Administrative note: I've just transferred ownership of this project from @calebp to @Grace-Braithwaite, per Caleb's request.
8
Preventing Worst Case Pandemics Symposium @ Cambridge
Project summary
The Cambridge Biosecurity Hub and Cambridge Infectious Diseases are organizing a one-day symposium on 'Avoiding Worst-case Pandemics' to encourage researchers to focus on mitigating major pandemics. The event, tentatively scheduled for October 3rd, will feature a range of speakers and sessions covering topics such as naturally occurring pandemics, deliberate misuse of biotechnologies, and preventative countermeasures.
What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?
The main goal of this project is to run a one-day symposium on 'Avoiding Worst-case Pandemics' in collaboration with Cambridge Infectious Diseases. The symposium aims to encourage more researchers to focus their work on mitigating major pandemics. The event is expected to have around 100-150 attendees, primarily academics within the UK. The symposium will be achieved through careful planning, inviting relevant speakers, and promoting the event to the target audience.
How will this funding be used?
The funding will be used to cover the expenses related to organizing the symposium, such as venue rental, catering, promotional materials, and travel expenses for speakers within England.
Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?
The project is being led by the co-founders of the Cambridge Biosecurity Hub (CBH), Sandy Hickson and Dr Grace Braithwaite.
Alongside co-founding CBH, Grace works at Meridian Impact. In this role, she has organised two residential retreats over the past year for up to 30 people. The logistics involved (e.g., arranging venues and speakers) overlap heavily with organising this symposium. In her spare time, she works as a medical doctor in the NHS, giving her an extensive network with relevant clinicians.
Sandy is a PhD student in genetics in genetics at the University of Cambridge. His research gives him contacts with many speakers in relevant fields for this conference; CBH’s extensive network among academic researchers and relevant NGOs will supplement this.
Dr Maria Bargues-Ribera, the manager of Cambridge Infectious Diseases (CID), is also assisting with the organisation. CID is the centre for infectious diseases researchers at the University of Cambridge and affiliated institutes; its members are one of the primary audiences for this symposium. Maria regularly organises their symposiums, which are of the same format as the proposal.
Caleb Parikh submitted the application, but they are not involved in running or organizing the project (but they are excited about it).
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)
The most likely causes of project failure could be:
Low attendance due to insufficient promotion or competing events.
Difficulty securing high-quality speakers.
Logistical issues with the venue or scheduling.
If the project fails, the outcomes could include:
Wasted resources (time, money, effort).
Missed opportunity to raise awareness and encourage research on pandemic prevention.
Damage to the reputation of the Cambridge Biosecurity Hub and Cambridge Infectious Diseases.
What other funding are you or your project getting?
We are applying to traditional academic funders as well as Open Philanthropy. If we get funding from traditional funders to cover the whole project, then we will return all Manifund funding. We are trying to move quickly and organising this conference will run more smoothly if we have a guarantee of funding and don't need to wait for decisions from other funders.
Edit 2024-Jun-3: This project's minimum funding amount might be very low (e.g. <$2k). The team is currently assessing venues which are surprisingly cheap in Cambridge.
Cambridge Biosecurity Hub has previously received a grant from Open Philanthropy, but the grant did not cover this project.
donated $4,000
Ryan Kidd
3 months ago
I regranted an additional $2k to let the organizers launch the basic event, as per Grace's comment.
Caleb Parikh
3 months ago
@Austin can I confirm that the team could take out, say, $1700 of funding, and the remaining funding would just be returned to the offerer's pots, limiting the downside of pledging early if the project turns out to be cheaper than expected?
I realised that I'm not sure how Manifund handles partial payouts and don't want to mislead people about the downsides of committing money early.
Caleb Parikh
3 months ago
@RyanKidd I was thinking already committed, but I am interested in the logistics for both cases.
As I said in the application, the team might be able to fund this through normal academic channels, which would be their preference.
Austin Chen
3 months ago
Cool, thanks for submitting this project, Caleb! Approving as being part of our mission of reducing biological GCRs.
Curious, did this originate as a submission to the LTFF?
Caleb Parikh
3 months ago
@Austin It did not. My friends are planning this event and as it’s cheap and not sensitive (and imo worth funding) I thought I’d put it on here.
donated $4,000
Caleb Parikh
3 months ago
@RyanKidd The team (who are actually running the project) are more sceptical than I am that there are gains above 2k, I’ll nudge them to comment their takes here.
Grace Braithwaite
3 months ago
@RyanKidd
Hi Ryan - thank you so much for your grant, we really appreciate your support!
We estimate the basic version of the event costs $3000-4000. Therefore, we would require some additional funding alongside $2000, which we likely have access to (80%) but this is not yet confirmed. This would enable us to run a basic event with speakers and lunch. We would use a university lecture theatre as the main venue (which we have free access to). We would pay speakers’ travel expenses but not any overnight accommodation, which limits us to speakers who are based in Cambridge or London. Note that we do not plan to charge a registration fee for this event.
Additional components, in order of which I would advocate for. Amounts below are rough as we are still in the process of receiving quotes for various parts.
Overnight accommodation for some speakers: $1000, dependent on uptake. This would enable us to invite speakers from anywhere in the UK where a return journey is not feasible in a single day alongside attending the event. There are several speakers based in Oxford we would be particularly excited to invite.
A much improved venue in a Cambridge college: $1000. This is a more central location, easing access, and would generally make the event feel brighter as the venue has natural light (unlike the lecture theatre), access to green space, and carries the old-world Cambridge vibes.
A drinks reception following the event would aid with networking. Depending on what this entails exactly, it would be in the region of $2000.
Travel grants for attendees who are not speakers but wish to attend, and do not have their own funding. This is very flexible depending on the number and size of what we offer.