Wonderful work! I’ve commented directly on the spreadsheet, but for the benefit of anyone who won’t check it:
Several of these ideas can be rolled into one:
A remote research institute for independent researchers
Infrastructure to support independent researchers
Building vibrant EA academic communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
AI alignment prizes, advance market commitments, and other forms of proto–impact markets
The scheme that I imagine could have all of these benefits:
Find and recruit more independent researchers for high-impact research
Tap into talent pools in countries that don’t have a lot of EA presence
Circumvent restrictions on foreign donations/grants to researchers in some countries
Support independent researchers monetarily
Kickstart academic careers
Support many small research projects efficiently (low due diligence overhead)
Recruit for-profit investors such as business angels and impact investors to derisk research for researchers
Derisk research for potential risk-averse non-EA funders
Help researchers network, find potential advisors or collaborators
Provide researchers with infrastructure (servers, labs, etc.) efficiently
Monitor and improve the counterfactual impact of prize contests
Tap into corporate funding for prize contests (in high-growth industries)
The best thing is that to my knowledge it should be fully legal to do this.
We (GoodX) are working on infrastructure to support independent researchers with funding and simplify grant applications. We’re not currently implementing this particular scheme, but that could change given the right team (experts in US securities law and startup fundraising).
The approach:
Build a network:
Set up a nonprofit think tank with some form of limited liability and a suitable purpose so that it is exempt from the requirement to register any publicly traded securities with the SEC.
Network among business angels, HNWI (including non-altruists), possibly VCs. Even $100k go a long way in low-income countries, so “high net worth” can be a low bar depending on the country.
Watch out for prize contests, AMCs, governmental and private outcome payers, etc.
Let the investors scout out great researchers:
An investor could be an Indian economics professor – smaller high-context investors can lead; larger low-context investors can follow.
Possibly help with the match-making, especially once we have a mature network ourselves.
Match-make between investor + researcher and prize contest/AMC/outcome payer:
Make contracts with large funders such as Open Phil, Gates Foundation, USAID, etc. over outcome purchases, AMCs, etc. that match the areas of expertise of the researchers.
This could even work for risk-averse funders who could not otherwise support scientific research.
Or enter the research into existing prize contests.
Take the investment from the investor, pay the researcher a monthly contractor salary, hold some money back to cover costs.
If the researcher is successful and the outcome payment is disbursed, it goes to the investors.
Meanwhile nothing keeps that think tank from also seeking grant funding and using its network to pay contract researchers from that. Especially researchers who have proven themselves in a prize contest but can’t currently find any new suitable outcome payor, could be kept under contract from grant money.
Wonderful work! I’ve commented directly on the spreadsheet, but for the benefit of anyone who won’t check it:
Several of these ideas can be rolled into one:
A remote research institute for independent researchers
Infrastructure to support independent researchers
Building vibrant EA academic communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
AI alignment prizes, advance market commitments, and other forms of proto–impact markets
The scheme that I imagine could have all of these benefits:
Find and recruit more independent researchers for high-impact research
Tap into talent pools in countries that don’t have a lot of EA presence
Circumvent restrictions on foreign donations/grants to researchers in some countries
Support independent researchers monetarily
Kickstart academic careers
Support many small research projects efficiently (low due diligence overhead)
Recruit for-profit investors such as business angels and impact investors to derisk research for researchers
Derisk research for potential risk-averse non-EA funders
Help researchers network, find potential advisors or collaborators
Provide researchers with infrastructure (servers, labs, etc.) efficiently
Monitor and improve the counterfactual impact of prize contests
Tap into corporate funding for prize contests (in high-growth industries)
The best thing is that to my knowledge it should be fully legal to do this.
We (GoodX) are working on infrastructure to support independent researchers with funding and simplify grant applications. We’re not currently implementing this particular scheme, but that could change given the right team (experts in US securities law and startup fundraising).
The approach:
Build a network:
Set up a nonprofit think tank with some form of limited liability and a suitable purpose so that it is exempt from the requirement to register any publicly traded securities with the SEC.
Network among business angels, HNWI (including non-altruists), possibly VCs. Even $100k go a long way in low-income countries, so “high net worth” can be a low bar depending on the country.
Watch out for prize contests, AMCs, governmental and private outcome payers, etc.
Let the investors scout out great researchers:
An investor could be an Indian economics professor – smaller high-context investors can lead; larger low-context investors can follow.
Possibly help with the match-making, especially once we have a mature network ourselves.
Match-make between investor + researcher and prize contest/AMC/outcome payer:
Make contracts with large funders such as Open Phil, Gates Foundation, USAID, etc. over outcome purchases, AMCs, etc. that match the areas of expertise of the researchers.
This could even work for risk-averse funders who could not otherwise support scientific research.
Or enter the research into existing prize contests.
Take the investment from the investor, pay the researcher a monthly contractor salary, hold some money back to cover costs.
If the researcher is successful and the outcome payment is disbursed, it goes to the investors.
Meanwhile nothing keeps that think tank from also seeking grant funding and using its network to pay contract researchers from that. Especially researchers who have proven themselves in a prize contest but can’t currently find any new suitable outcome payor, could be kept under contract from grant money.
We’re always happy to have calls on such topics!