Someone asked me via email for what grant amount they should apply, and whether we would consider a large grant for several full-time positions at once. I’m sharing my response here, as I think it may be useful for others as well:
The short answer is: Please apply for whatever amount and duration makes the most sense for the project itself, and explain your reasoning to us.
Us not making such grants in the past is due to us not receiving any high-quality applications of this kind.
E.g., how long does it take for you to test some key hypotheses and get some early traction? Perhaps that duration plus 1-3 months of extra slack and runway should be your initial ask. If things work out as intended, you can then use the initial results to apply for follow-on funding. If there are no good results after that time, you may want to abort the project anyway (not primarily because you wouldn’t get further funding from EA Funds, but because the people involved might decide that their time could be better spent elsewhere).
Depending on the details of this, I think an initial ask could be anywhere between 2 and 12 months for 1-4 FTE salaries plus other expenses, and depends on the details of the project.
I don’t think you need to try and get funding from outside sources at the initial stage, as that sounds like it would be a hassle for you.
Someone asked me via email for what grant amount they should apply, and whether we would consider a large grant for several full-time positions at once. I’m sharing my response here, as I think it may be useful for others as well: