The Nonlinear Library EA - Apply now to CE's second Research Training Program by CE
Jan 3, 2024
06:54
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Apply now to CE's second Research Training Program, published by CE on January 3, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
What we have learned from our pilot and when our next program is happening
TL;DR: We are excited to announce the second round of our
Research Training Program. This online program is designed to equip participants with the tools and skills needed to identify, compare, and recommend the most effective charities, interventions, and organisations. It is a full-time (35 hours per week), fully cost-covered program that will run remotely for 12 weeks.
[APPLY HERE]
Deadline for application: January 28, 2024.
The program dates are April 15 - July 5, 2024.
If you are progressing to the last stage of the application process you will receive a final decision by the 15th of March the latest. Please let us know if you need a decision before that date.
What have we learned from our pilot?
The theory of change for the Research Training Program has three outputs: helping train people to switch into impactful research positions, creating intervention reports that influence CE's decisions of which new organisations to start, and creating evaluations that help organisations have the most impact and funders to make impact maximising decisions. We have outlined what we have learned about each of these aspects below:
Intervention reports: For eight out of the eleven weeks, the sixteen research fellows have investigated fifteen cause areas, created forty-six shallow reviews, and written twenty-two deep dives, five of which have already been published on the EA forum (find them
here). Although we are planning some changes to improve the fellows' experience in the program, we are deeply impressed by these results and look forward to replicating them with a slightly different approach.
People: Since the program ended only a couple of weeks ago, it is too early to tell what career switches will happen because of the program. We have some early and very promising results with two research fellows already having made career changes that we consider highly impactful. If you are currently hiring and are interested in people with intervention prioritisation skills applying, please contact us.
Charity evaluations: Traditionally, Charity Entrepreneurship has focused most of its research on investigating the potential impact of interventions. We believe that more impact-focused accountability is essential for the sector, and we would like to support the evaluated organisations and funders in making more informed decisions. This is why at the end of the program the research fellows focused on writing charity evaluations in group projects.
We were too confident in our timelines and are planning a major restructuring of this part of the program. However, we are happy that three evaluations could be shared directly with the evaluated organisations. We are looking forward to learning from other evaluators in the space.
What will the next program look like?
Content: The program will start with a week of providing an overview of the most important research skills. The program's first part will then focus on writing cause area reports in groups in which fellows take a problem and identify the most promising solutions. Afterwards, the fellows investigate those most promising ideas through a shallow review.
After conducting a shallow review, research fellows will evaluate the most promising interventions through a deep dive, which will be polished and published, and influence decision-making within Charity Entrepreneurship and beyond. After these reports are published, there will be some time to think about careers and apply to different opportunities, before jumping into some charity evaluations that can influence the decisions of funders as well as strategic decisions within the evaluated o...
What we have learned from our pilot and when our next program is happening
TL;DR: We are excited to announce the second round of our
Research Training Program. This online program is designed to equip participants with the tools and skills needed to identify, compare, and recommend the most effective charities, interventions, and organisations. It is a full-time (35 hours per week), fully cost-covered program that will run remotely for 12 weeks.
[APPLY HERE]
Deadline for application: January 28, 2024.
The program dates are April 15 - July 5, 2024.
If you are progressing to the last stage of the application process you will receive a final decision by the 15th of March the latest. Please let us know if you need a decision before that date.
What have we learned from our pilot?
The theory of change for the Research Training Program has three outputs: helping train people to switch into impactful research positions, creating intervention reports that influence CE's decisions of which new organisations to start, and creating evaluations that help organisations have the most impact and funders to make impact maximising decisions. We have outlined what we have learned about each of these aspects below:
Intervention reports: For eight out of the eleven weeks, the sixteen research fellows have investigated fifteen cause areas, created forty-six shallow reviews, and written twenty-two deep dives, five of which have already been published on the EA forum (find them
here). Although we are planning some changes to improve the fellows' experience in the program, we are deeply impressed by these results and look forward to replicating them with a slightly different approach.
People: Since the program ended only a couple of weeks ago, it is too early to tell what career switches will happen because of the program. We have some early and very promising results with two research fellows already having made career changes that we consider highly impactful. If you are currently hiring and are interested in people with intervention prioritisation skills applying, please contact us.
Charity evaluations: Traditionally, Charity Entrepreneurship has focused most of its research on investigating the potential impact of interventions. We believe that more impact-focused accountability is essential for the sector, and we would like to support the evaluated organisations and funders in making more informed decisions. This is why at the end of the program the research fellows focused on writing charity evaluations in group projects.
We were too confident in our timelines and are planning a major restructuring of this part of the program. However, we are happy that three evaluations could be shared directly with the evaluated organisations. We are looking forward to learning from other evaluators in the space.
What will the next program look like?
Content: The program will start with a week of providing an overview of the most important research skills. The program's first part will then focus on writing cause area reports in groups in which fellows take a problem and identify the most promising solutions. Afterwards, the fellows investigate those most promising ideas through a shallow review.
After conducting a shallow review, research fellows will evaluate the most promising interventions through a deep dive, which will be polished and published, and influence decision-making within Charity Entrepreneurship and beyond. After these reports are published, there will be some time to think about careers and apply to different opportunities, before jumping into some charity evaluations that can influence the decisions of funders as well as strategic decisions within the evaluated o...