For more on “Example intervention: Funding EAs to work at think tanks”, see here. That post and those notes are specific to the US system; I’m not sure it would work (or at least work the same way) in other systems. Think tanks are also much bigger parts of the policy research ecosystem in the US than in other countries. I’m a big fan of this model, but I’m not sure anyone has checked whether it could work outside of the US context.
A couple of other caveats:
Think tanks tend to have more flexibility than academia in what they write about, as their reports don’t have to pass peer-review, fit into established journals, etc.
I don’t think this is true. Think tank researchers indeed face fewer journal/peer review constraints, but they have some additional ones, especially perceptions of policy relevance. There are academic journals/conferences for most topics, but you’re going to have a hard time finding a think tank interested in speculative longtermist research. My guess is a large majority (probably >75%) of EA researchers (even those who would self-identify as being interested in “policy”) would have a rather hard time with think tank constraints.
apparently some (or many?) think tanks are able and willing to essentially just accept funding for a specific person to work on a specific topic (with the funder deciding on the person and the topic).
From a think tank perspective, there is a big difference between flexible individual-level funding and individual-level funding to work on a specific topic from a specific perspective. Most think tanks are very sensitive about the optics of being “bought” by outside interests. They’re fine with outside funding and eager for free labor, but I think many (especially reputable/high-quality) think tanks would not want to accept someone who comes in saying “I come to you from X funder and they want me to write Y and Z.” The easiest way to get around this issue is joining a think tank that has overlapping interests (e.g. if you want to work on nuclear nonproliferation, you can join the Nuclear Threat Initiative or the Arms Control Association teams already working on that issue).
For more on “Example intervention: Funding EAs to work at think tanks”, see here. That post and those notes are specific to the US system; I’m not sure it would work (or at least work the same way) in other systems. Think tanks are also much bigger parts of the policy research ecosystem in the US than in other countries. I’m a big fan of this model, but I’m not sure anyone has checked whether it could work outside of the US context.
A couple of other caveats:
I don’t think this is true. Think tank researchers indeed face fewer journal/peer review constraints, but they have some additional ones, especially perceptions of policy relevance. There are academic journals/conferences for most topics, but you’re going to have a hard time finding a think tank interested in speculative longtermist research. My guess is a large majority (probably >75%) of EA researchers (even those who would self-identify as being interested in “policy”) would have a rather hard time with think tank constraints.
From a think tank perspective, there is a big difference between flexible individual-level funding and individual-level funding to work on a specific topic from a specific perspective. Most think tanks are very sensitive about the optics of being “bought” by outside interests. They’re fine with outside funding and eager for free labor, but I think many (especially reputable/high-quality) think tanks would not want to accept someone who comes in saying “I come to you from X funder and they want me to write Y and Z.” The easiest way to get around this issue is joining a think tank that has overlapping interests (e.g. if you want to work on nuclear nonproliferation, you can join the Nuclear Threat Initiative or the Arms Control Association teams already working on that issue).
Nice, thanks for that info! I’ll check out that post soon, and might reach out to you with questions at some point.