I agree that this is an inference. I currently think the OP thinks that in the absence of frugality concerns this would be among the most cost-effective uses of money by Open Phil’s standards, but I might be wrong.
University group funding was historically considered extremely cost-effective when I talked to OP staff (beating out most other grants by a substantial margin). Possibly there was a big update here on cost-effectiveness excluding frugality-reputation concerns, but currently think there hasn’t been (but like, would update if someone from OP said otherwise, and then I would be interested in talking about that).
They do specifically say that they consider other types of university funding to have greater cost-benefit (and I don’t think it makes sense to exclude reputation concerns from cost-benefit analysis, particularly when reputation boost is a large part of the benefit being paid for in the first place). Presumably not paying stipends would leave more to go around. I agree that more detail would be welcome.
I agree that all-things-considered they say that, but I am objecting to “one of the things to consider”, and so IMO it makes sense to bracket that consideration when evaluating my claims here.
I agree that this is an inference. I currently think the OP thinks that in the absence of frugality concerns this would be among the most cost-effective uses of money by Open Phil’s standards, but I might be wrong.
University group funding was historically considered extremely cost-effective when I talked to OP staff (beating out most other grants by a substantial margin). Possibly there was a big update here on cost-effectiveness excluding frugality-reputation concerns, but currently think there hasn’t been (but like, would update if someone from OP said otherwise, and then I would be interested in talking about that).
They do specifically say that they consider other types of university funding to have greater cost-benefit (and I don’t think it makes sense to exclude reputation concerns from cost-benefit analysis, particularly when reputation boost is a large part of the benefit being paid for in the first place). Presumably not paying stipends would leave more to go around. I agree that more detail would be welcome.
I agree that all-things-considered they say that, but I am objecting to “one of the things to consider”, and so IMO it makes sense to bracket that consideration when evaluating my claims here.