Upcoming In Person Events

• 26-27th March - EAGx Oxford
• 15-17th April - EA Global London
• April - EAGx Boston

Upcoming Virtual Events

• 29th January - High-Impact Careers for Mathematicians - Organised by EA Cambridge
• 30th January - Doughnut Economics reading group - Organised by EA Anywhere
• 4th February - Requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change and the rights of present and future generations - Organised by the Legal Priorities Project
• 5th February - The role of carbon removal in achieving climate goals - Organised by Effective Environmentalism
• 6th February - Giving What We Can Meetup - With guest speaker Michael Plant
• 7th February - 3rd April - EA Virtual Programs - Applications close 30th January
  • Introductory EA Program
  • In-Depth EA Program
  • The Precipice Reading Group
• 11th February - David Thorstad: The scope of longtermism
• 18th February - Giving What We Can Open Forum
• 19th February - More than technology: What are today’s carbon removal opportunities?
• 25th February - The Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations
• 26th February + 12th March - Negotiating for Good - A free training programme in salary negotiation, to help you increase the amount you donate to effective charities. Organised by Training for Good and split over two sessions. Apply by the 30th of January
• 27th February - Designing the TerraWatt transition: Repowering Coal
• 17th March - 7th April - Impactful Policy Careers Europe - A free training programme to help you plan for a high-impact career in policy. Organised by Training for Good. Apply by the 20th of February

Latest Research and Updates

Meta

• CEA has created the EA Groups Resource Centre, which has a curated collection of resources for anyone interested in setting up an EA group
• 80,000 Hours wants to talk to more people
• The Survival and Flourishing Fund has started a speculation grants program with 20 volunteers to facilitate grants to existing organisations
• Dominic Roser, Stefan Riedener and Markus Huppenbauer have a new book with collected essays on effective altruism and religion
• Charity Entrepreneurship are launching a training program for grantmaking foundations
• There is a new Discord server for software, data and tech people interested in EA
• Training for Good are offering 1-1 coaching for EA leaders & high-potential individuals, the application deadline is February 11th
• 80,000 Hours with a collection of posts from people reviewing their own careers
• Mathieu Putz and Kat Woods with a collection of resources for people who want to start a charity
• EA Organisation Updates for January 2021
• Michael Aird looking more into the idea of megaprojects
• CEA has launched EA Librarian, where users can submit questions and the team will research and respond
• Markus Amalthea Magnuson has set up Altruistic Agency to provide free tech support and development to organisations in the EA community
• Joshua Teperowski Monrad with the post 'Rowing and Steering the Effective Altruism Movement'
• Ben Williamson has launched the pilot initiative Effective Self-Help
• Forethought Foundation is running a 'Topics in Economic Theory & Global Prioritisation' course in Oxford this August, applications close 5th February
• AW with advice he's found useful when applying for EA jobs
• Vaidehi Agarwalla with the post 'When in doubt, apply*'
• Project for Awesome 2022 are looking for people to make short videos to raise money for EA related charities

Grants

• Open Phil have made 2 grants recently with a total value of $8,700,000
  • $8,000,000 - Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security - forecasting platforms
  • $800,000 - Equalia - corporate campaigns to improve the welfare of chickens
• Center for Emerging Risk Research have made 5 grants with a total value of $19,600,000
• The Long-Term Future Fund have made 18 grants with a total value of $1,400,000
• The Animal Welfare Fund have made 21 grants with a total value of $1,100,000

Global Development

• The Lancet with a new report on how over 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics
• Dylan Matthews looking at how nearly half the world’s kids are exposed to dangerous levels of lead
• Lead Exposure Elimination Project with their first year in review
• A post on how Wellcome plans to spend £16 billion over the next ten years on discovery research, infectious disease, mental health and climate health
• Max Roser with the post 'The history of the end of poverty has just begun'
• Development economist Chris Blattman has started blogging again, including this post on PhD applications
• The Gates Foundation and Wellcome have pledged $300 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
• UNICEF with their latest report on levels and trends in child mortality
• Alexander Berger and Peter Favaloro from Open Philanthropy in discussion with Eva Vivalt on what informs the grantmaker’s giving

