That said, our confidence in our own position is not high. So, we’d be willing to fund things to challenge our own views: If we had sufficient funding from folks interested in the question, Arthropoda would fund a grant round specifically on soil invertebrate sentience and relevant natural history studies (especially in ways that attempt to capture the likely enormous range of differences between species in this group).
I think the Animal Welfare Fund (AWF) is open to funding that. Neil Dullaghan, senior fund manager there, said the following.
Thanks for your question Vasco, and raising this issue in the community. Currently, we believe reducing uncertainty about the sentience and conditions of such animals [soil animals] is the first step, before considering interventions to affect them or how interventions aiming to reduce suffering of other animals affects these soil animals. Figuring out ways to reduce this uncertainty is an area we’d be happy to receive applications about.
I think the Animal Welfare Fund (AWF) is open to funding that. Neil Dullaghan, senior fund manager there, said the following.