Research agendas by discipline
Research agendas by discipline
A large list of research we'd like to support
We’ve sorted topics by discipline alphabetically. Please skim to a section of interest!
Agriculture/Water
What are cost-effective and scalable programs to prevent degradation of arable soils? Which technical assistance and financial incentives are necessary for stakeholders in the agricultural industry?
Which water conservation technologies and practices can governments (of various scales) most cost-effectively subsidise for farmers?
How can price burdens of patented genetically-modified crops be reduced for small farmers? The constraint is to prevent cuts to R&D by agriscience companies.
How can the risk of crop disease outbreaks be cost-effectively reduced given increasing monocultures and pollinator fragility? Which stakeholders must be given which incentives to scale proposed policies?
Architecture/Planning
Which changes in zoning regulations can increase access to affordable housing?
How can housing developers, their funders, and NIMBY activists be incentivised to support affordable housing?
How can redevelopment and infill development promote more mixed use and lower transit times?
How can regulatory and contractual burdens be reduced to scale green construction materials?
What are the most cost-effective climate adaptation technologies to incentivise in home renovation grants?
Which policies can incentivise remote or rural workplaces to reduce traffic in large cities?
Biology
See also related research questions in healthcare or environment.
Which basic research funding for pandemic preparedness technologies is most promising? An example may be research on the effects of far-UVC sterilisation on chronic immune health.
Which food additives or processing technologies have the worst impacts on human health?
Which metagenomic or environmental DNA monitoring programs can cost-effectively fill data gaps in both disease monitoring and wildlife conservation? Both the technology used and scale of use needs clarification.
Communication
Which factors increase and decrease public trust in science communications? What is the role of government policy in scaling best practices here?
How can healthcare professionals and government officials scalably increase public adherence to recommended healthcare guidelines? How can messages be catered by demographic?
Which factors improve the quality of decisions made using public input forums? How can issues like over-representation of special interest groups be reduced? Take NIMBY protestors to affordable housing developments as an example.
Democracy
Which electoral systems can reduce long-run political partisanship and regulatory capture? Which obstacles impede their adoption?
What are cost-effective models for direct citizen participation? Under which metrics is efficacy measured? What are common obstacles for these programs?
How can governments prevent/disempower misinformation in elections? What are a range of solutions with varying levels of government intervention?
How can elections test candidates by skill, not personality and ad campaigns? Which pilot programs can build public support for wider adoption?
Economics
Which government interventions can most scalably and adaptively reduce economic shocks from automation-related job loss?
Which interventions can most cost-effectively address the aging workforce and talent shortage in the skilled trades?
How can organisational preparedness against cyberattacks and state-sponsored espionage be increased at an economy-wide scale? If key industries or companies must be prioritised, which ones?
To what extent do market forces and economies of scale reduce the resilience of food, water, medical, and telecommunication supply chains? What are appropriate subsidies to locally produce these critical services?
Which immigration policies can counter declining birth rates and increasing aging to continue economic growth from a demographic perspective?
How can short-term earnings management be dissuaded at an economy-wide level? How can executives be incentivised to prioritise long-term organisational innovation over superficial results during their limited tenure?
Which government interventions can increase confidence in and returns from foreign investment in developing economies?
Education
What are scalable alternatives to standardised testing which create increased intrinsic motivation for grade school students?
What are scalable programs for students to gain early workforce experience? How can career readiness be increased amidst automation-related labour uncertainty?
Which scalable funding models can enable access cost-effective digital education tools? How can they reduce the digital divide for marginalised students?
Which funding mechanisms can enable equitable and accessible childcare?
Which programs can recognise or supplement immigrants’ educational credentials to speed up their career transitions?
Which supports are most cost-effective in ensuring graduation for which marginalised communities?
Engineering/Technology
What are case studies of effective regulations on rapidly-developing dual-use technologies? These are cases that appropriately balance proliferation vs. monopolies, economic benefits vs. capital flight, regulatory burdens vs. just liabilities, and industry feedback vs. regulatory capture.
How can governments (of various sizes) rapidly, scalably, and adaptively reduce cyber-risks for digital government services?
How can resilience be increased for communications, logistics, and distribution infrastucture for critical industries (healthcare, food, water, etc.)? Solutions should consider techical and capital needs. Increasing climate-change-related natural disasters, like wildfires, may be a useful focus.
How can social media or news media publishers scalably prevent misinformation? Which technologies, funding, or human capital are missing, especially with AI-generated content?
Which research funding should be prioritised to promote nascent and neglected technologies in climate adaptation and decarbonisation?
For which emerging technologies is it feasible to create international bans on weaponisation attempts? What are common obstacles to this?
Environment
What are sustainable funding mechanisms for wildlife conservation? How can barriers to price in non-market ecosystem services be overcome?
What are scalable and cost-effective means to reduce meat consumption (the cause of countless other environmental problems)?
How can oil and gas workers scalably be retrained for green industries, like carbon capture, utilisation, and storage?
How can long-term economic benefits and job creation be increased while green infrastructure like electric vehicle charging and solar are built?
Which government subsidies can be redirected from fossil fuel energy sources and mature green technologies to fund climate adaptation technologies? How can this be done to maximise private investment per government dollar spent?
How can regulatory and financial burdens in testing novel water treatment infrastucture be reduced?
Healthcare
Which pandemic-preparedness investments are most cost-effective when considering better PPE, advanced sterilisation like far-UVC, and distributed medical supply chains?
Which government policies can counter systematic overprescription and overdiagnosis by healthcare professionals?
What holds back companies and nonprofits attempting to scale non-specialist mental health supports? This includes technical and human supports.
What are the most cost-effective public health campaign and subsidy programs to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods?
What are the most cost-effective funding opportunities for community “healthy-living” (healthy diet, sleeping, exercise, relationships, …) programs?
What are the most cost-effective programs to teach healthy lifestyles in school? Which factors ensure these lessons transition to long-term habits?
To what extent can immigrant healthcare professionals be certified more quickly to provide professional healthcare services? What are effective means to match them to underserved areas, like rural centres?
Which government interventions can cost-effectively reduce inequalities in accessing a healthy lifestyle, such as ‘food deserts’?
Which business models can fix R&D funding shortages in pharmaceuticals which are ‘public goods’ (widely used globally, especially in developing countries)?
What are the most neglected community health supports for an aging population?
Law
What are the most cost-effective former felon rehabilitation programs for prisoners of which backgrounds?
What would it take to create a norm of removing personally identifiable information in all legal trials as a means to reduce bias?
What are alternative and feasible forms of antitrust legislation against big tech, big pharma, etc.?
What are the most cost-effective programs for police forces to establish trust in their communities?