Post authors: Eli Rose, Asya Bergal
Posting in our capacities as members of Open Philanthropy’s Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team.
Note: This program, together with our separate program for work that builds capacity to address risks from transformative AI, has replaced our 2021 request for proposals for outreach projects. If you have a project which was in-scope for that program but isn't for either of these, you can apply to our team's general application instead.
Apply for funding here. Applications are open until further notice and will be assessed on a rolling basis.
This is a wide-ranging call for applications, seeking to fund programs and events in a variety of areas of interest to Open Philanthropy — including effective altruism, global catastrophic risks, biosecurity, AI for epistemics, forecasting, and other areas. In general, if the topic of your program or event falls within one of our GCR focus areas, or if it’s similar to work we’ve funded in the past in our GCR focus areas, it may be a good fit for this program. If you’re unsure about whether to submit your application, we’d encourage you to err on the side of doing so.
By "programs and events" we mean scholarship or fellowship programs, internships, residencies, visitor programs, courses[1], seminars, conferences, workshops, retreats, etc., including both in-person and online activities. We're open to funding programs or events aimed at individuals at any career stage, and with a wide range of potential purposes, including teaching new skills, providing new career opportunities, offering mentorship, or facilitating networking.
Examples of programs and events of this type we've funded before include:
- Condor Camp, a summer program for Brazilian students interested in existential risk work.
- The Future of Humanity Institute’s Research Scholars Program supporting early-career researchers in global catastrophic risk.
- Effective Altruism Global, a series of conferences for individuals interested in effective altruism.
- Future Forum, a conference aimed at bringing together members of several communities interested in emerging technology and the future.
- A workshop on using AI to improve epistemics, organized by academics from NYU, the Forecasting Research Institute, the AI Objectives Institute and Metaculus.
AI-focused work
We have a separate call up for work that builds societal capacity to address risks from transformative AI. If your program or event is focused on transformative AI and/or risks from transformative AI, we prefer you apply to that call instead. However, which call you apply to is unlikely to make a difference to the outcome of your application.
Application information
Apply for funding here. The application form asks for information about you, your project/organization (if relevant), and the activities you're requesting funding for.
We're interested in funding both individual/one-off programs and events, and organizations that run or support programs and events.
We expect to make most funding decisions within 8 weeks of receiving an application (assuming prompt responses to any follow-up questions we may have). You can indicate on our form if you'd like a more timely decision, though we may or may not be able to accommodate your request.
Applications are open until further notice and will be assessed on a rolling basis.
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To apply for funding for the development of new university courses, please see our separate Course Development Grants RFP.