Covid-19 Response Fund

[John G. Halstead]

Founders Pledge, in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank, have today launched a Covid-19 Response Fund. Silicon Valley Bank have generously seeded this with $1m. In the first instance, the fund will focus on:

• Medical research into treatments and vaccines

• Policy research and advocacy to deal with the current outbreak

• Global humanitarian support

In the first instance, we will be supporting the following organisations:

• John Hopkins Center for Health Security

• Gates’ Covid Fund

• Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives COVID-19 Vaccine

Among others. We will monitor the funding needs of organisations in the space, and will look to add additional high-impact recommendations.

In the longer-term, the fund will focus on preparedness for the next pandemic, including engineered pandemic-potential pathogens.

[Milan Griffes]

Increase Emergent Ventures’ pool for coronavirus prizes? https://​​marginalrevolution.com/​​marginalrevolution/​​2020/​​03/​​1-million-plus-in-emergent-ventures-prizes-for-coronavirus-work.html

Probably high-leverage.

[Milan Griffes]

Could also be cool to administer a coronavirus prize independent from Emergent Ventures, trying to get more expected impact than Tyler.