[Cross-posted on the SSC subreddit] [Cross-posted on OnScienceAndAcademia Forum]
UPDATE: I posted something similar 18 months ago, but am reposting due to some updated details and the fact that the money is now in hand.
SUMMARY: Need to donate $250,000AUD/190,000USD to "improve science" in about six months, would appreciate advice on where to put the money.
An elderly relative of mine has sold a property and wants to donate a substantial amount of money ($250,000 AUD = $190,000 USD) to “improve science”, by which they mean metascientific efforts that industry or academia probably would be reticent to fund otherwise. Examples would be things like Registered Reports, efforts to ameliorate the replicability crisis, altering publishing incentives, etc. The money is available in 3 months and ideally would be donated within six months.
They are aware of my interests in Effective Altruism and my training as a scientist and thus want me to take care of it entirely. However, I am very junior and have little experience applying for grants let alone allocating money. Any recommendations for how I should go about most efficiently getting this money to improve science? Bonus points for doing it in a manner that would be tax-deductible in Australia (edit: international also ok).
Particularly good recommendations are likely to have a substantial impact on how this money gets allocated, so if you think you have a good idea I’d very much appreciate it. I can’t just give the money to AMF or the EA Funds, it has to be at least indirectly allocated to basic science or meta-science. I’m not sure who to ask – I’d speak to my PI, but it seems extremely awkward to go “hey, so I have this big potential source of funding that I can influence but it’s not for us, any advice on how to give it away to others?” I’d be happy to direct the money to be thrown into a bigger pile if there’s another group I haven’t heard of that either solely funds improving science or will let me allocate the money to that end.
Thanks to everyone who provided some suggestions last time I posted, including on basic science opportunities back when I was considering a slightly larger remit. Some suggestions from the last time I asked this question:
- Supporting Prof. Chris Chamber's efforts to encourage journals to take up 'Registered Reports' as an allowable publication submission method.
- I am very supportive of this effort, but it seems that more and more journals are actually doing this and thus I'm not sure this is the best use of the money as it may just happen anyway. Prestigious journals like Nature Human Behaviour are allowing Registered Reports, there's a list of journals that now accept the format, and Chris himself wrote in 2019 about increased uptake.
- Donating to ALLTrials, a group that tries to ensure that the data from all clinical trials is made publicly available so as to reduce publication bias/file-drawer problem.
- Their website asks for donations, but they are not clear on what they would actually use the money for. I tried contacting them and received no replies.
- They already have a large number of fancy organisations that support their efforts, so the marginal benefit of an extra $190,000 USD is unclear.
- The Center for Open Science attempts to encourage open science and meta-science improvements, such as the OSF registries for making datasets publicly available or initiatives to encourage preregistration and registered reports.
- They're doing great work, but they seem to already be quite well funded so I'm again unsure if they'd make the best use of marginal increased donations.
- That being said, they seem closest to what I'm looking for so far, so they're a good candidate at the moment.
- EDIT: Gavin Taylor has pointed out in the comments that their funding situation may be more precarious than I had assumed
- Retraction Watch is a website/blog that tracks papers that have been or should be retracted so as to provide a record of sloppy or dodgy scientific behaviour. They are themselves funded by the Center for Scientific Integrity which includes some related efforts
- They claim to now be only reader supported (after having got an initial grant from a few larger foundations), so they're another potential good candidate.
- They don't seem to have a lot of money according to their tax returns, so perhaps it would be quite useful to them. Then again, if they've already been surviving, perhaps again it's not the best use of the money at the margins...
- Sci-Hub makes paywalled papers publicly available to anyone on demand. It's incredibly useful to the general public, and it's often even easier to use than my own institution's login credentials when I have legitimate access to the journal.
- I have no idea what their funding levels are currently like and whether they need any support
- I'm certainly not getting a tax deduction for a Bitcoin donation to support a technically illegal operation.
Thanks in advance!
What a great opportunity! I wonder if people at SparkWave (e.g., Spencer Greenberg), Effective Thesis, or the Happier Lives Institute would have some ideas. All three organizations are aligned with EA and seem to be in the business of improving/applying/conducting social science research.
Also, I have no idea who your advisor is, but I think a lot of advisors would be open to having this kind of conversation (i.e., "Hey, there's this funding opportunity. We're not eligible for it, but I'm wondering if you have any advice..."). [Context: I'm a PhD student in psychology at UPenn.]
If that's not a good option, you could consider asking your advisor (and other academics you respect) if they know about any metascience/open science organizations that are highly effective [without mentioning anything about your relative and their interest in donating].
Finally, it's not clear to me if the donor is only interested in metascience or if they would also be open to funding "basic science" projects. "Basic science" is broad enough that I imagine it could open up a lot of alternative paths (many of which might be more explicitly EA-aligned than metascience). Examples include basic scientific research on effective giving, animal advocacy, mental health, AI safety, etc. Do you have a sense of how open to "basic science" your relative is, or was basic science just meant as a synonym for metascience?
Finally, good luck on this! :)