Open Philanthropy: Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness Fund
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This is Open Philanthropy's Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness fund page, relevant to AI safety due to its focus on AI-enabled biological risks and funding of defensive technologies and governance initiatives against catastrophic biological threats.
Metadata
Summary
This page describes Open Philanthropy's Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness fund, which has made 140+ grants totaling $260M+ to guard against catastrophic biological risks, especially those amplified by advanced biotechnology and AI. The fund supports research, technology development, and policy work including respiratory protection, metagenomic sequencing, Far-UVC disinfection, and biosecurity governance. It highlights the intersection of AI capabilities and biological risk as a key concern.
Key Points
- •Open Philanthropy has given $260M+ across 140+ grants for biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, with focus on technologically-enabled biological risks.
- •AI and biotechnology advances are identified as potential amplifiers of biological risks, possibly threatening human extinction or civilizational collapse.
- •Funded work includes defensive technologies (metagenomic sequencing, Far-UVC light), governance (bioweapons norms, DNA synthesis screening), and pandemic response tools.
- •The fund explicitly addresses 'mirror bacteria' and dual-use research oversight as emerging biosecurity concerns.
- •The fund is now managed under Coefficient Giving, led by Andrew Snyder-Beattie, with a published 'Four Pillars' hypothesis for countering catastrophic biological risk.
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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
Prev
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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