Executive summary: GiveWell outlines its 2026 research agenda across 11 subteams, with the dual goals of scaling research capacity and granting at least $500 million to the most cost-effective global health and development programs it can identify.
Key points:
GiveWell’s 60-person research team is organized into 11 subteams covering malaria, nutrition, vaccination, water, livelihoods, and other global health cause areas.
The malaria team—GiveWell’s largest subteam at 15 people—plans to investigate chemoprevention approaches beyond the Sahel and cost-effective ways to support malaria treatment, following funding gaps created by changes to the global funding landscape.
The water team received significant negative updates on adherence from external coverage surveys of chlorination programs in Uganda and Malawi, and is pivoting to explore alternative treatment technologies and delivery models.
The New Areas subteam plans to increase grantmaking by about 20% over 2025 by intentionally accepting higher levels of risk and uncertainty, including in cause areas GiveWell has not previously funded such as medical oxygen, tuberculosis, and AI applications to global health.
The livelihoods team aims over two years to test the hypothesis that GiveWell ought to expand its portfolio of livelihoods grants, covering cash transfers, ultra-poor graduation programs, and microfinance.
The Cross-Cutting Research team is rolling out AI tools for use cases such as literature reviews and systematically tracking how well AI performs at GiveWell’s work, with the goal of preparing for future jumps in AI capability.
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Executive summary: GiveWell outlines its 2026 research agenda across 11 subteams, with the dual goals of scaling research capacity and granting at least $500 million to the most cost-effective global health and development programs it can identify.
Key points:
GiveWell’s 60-person research team is organized into 11 subteams covering malaria, nutrition, vaccination, water, livelihoods, and other global health cause areas.
The malaria team—GiveWell’s largest subteam at 15 people—plans to investigate chemoprevention approaches beyond the Sahel and cost-effective ways to support malaria treatment, following funding gaps created by changes to the global funding landscape.
The water team received significant negative updates on adherence from external coverage surveys of chlorination programs in Uganda and Malawi, and is pivoting to explore alternative treatment technologies and delivery models.
The New Areas subteam plans to increase grantmaking by about 20% over 2025 by intentionally accepting higher levels of risk and uncertainty, including in cause areas GiveWell has not previously funded such as medical oxygen, tuberculosis, and AI applications to global health.
The livelihoods team aims over two years to test the hypothesis that GiveWell ought to expand its portfolio of livelihoods grants, covering cash transfers, ultra-poor graduation programs, and microfinance.
The Cross-Cutting Research team is rolling out AI tools for use cases such as literature reviews and systematically tracking how well AI performs at GiveWell’s work, with the goal of preparing for future jumps in AI capability.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.