The Open Philanthropy Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness (BPP) team is hiring and is also looking for promising new grantees!
The BPP team's focus is on reducing catastrophic and existential risks from biology -- work that we think is currently neglected by the EA community and requires substantially more effort. While AI risks may be larger, the strategy for mitigating biological risks is both much clearer and likely more tractable, though the cause area is severely lacking in talent to execute well. Notably, we don’t think you need a background in biology to do most of these roles well.
Some of the focus areas they're excited for more work in include: physical transmission suppression, metagenomic sequencing, personal protective equipment, medical countermeasures, capacity building for the biosecurity field, and work at the intersection of AI and catastrophic biological risk. You can learn more about the work the BPP team does from Program Director Andrew Snyder-Beattie in his recent 80k episode here or by reading some of their thinking in their blog here.
If you’re eager to join, they're hiring Senior Program Associates or Program Associates. If you are eager to start a project working on one of their focus areas, respond to their Expression of Interest form.
