications)?
Semi-relatedly, I’d also be interested in hearing about some of EAIF’s past grants that you think were particularly exciting/successful (this might have already gotten covered in one of the other posts — apologies if so!).
Good Question! We have discussed running RFP(s) to more directly support projects we’d like to see. First, though, I think we want to do some more strategic thinking about the direction we want EAIF to go in, and hence at this stage I think we are fairly unsure about which project types we’d like to see more of.
Caveats aside, I personally[1] would be pretty interested in:
Macrostrategy / cause prioritization research. I think a substantional amount of intellectual progress was made in the 2000s / early 2010s from a constellation of different places (e.g. early FHI, the rationality community, Randomistas, GiveWell, etc) which led to the EA community developing some crucial ideas. Sadly, I think we have seen less of that “raw idea generation process” in recent times. I’d be pretty excited if there was a project that was able to revive this spirit, although I think it would be (very) difficult to pull off.
High quality communications of EA Principles. Many core EA ideas are hard to communicate, especially in low bandwith formats. In practice I think this means that discourse around EA (e.g. on twitter) is pretty poor (and worsening). Whilst there’s been work to remedy this in specific cause areas (like AISCC), there don’t seem to be many public communications champions of EA as an intellectual project, nor as a community of people earnestly aiming to improve the world. Again, I think this is hard to remedy, and easy to get wrong, but I would be pretty excited for someone to try.
Fundraising. Promising projects across all cause areas are going unfunded due to funding constraints (EAIF included). I’m additionally worried that there are several fundraising organisations - who’s principle goal is “fund EA/EA-ish projects”—are distancing themselves from the EA label, leaving projects (especially in the EA community) without a source of funding.
Not speaking for EAIF / EA Funds / EV