26th February + 12th March—Negotiating for Good—A free training programme in salary negotiation, to help you increase the amount you donate to effective charities. Organised by Training for Good and split over two sessions. Apply by the 30th of January
17th March − 7th April—Impactful Policy Careers Europe—A free training programme to help you plan for a high-impact career in policy. Organised by Training for Good. Apply by the 20th of February
Latest Research and Updates
Meta
CEA has created the EA Groups Resource Centre, which has a curated collection of resources for anyone interested in setting up an EA group
The LSE, Political Science Foundations of Animal Sentience (ASENT) Project and Rethink Priorities are sponsoring a conference on the problems and prospects for making interspecies welfare comparisons, which will be held at the LSE on 28-29 April 2022. They currently have a call for abstracts, with a January 31st deadline
The Institute for Progress is a new think tank aiming to ‘accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future’
The Institute for Replication was recently launched and they work to improve the credibility of science by systematically reproducing and replicating research findings in leading academic journals
EA Updates for February 2022
Upcoming In Person Events
26-27th March—EAGx Oxford
15-17th April—EA Global London
April—EAGx Boston
Upcoming Virtual Events
29th January—High-Impact Careers for Mathematicians—Organised by EA Cambridge
30th January—Doughnut Economics reading group—Organised by EA Anywhere
4th February—Requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change and the rights of present and future generations—Organised by the Legal Priorities Project
5th February—The role of carbon removal in achieving climate goals—Organised by Effective Environmentalism
6th February—Giving What We Can Meetup—With guest speaker Michael Plant
7th February − 3rd April—EA Virtual Programs—Applications close 30th January
Introductory EA Program
In-Depth EA Program
The Precipice Reading Group
11th February—David Thorstad: The scope of longtermism
18th February—Giving What We Can Open Forum
19th February—More than technology: What are today’s carbon removal opportunities?
25th February—The Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations
26th February + 12th March—Negotiating for Good—A free training programme in salary negotiation, to help you increase the amount you donate to effective charities. Organised by Training for Good and split over two sessions. Apply by the 30th of January
27th February—Designing the TerraWatt transition: Repowering Coal
17th March − 7th April—Impactful Policy Careers Europe—A free training programme to help you plan for a high-impact career in policy. Organised by Training for Good. Apply by the 20th of February
Latest Research and Updates
Meta
CEA has created the EA Groups Resource Centre, which has a curated collection of resources for anyone interested in setting up an EA group
80,000 Hours wants to talk to more people
The Survival and Flourishing Fund has started a speculation grants program with 20 volunteers to facilitate grants to existing organisations
Dominic Roser, Stefan Riedener and Markus Huppenbauer have a new book with collected essays on effective altruism and religion
Charity Entrepreneurship are launching a training program for grantmaking foundations
There is a new Discord server for software, data and tech people interested in EA
Training for Good are offering 1-1 coaching for EA leaders & high-potential individuals, the application deadline is February 11th
80,000 Hours with a collection of posts from people reviewing their own careers
Mathieu Putz and Kat Woods with a collection of resources for people who want to start a charity
EA Organisation Updates for January 2021
Michael Aird looking more into the idea of megaprojects
CEA has launched EA Librarian, where users can submit questions and the team will research and respond
Markus Amalthea Magnuson has set up Altruistic Agency to provide free tech support and development to organisations in the EA community
Joshua Teperowski Monrad with the post ‘Rowing and Steering the Effective Altruism Movement’
Ben Williamson has launched the pilot initiative Effective Self-Help
Forethought Foundation is running a ‘Topics in Economic Theory & Global Prioritisation’ course in Oxford this August, applications close 5th February
Akash Wasil with advice he’s found useful when applying for EA jobs
Vaidehi Agarwalla with the post ‘When in doubt, apply*’
Project for Awesome 2022 are looking for people to make short videos to raise money for EA related charities
Grants
Open Phil have made 2 grants recently with a total value of $8,700,000
$8,000,000 - Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security—forecasting platforms
$800,000 - Equalia—corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of chickens
Center for Emerging Risk Research have made 5 grants with a total value of $19,600,000
The Long-Term Future Fund have made 18 grants with a total value of $1,400,000
The Animal Welfare Fund have made 21 grants with a total value of $1,100,000
Global Development
The Lancet with a new report on how over 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics
