The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a grant of $643,415 to Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) to support Megan Palmer’s work on biosecurity. This grant is structured to provide two years of support, renewable for a third year conditional upon satisfactory progress.
This grant falls within the Open Philanthropy Project's work on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. CISAC is a research center focused on security and international cooperation problems. Dr. Palmer’s policy research is focused on developing ways to improve the governance of biological science and technology, and Open Philanthropy believes her work is well aligned with its goals to reduce the risk of the misuse of advanced biotechnology.
One of the projects Dr. Palmer intends to focus on in the next few years is a study of past, current and future International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competitions to better understand how to motivate young scientists and engineers to take biosafety and biosecurity seriously and how to instill those values in a way that lasts throughout their careers.