Animal Welfare

• Animal Advocacy Careers with research into hiring difficulties
• Emma Ignaszewski looking at pathways to alternative protein affordability
• The LSE, Political Science Foundations of Animal Sentience (ASENT) Project and Rethink Priorities are sponsoring a conference on the problems and prospects for making interspecies welfare comparisons, which will be held at the LSE on 28-29 April 2022. They currently have a call for abstracts, with a January 31st deadline
• An article on 'The National Security Case for Lab-Grown and Plant-Based Meat'
• A post suggesting that EA animal welfare funding is relatively overinvesting in corporate welfare reforms
• Animal Empathy Philippines has been launched
• Saulius Šimčikas with a suggestion for an Effective Animal Advocacy forum

Existential & Catastrophic Risks

• China, Russia, Britain, the United States and France have agreed that a further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided in a joint statement on the United Nations Security Council
• Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Ethan Alley with a list of concrete biosecurity projects
• Brian Resnick looking at how NASA is studying how to detect and avert asteroids and comets from colliding with earth
• Mike Hinge on Hear This Idea discussing his work at ALLFED, looking at how to feed everyone in a disaster
• Lara Mani co-authored a new paper about the scenario from 7th Planetary Defence conference in 'Preparing for a Near-Earth Object Impact Scenario' and what lessons were learnt
• A review of the 4th annual Global Biosecurity Dialogue conference
• S.J. Beard wrote in the BBC on 'How to read the Doomsday Clock'

Improving Institutions

• The Institute for Progress is a new think tank aiming to 'accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future'
• Derek Thompson on how investors are looking into new ways to speed up scientific progress
• The Institute for Replication was recently launched and they work to improve the credibility of science by systematically reproducing and replicating research findings in leading academic journals
• Michael Nielsen with the post 'In what sense is the science of science a science'
• Pablo with the post 'Science policy as a possible EA cause area: problems and solutions'
• A new open index of scholarly papers has launched
• Holden Karnofsky looking at how stakeholder management can explain a lot of increasing bureaucracy

Environment

• A post looking at the difference in climate recommendations between Giving Green and Founders Pledge
• McKinsey with a report on how much US philanthropic grant funding goes to climate change
• Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser with a campaign to make the world’s energy data free to access for everyone
• Richard Fisher on the environmental case for buying coal mines

Longtermism

• Sam Clarke with 'The longtermist AI governance landscape: a basic overview'
• The Future of Life Institute is running a worldbuilding contest with $100,000 in prizes, submissions close on April 15th
• Peter Singer on 'the hinge of history'
• Eric Schwitzgebel with an article 'Against Longtermism'
• Founders Pledge with a cause report on longtermist institutional reform

Emerging Technology

• Stuart Russell on the promises and perils of AI
• DeepMind has started the second season of their podcast
• The Centre for the Governance of AI has released their annual report

Other Links

• Training for Good with 'Four lessons from people interested in EA working in European policy'
• Joy Bittner writing about her career in operations
• Marius Hobbhahn on how to write better blog posts
• Lynette Bye has gathered together a collection of New Year review resources
• Rhaina Cohen with an article on celebrating rejection
• Jan Kirchner suggesting 'Fixing Adolescence' as a cause area
• George McGowan suggesting UK Housing Policy as a new cause area
• Thomas Woodside talking about how he first got involved in EA
• Lizka asking 'What are some artworks relevant to EA?'
• Devin Kalish with the post 'The Bioethicists are (Mostly) Alright'
• Mark Cuban has founded a new online pharmacy in the U.S. that is selling generic prescription drugs at the lowest price possible

Good News

• Covax delivered over 309 million coronavirus vaccine doses in December, a large increase on previous months
• Papua New Guinea has repealed the death penalty
• Italy has voted to ban fur farming and shut down mink farms
• Bangladesh has drastically reduced its cyclone-related deaths, by more than 100 fold since 1970
• Philippines bans child marriage