Dylan Matthews looking at how nearly half the world’s kids are exposed to dangerous levels of lead
Lead Exposure Elimination Project with their first year in review
A post on how Wellcome plans to spend £16 billion over the next ten years on discovery research, infectious disease, mental health and climate health
Max Roser with the post ‘The history of the end of poverty has just begun’
Development economist Chris Blattman has started blogging again, including this post on PhD applications
The Gates Foundation and Wellcome have pledged $300 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
UNICEF with their latest report on levels and trends in child mortality
Alexander Berger and Peter Favaloro from Open Philanthropy in discussion with Eva Vivalt on what informs the grantmaker’s giving
Animal Welfare
Animal Advocacy Careers with research into hiring difficulties
Emma Ignaszewski looking at pathways to alternative protein affordability
The LSE, Political Science Foundations of Animal Sentience (ASENT) Project and Rethink Priorities are sponsoring a conference on the problems and prospects for making interspecies welfare comparisons, which will be held at the LSE on 28-29 April 2022. They currently have a call for abstracts, with a January 31st deadline
An article on ‘The National Security Case for Lab-Grown and Plant-Based Meat’
A post suggesting that EA animal welfare funding is relatively overinvesting in corporate welfare reforms
Animal Empathy Philippines has been launched
Saulius Šimčikas with a suggestion for an Effective Animal Advocacy forum
Existential & Catastrophic Risks
China, Russia, Britain, the United States and France have agreed that a further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided in a joint statement on the United Nations Security Council
Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Ethan Alley with a list of concrete biosecurity projects
Brian Resnick looking at how NASA is studying how to detect and avert asteroids and comets from colliding with earth
Mike Hinge on Hear This Idea discussing his work at ALLFED, looking at how to feed everyone in a disaster
Lara Mani co-authored a new paper about the scenario from 7th Planetary Defence conference in ‘Preparing for a Near-Earth Object Impact Scenario’ and what lessons were learnt
A review of the 4th annual Global Biosecurity Dialogue conference
S.J. Beard wrote in the BBC on ‘How to read the Doomsday Clock’
Improving Institutions
The Institute for Progress is a new think tank aiming to ‘accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future’
Derek Thompson on how investors are looking into new ways to speed up scientific progress
The Institute for Replication was recently launched and they work to improve the credibility of science by systematically reproducing and replicating research findings in leading academic journals
Michael Nielsen with the post ‘In what sense is the science of science a science’
Pablo with the post ‘Science policy as a possible EA cause area: problems and solutions’
A new open index of scholarly papers has launched
Holden Karnofsky looking at how stakeholder management can explain a lot of increasing bureaucracy
Environment
A post looking at the difference in climate recommendations between Giving Green and Founders Pledge
McKinsey with a report on how much US philanthropic grant funding goes to climate change
Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser with a campaign to make the world’s energy data free to access for everyone
Richard Fisher on the environmental case for buying coal mines
Longtermism
Sam Clarke with ‘The longtermist AI governance landscape: a basic overview’
The Future of Life Institute is running a worldbuilding contest with $100,000 in prizes, submissions close on April 15th
Peter Singer on ‘the hinge of history’
Eric Schwitzgebel with an article ‘Against Longtermism’
Founders Pledge with a cause report on longtermist institutional reform
Emerging Technology
Stuart Russell on the promises and perils of AI
DeepMind has started the second season of their podcast
The Centre for the Governance of AI has released their annual report
Other Links
Training for Good with ‘Four lessons from people interested in EA working in European policy’
Joy Bittner writing about her career in operations
Marius Hobbhahn on how to write better blog posts
Lynette Bye has gathered together a collection of New Year review resources
Rhaina Cohen with an article on celebrating rejection
Jan Kirchner suggesting ‘Fixing Adolescence’ as a cause area
George McGowan suggesting UK Housing Policy as a new cause area
Thomas Woodside talking about how he first got involved in EA
Lizka asking ‘What are some artworks relevant to EA?’
Ari Kagan and Nick Fitz with updates from their organisation Momentum
Devin Kalish with the post ‘The Bioethicists are (Mostly) Alright’
Mark Cuban has founded a new online pharmacy in the U.S. that is selling generic prescription drugs at the lowest price possible
Good News
Covax delivered over 309 million coronavirus vaccine doses in December, a large increase on previous months
Papua New Guinea has repealed the death penalty
Italy has voted to ban fur farming and shut down mink farms
Bangladesh has drastically reduced its cyclone-related deaths, by more than 100 fold since 1970
Philippines bans child marriage