Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness Fund – Coefficient Giving
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This is the homepage for Coefficient Giving's Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness Fund, which funds work to prevent catastrophic biological risks including those amplified by AI and advanced biotechnology — directly relevant to AI safety's concern with dual-use AI capabilities in biology.
Metadata
Summary
Coefficient Giving's Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness Fund supports research, technology, and policy initiatives to prevent catastrophic biological risks, with particular focus on engineered threats enabled by advanced biotechnology and AI. The fund has made 140+ grants totaling $260M+, supporting work on respiratory protection, metagenomic sequencing, Far-UVC disinfection, and biosecurity governance. It emphasizes both prevention of engineered pathogens and improving response capabilities.
Key Points
- •Fund has distributed $260M+ across 140+ grants focused on catastrophic biological risk, especially from advanced technology and AI-enabled threats.
- •Supports defensive technologies including metagenomic sequencing for pathogen detection and Far-UVC light for disinfection of shared spaces.
- •Addresses governance gaps: international norms on bioweapons, dual-use research oversight, mirror bacteria risks, and DNA synthesis screening.
- •Explicitly frames engineered biological risks as potentially extinction-level threats capable of derailing centuries of human progress.
- •Publishes research including a 'Four Pillars' framework for biodefense against sophisticated engineered pathogens and unknown unknowns.
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Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness
We support work to guard against catastrophic biological risks, especially ones from advanced technology.
140+
grants made
$260+
million given
Contents
About the Fund
Research & Updates
Featured Grants
About the Fund
Team
Andrew Snyder-Beattie
Managing Director
Conor McGurk
Chief of Staff
James Wagstaff
Senior Program Officer
Chris Bakerlee
Associate Program Officer
Christian Ruhl
Associate Program Officer
Aman Patel
Senior Program Associate
Damon Binder
Senior Research Analyst
Constantin Arnscheidt
Research Fellow
Neha Singh
Operations Lead
Partners
Good Ventures
Interested in providing funding within this space? Reach out to partnerwithus@coefficientgiving.org .
Disease outbreaks have been responsible for some of the deadliest events in human history. Over five years, COVID-19 caused tens of millions of excess deaths and shrank the global economy by tens of trillions of dollars. But that was far from a worst-case scenario: advances in biotechnology and AI could make future biological risks even more severe than natural diseases. These risks could be among the greatest threats to society — capable of derailing centuries of progress or even causing human extinction.
Since our work on biosecurity began — five years before COVID-19 — we’ve been supporting research, technology, and policy initiatives aimed at preventing these risks and mitigating their consequences, with a particular focus on technological risks. Access to the right tools and knowledge could save millions of lives in future catastrophic biological events.
Our grantees’ work includes:
Developing widespread affordable respiratory protection to protect healthcare staff and other essential workers in the event of a pandemic.
Advancing defensive technologies like metagenomic sequencing to detect pathogens and Far-UVC light to disinfect shared spaces.
Improving governance and security, through stronger international norms on biological weapons, dual-use research oversight, mirror bacteria , and DNA synthesis screening.
Research & Updates
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Next
Request for Proposals
Request for Proposals: Biosecurity
We want to support work aimed at preventing engineered biological threats from emerging and improving our response to these threats should prevention fail. We’re eager to fund ambitious teams and individuals to move quickly on our priorities.
Read more
Blog
The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Risk
Andrew Snyder-Beattie
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