Rethink feels unique among EA orgs—it’s large, not attached to a university, not a foundation. Why aren’t there more standalone research shops? Should there be?
RP’s arrangement here is definitely not unique to EA, though I do agree we may be the largest EA-affiliated non-univeristy non-foundation research organization, as my guess is we are a little larger than GiveWell by FTE headcount. Though adding all those caveats ends up with me not saying very much, kinda like talking about being the largest private Catholic university in Vermont.
I think university affiliations definitely matter, especially for getting your work in front of policymakers. My guess is that research organizations choose to affiliate with a university when they can for this reason, and it’s a good one.
But I also like not having to worry about the bureaucracy that comes with interfacing with a university and I think this has historically allowed RP to be more agile and grow faster. I think it’s important that EA have both university and non-university research organizations.
(Obviously everyone would love to be attached to a multi-billion dollar foundation and if we can get more of those we obviously should, but I assume that’s not really an option.)
Rethink feels unique among EA orgs—it’s large, not attached to a university, not a foundation. Why aren’t there more standalone research shops? Should there be?
RP’s arrangement here is definitely not unique to EA, though I do agree we may be the largest EA-affiliated non-univeristy non-foundation research organization, as my guess is we are a little larger than GiveWell by FTE headcount. Though adding all those caveats ends up with me not saying very much, kinda like talking about being the largest private Catholic university in Vermont.
I think university affiliations definitely matter, especially for getting your work in front of policymakers. My guess is that research organizations choose to affiliate with a university when they can for this reason, and it’s a good one.
But I also like not having to worry about the bureaucracy that comes with interfacing with a university and I think this has historically allowed RP to be more agile and grow faster. I think it’s important that EA have both university and non-university research organizations.
(Obviously everyone would love to be attached to a multi-billion dollar foundation and if we can get more of those we obviously should, but I assume that’s not really an option.)