Project Tips
If you’re applying to be a Fellow, you will need to submit a 2-page project proposal. We welcome projects from any discipline. Here are some tips on how you can craft a competitive project proposal.
Areas of Interest
- Any project which aims at proposing a move that will help us protect the interests of future generations in a more robust way, or any project aimed at proposing a move that will help us ensure future people live the best lives possible.
- Any project that would enhance humanity’s understanding of how best to protect the interests of future generations/ ensure they live the best lives possible.
- Any project aimed at proposing a move that will help us reduce the chances of an existential risk occurring, or help us be more prepared in case an existential risk does occur (especially in Africa).
- Any project that will critique current understandings of existential risk and how to prevent it, guard against it and respond to its occurrence.
- Any project focused on addressing major diseases and poverty-inducing phenomena in global south countries (especially African ones).
- Any project aimed at animal welfare or the welfare of other sentient beings.
- Any project which would help us understand what it means to do good effectively as an African living in Africa, especially from a moral duty perspective.
- Any project that is designed to communicate messages related to any of the topics above widely and effectively, especially in Africa.
Some of the specific areas you can consider include topics around addressing AI safety & risk, Biosecurity, Climate change, Designing institutions for future generations, Space governance, Measuring effectiveness, Measuring happiness, topics around Health and development of people living in the global south and topics around Animal welfare. Please note that this list is not exhaustive and your project can certainly be on a topic outside the list.
Project Ideas
Research-oriented projects
We welcome projects where fellows conduct academic research with the aim of publishing their findings. The research findings could be published as journal articles, lengthy blog posts, book reviews or reports.
Note!
Such projects must feature some contribution by the applicant and should not be mere summaries or compilations of existing work.
Also, we do not require that fellows who work on such projects have a ready-for-publication piece by the end of the fellowship. We only require the piece to be in a significantly advanced state by the time the fellowship is coming to an end.
Educational/ Advocacy-oriented Projects
We welcome projects aimed at educating certain audiences about issues within our areas of interest, convincing certain audiences about an argument within our areas of interest, or influencing the change of policies or regulations on an issue within our areas of interest. Some examples include:
- A small workshop targeting certain audiences.
- A short animated film or documentary.
- A comic with detailed depictions of issues within our areas of interest.
- Artistic work, for example a large art piece depicting what the future might look like with artificial general intelligence.
Writing a Compelling Proposal
So, you have an idea. What exactly should you write in your 2-page proposal?
In general, your project proposal should have 3 parts as follows.
Part 1 should explain the objective of your project (What is the goal of your project? What do you intend the final output to be?)
Part 2 should explain why you think your project is important (In which of our areas of interest does your project fit? How would your project help society? How is your project different from what already exists?)
Part 3 should explain—as specifically as possible—the methodology you will use to achieve the goal of your project (If academic research: which data will you rely on and how will you assess it? If any other project: how will you carry out the project within 9 weeks?)
Please note!
We are only keen on projects where it is clear that the applicant will be expending some analytical effort on the subject matter. Projects which will only lead to the regurgitation of existing knowledge are very unlikely to succeed.
You are also more likely to succeed if you have a clear project objective that can plausibly be accomplished in 9 weeks. We generally don’t believe that biting more than one can chew is good for anyone 😊