If you do a literature review, and think there is more to be done, or want to publish them and arenāt sure how, or want feedback, there are many researchers that can advise or help on next steps. (But only ask once you have drafts of the literature review, or better, project plansāuntil that point, the goal is to see if more people can do research, and have more EAs able to do this type of work on their own!)
Do you have a specific suggestion for which researchers people should contact, or how they should find out? E.g., contact you and let you direct them?
And are you indeed suggesting that people should not reach out for advice or help on next steps until theyāve developed at least drafts of a lit review and/āor project plans? That seems surprising to me. It seems to me that:
a sizeable fraction of people who are considering pursuing these project ideas would probably benefit from reaching out to researchers for advice at an earlier stage (e.g. to outline and get feedback on their current skills and interests and their vague ideas on which directions they could head in)
EA researchers are often quite happy to help at that stage
(This has been my experience to date, both as an advice-seeker and an advice-giver, though not specifically in relation to biosecurity stuff.)
(I donāt actually need answers to these questions myself. I just feel like these questions might be useful for some other readers, since I think/āhope readers might in future use this post to help them decide whether and how to try out /ā further pursue biosecurity-related research.)
For earlier stage discussions, I agree that some people are interested in providing general career guidance, and perhaps that means suggesting specific projects from this listābut thatās different than requesting help getting started on a specific project.
A key part of doing useful research is thinking about a question and figuring out what to do to investigate, and while I and others could flesh these out into project outlines ourselves, a large part of the goal in posting this is to let others show their capabilities for doing so themselves. Moreover, people who arenāt able to at least start such a project are unlikely to be successful as researchersāand doing the initial steps is intended to be a gauge of both commitment and ability.
Providing guidance on how to start and work on these projects requires a significant investment of timeāand I donāt think it is fair to bother others with volunteers who havenāt shown they are interested and at least somewhat capable. I and others are happy to provide guidance if researchers interested in these problems are stuck, but some work beyond āI think Iād like to do thisā is a prerequisite for getting feedback.
With that said, I am happy to be a contact point for coordinating any work people are interested in doing, and I can put you in touch with others who are interested in the specific projects.
Do you have a specific suggestion for which researchers people should contact, or how they should find out? E.g., contact you and let you direct them?
And are you indeed suggesting that people should not reach out for advice or help on next steps until theyāve developed at least drafts of a lit review and/āor project plans? That seems surprising to me. It seems to me that:
a sizeable fraction of people who are considering pursuing these project ideas would probably benefit from reaching out to researchers for advice at an earlier stage (e.g. to outline and get feedback on their current skills and interests and their vague ideas on which directions they could head in)
EA researchers are often quite happy to help at that stage
(This has been my experience to date, both as an advice-seeker and an advice-giver, though not specifically in relation to biosecurity stuff.)
(I donāt actually need answers to these questions myself. I just feel like these questions might be useful for some other readers, since I think/āhope readers might in future use this post to help them decide whether and how to try out /ā further pursue biosecurity-related research.)
For earlier stage discussions, I agree that some people are interested in providing general career guidance, and perhaps that means suggesting specific projects from this listābut thatās different than requesting help getting started on a specific project.
A key part of doing useful research is thinking about a question and figuring out what to do to investigate, and while I and others could flesh these out into project outlines ourselves, a large part of the goal in posting this is to let others show their capabilities for doing so themselves. Moreover, people who arenāt able to at least start such a project are unlikely to be successful as researchersāand doing the initial steps is intended to be a gauge of both commitment and ability.
Providing guidance on how to start and work on these projects requires a significant investment of timeāand I donāt think it is fair to bother others with volunteers who havenāt shown they are interested and at least somewhat capable. I and others are happy to provide guidance if researchers interested in these problems are stuck, but some work beyond āI think Iād like to do thisā is a prerequisite for getting feedback.
With that said, I am happy to be a contact point for coordinating any work people are interested in doing, and I can put you in touch with others who are interested in the specific projects.