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High(4)

High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.

Rating inherited from publication venue: Coefficient Giving

This grant page is relevant to AI safety researchers interested in how philanthropic funding supports existential risk reduction beyond AI, particularly biosecurity, and how organizations like NTI approach global catastrophic biological risk through policy and international coordination.

Metadata

Importance: 28/100press releasereference

Summary

This Open Philanthropy grant page documents funding provided to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) for work on reducing global catastrophic biological risks (GCBR). NTI focuses on biosecurity policy, international frameworks, and reducing the likelihood of large-scale biological catastrophes. The grant reflects Open Philanthropy's prioritization of biosecurity as a major existential and global catastrophic risk area.

Key Points

  • Open Philanthropy provided funding to NTI specifically for global catastrophic biological risk (GCBR) reduction efforts in 2021.
  • NTI is a major policy-focused organization working on biosecurity, nuclear security, and catastrophic risk prevention.
  • GCBR work targets biological threats capable of causing mass casualties or civilizational-scale harm, including engineered pandemics.
  • The grant reflects philanthropic prioritization of biosecurity as a tractable and neglected existential risk area.
  • This type of funding supports policy advocacy, international coordination, and risk assessment in the biosecurity space.

Cited by 1 page

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Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness | Coefficient Giving 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 Skip to Content 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 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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 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

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Resource ID: 8865c2b164475896 | Stable ID: sid_Hz9fZ2rt7m