What do you see as the pros and cons of having an umbrella organization like RP which employees multiple researchers versus something like the EA Funds granting to independent researchers? (E.g. in what circumstances should a grant maker prefer to grant to RP who would then employ a researcher, versus granting directly to the researcher themselves?)
To me, the main disadvantage of being funded through a fund is that I would be tied to a research topic and a timeframe in which I would have to complete the project (or at least that’s how I imagine it). Working at an organization allows me much more flexibility. I can begin researching a topic, see that it’s not as tractable as I thought, and then drop it. Alternatively, I can increase the scope of the project, or change it into something different, depending on what I feel will be more impactful. All of these scenarios happen often because the more I work on the project, the more informed I am about the most promising directions of that project.
Good point! This does sound limiting. I guess I’d flag it, for one, as a message to funders when determining how to structure things. I’d hope that the EA Fund managers and others can be convinced to eventually donate in more and more optimal ways, if those ways really are optimal (and that can be made very clear). For instance, when donating to specific projects, paying attention to make clauses to ensure that the researchers have flexibility to make significant modifications if necessary.
My research would not be at the same level of quality if I were operating independently. The ability to easily draw on the knowledge, experience, skills, and general expertise of my colleagues at RP greatly improves my work. I can always count on getting high-quality feedback from at least half a dozen people, and if I get stuck in the middle of the project, I can normally count on someone to help me out. There is some loss of independence working at RP versus being funded directly, but I think the research guidance I receive more than makes up for the loss of independence. And RP’s research agenda is mostly set collectively, anyway. So, in short, I expect that in most cases researchers at organizations like RP are going to be much more productive than independent researchers. (“Synergy” is the buzzword that comes to mind.)
Also, perhaps there is a stronger accountability mechanism from having a team and things like a Slack channel in comparison to a funded independent researcher-depending on how involved an EA Fund type organization are in checking in and if funds are recalled if a researcher “fails”. I don’t have a good sense of the independent researcher funding landscape though.
Maybe to the extent one couples their work as a researcher with their identity, a clearer community might exist under an umbrella organization. Though I could imagine independent researchers all funded by the same organization could establish some sort of cohort mentality if communicative structures are available.
I agree with Jason. Additionally, I probably wouldn’t be a researcher if I didn’t work for an organization like RP because of operational costs, security/risk, and well-being reasons. But more importantly, since I’m at an early stage of my career as a researcher, if I worked independently, I wouldn’t count on the support of my team and researchers with more experience. That would make it very difficult for me to improve and develop professionally as a researcher.
What do you see as the pros and cons of having an umbrella organization like RP which employees multiple researchers versus something like the EA Funds granting to independent researchers? (E.g. in what circumstances should a grant maker prefer to grant to RP who would then employ a researcher, versus granting directly to the researcher themselves?)
To me, the main disadvantage of being funded through a fund is that I would be tied to a research topic and a timeframe in which I would have to complete the project (or at least that’s how I imagine it). Working at an organization allows me much more flexibility. I can begin researching a topic, see that it’s not as tractable as I thought, and then drop it. Alternatively, I can increase the scope of the project, or change it into something different, depending on what I feel will be more impactful. All of these scenarios happen often because the more I work on the project, the more informed I am about the most promising directions of that project.
Good point! This does sound limiting. I guess I’d flag it, for one, as a message to funders when determining how to structure things. I’d hope that the EA Fund managers and others can be convinced to eventually donate in more and more optimal ways, if those ways really are optimal (and that can be made very clear). For instance, when donating to specific projects, paying attention to make clauses to ensure that the researchers have flexibility to make significant modifications if necessary.
My research would not be at the same level of quality if I were operating independently. The ability to easily draw on the knowledge, experience, skills, and general expertise of my colleagues at RP greatly improves my work. I can always count on getting high-quality feedback from at least half a dozen people, and if I get stuck in the middle of the project, I can normally count on someone to help me out. There is some loss of independence working at RP versus being funded directly, but I think the research guidance I receive more than makes up for the loss of independence. And RP’s research agenda is mostly set collectively, anyway. So, in short, I expect that in most cases researchers at organizations like RP are going to be much more productive than independent researchers. (“Synergy” is the buzzword that comes to mind.)
I agree with much of what the team has written.
Also, perhaps there is a stronger accountability mechanism from having a team and things like a Slack channel in comparison to a funded independent researcher-depending on how involved an EA Fund type organization are in checking in and if funds are recalled if a researcher “fails”. I don’t have a good sense of the independent researcher funding landscape though.
Maybe to the extent one couples their work as a researcher with their identity, a clearer community might exist under an umbrella organization. Though I could imagine independent researchers all funded by the same organization could establish some sort of cohort mentality if communicative structures are available.
To add to the operations support benefit, I have in mind the evidence from the “disruptive research teams” literature review that suggested “researchers should be freed from trivial or bureaucratic tasks as much as possible”, which seems to be less likely to be the case for an independent researcher. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dCjz5mgQdiv57wWGz/ingredients-for-creating-disruptive-research-teams
I agree with Jason. Additionally, I probably wouldn’t be a researcher if I didn’t work for an organization like RP because of operational costs, security/risk, and well-being reasons. But more importantly, since I’m at an early stage of my career as a researcher, if I worked independently, I wouldn’t count on the support of my team and researchers with more experience. That would make it very difficult for me to improve and develop professionally as a researcher.