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PhD Scholarships for EA projects in psychology, health, IIDM, or education
4 min readAug 5, 2021
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I’m recruiting PhD students for a scholarship round with applications due mid-October. Scholarships cover all fees and include a stipend worth ~$30,000 AUD/year for three years. They are open to Australian students or international students who can move to Australia in 2022. I’m looking for prospective PhD students who would want to work on the following questions from the 80,000 hours potential high-priority problems:
I started as a performance psychologist, am an awarded teacher, and trained at one of the best psychology research institutes in Australia. With some good mentoring, some hard work, and a little luck, I’ve done well as an early-career researcher: 23 peer reviewed papers since my PhD in 2019; ~$2 mil in competitive grants, and a Scopus m-index is 2.3 where >2 “characterizes outstanding scientists.”
Much of this work has applied research methods that are important for EA causes: figuring out what works (i.e., conducting best-practice reviews) then translating what works into interventions that change behaviour at scale. Since 2019, in collaboration with READI, I have applied these methods to philanthropic fundraising, reducing animal-product consumption, and behavioural responses to COVID-19.
Successful candidates would also receive co-supervision from our world leading professors (Professor Richard Ryan, motivation expert; Professor Philip Parker , statistics, methods, and educational psychology; Professor Chris Lonsdale, motivation, knowledge translation, and scientific infrastructure). You’d also have connections into the EA community. The team at READI (Dr Peter Slattery, Dr Zan Saeri, Emily Grundy and I) coordinate and conduct behaviour science research to improve decision-making and behaviour for the world's most pressing problems. So far, we have helped charities learn how to effectively fundraise, animal welfare and environmental groups learn how to reduce animal consumption, and helped governments identify how to respond to the challenges of COVID-19. We’ve worked closely with many experts within the EA community (e.g., Luke Freeman, Exec. Director, Giving What We Can).
We want to do research that improves the world. For this reason, we usually engage with people at the coalface when designing research (e.g., all of my competitive grants involve government departments as partners). We’d encourage students to work with EA organisations to ensure your research helps to solve important problems they face.
Some supervisors leave students floundering under the weight of a PhD. We don’t. Generally, my teams try to embody the CEA values: Commitment to Others; Scientific Mindset; Openness; Integrity; and Collaborative Spirit. My research teams use Agile methods to ensure you’re consistently well supported with rapid feedback. We abhor the hyperactive hive-mind meaning you’re free to focus without being pressured to work 60-hour weeks. We provide a productive and supportive team environment.
If any of that is interesting to you, put in an expression of interest. These are designed to be fairly light-weight, so you don’t invest hours and hours on a proposal that doesn’t eventuate. So:
If you have any questions, hit me up in the comments. If you know anyone who might be interested, please forward this along.
Is this only for early career researchers ?
I am a senior professional with real time experience in the above mentioned areas which have been successful endeavours . A PhD will allow me to bring brevity to the frameworks to be acceptable at Government and policy making level , if considered.
I spend a few years as a professional before coming back to do my PhD. I think what you're describing sounds like a good model. The only criteria some professionals struggle to meet is 'equivalent of honours'; that is, to get into a PhD you need to have completed a thesis before.