2021 H2 S-Process Grant Round Recommendations | Survival and Flourishing Fund
webThis page documents grant recommendations from the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 S-Process round, funding AI safety and existential risk organizations. It reveals funding flows and priorities within the EA/AI safety ecosystem, including support for alignment research, AI governance, and EA infrastructure.
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Summary
The Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grant round used the 'S-Process' (Simulation Process) to allocate funding from Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and The Casey and Family Foundation. Six recommenders evaluated applications and specified marginal value functions to determine grant amounts. Major recipients include the Long-Term Future Fund, Center on Long-Term Risk, Lightcone Infrastructure, Centre for the Governance of AI, and Ought Inc.
Key Points
- •The S-Process uses marginal value functions and counterfactual delegation simulations to allocate grants among recommenders and funders.
- •Jaan Tallinn was the primary funder, with grants totaling several million dollars across AI safety and EA infrastructure organizations.
- •Key recipients include Long-Term Future Fund ($1.42M), Center on Long-Term Risk ($1.22M), and Centre for the Governance of AI ($591K).
- •Lightcone Infrastructure received $880K combined from Jaan Tallinn and The Casey and Family Foundation.
- •The round reflects EA community priorities: existential risk reduction, AI governance, rationality infrastructure, and EA meta-funding.
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2021 H2 S-Process Grant Round Recommendations | Survival and Flourishing Fund
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In the second half of this year (2021-H2), six people participated as “Recommenders” in a single round of a grant-recommendation process for Funders Jaan Tallinn (independent), Jed McCaleb (independent), and The Casey and Family Foundation. The following Recommenders in this round agreed to have their identities made public:
Beth Barnes
Oliver Habryka
Zvi Mowshowitz
How final grant amounts were determined: The “S-Process”
We call the recommendation process used in this grant round the “S-Process”, for “Simulation Process”, because it involves allowing the Recommenders and Funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions . Recommenders specified a marginal value function for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, Funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the Funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts.
The S-Process app is still being developed for broader use.
Final recommendations
Most of the final endorsed recommendations of this round of the S-Process are listed below. These numbers have resulted from numerical inputs from both Funders and Recommenders, which represented estimates of the marginal utility of granting to each organization. Note that:
Some of the grants below might not happen if they are logistically difficult or time-consuming for the Funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, The Casey and Family Foundation) to finalize for some reason.
Some additional grants might also appear on this list later as more details about them become clear.
Source
Organization
Amount
Receiving Charity
Purpose
Jaan Tallinn
Long-Term Future Fund
$1,417,000
Center For Effective Altruism
General support of Long-Term Future Fund
Jaan Tallinn
Center on Long-Term Risk
$1,218,000
Effective Altruism Foundation, Inc.
General support of Center on Long-Term Risk
Jaan Tallinn
Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters
$979,000
Players Philanthropy Fund
General support of Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters
Jaan Tallinn
Alpenglow Group Limited
$885,000
The Centre for Effective Altruism
General support of Alpenglow Group Limited
Jaan Tallinn
Lightcone Infrastructure
$380,000
Center for Applied Ra
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