I enjoyed reading this, thank you for writing it. Two things:
Firstly, I wondered if you were aware of this recent GiveWell scoping grant to Precision Development (PxD) which explores something very close to what you’re suggesting—it’s asking them to come up with an evaluation design (which could by an RCT) for their work on providing information to smallholder farmers, which GiveWell is then open to funding (“we think there’s a 70% chance we will provide a grant to fund implementation, and evaluation of PxD’s agriculture program...40% chance we’ll provide a grant of $30 million or more...”). This isn’t a full recent research agenda, but it could be a peer-review suitable RCT (depending of course on what PxD propose). How close is this to what you’re advocating?
Secondly, if you wanted to submit this to the Open Philanthropy cause exploration prizes as is or after any changes, it is eligible.
I enjoyed reading this, thank you for writing it. Two things:
Firstly, I wondered if you were aware of this recent GiveWell scoping grant to Precision Development (PxD) which explores something very close to what you’re suggesting—it’s asking them to come up with an evaluation design (which could by an RCT) for their work on providing information to smallholder farmers, which GiveWell is then open to funding (“we think there’s a 70% chance we will provide a grant to fund implementation, and evaluation of PxD’s agriculture program...40% chance we’ll provide a grant of $30 million or more...”). This isn’t a full recent research agenda, but it could be a peer-review suitable RCT (depending of course on what PxD propose). How close is this to what you’re advocating?
Secondly, if you wanted to submit this to the Open Philanthropy cause exploration prizes as is or after any changes, it is eligible.