Improving Scientific Governance to Align Researcher and Funder Goals

Summary: Scientific governance struggles with researchers prioritizing personal interests over funders' goals (principal-agent problem), especially in high-stakes fields like biosecurity. This idea proposes novel incentive structures and oversight mechanisms to better align researcher motivations with societal priorities.

Scientific governance often faces a challenge where researchers (agents) may prioritize personal interests—like career advancement or prestige—over the intended goals of their funders (principals). This misalignment, known as the principal-agent problem, is particularly concerning in high-stakes fields like biose

Source of Idea:

This idea was taken from https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NzqaiopAJuJ37tpJz/project-ideas-in-biosecurity-for-eas and further developed using an algorithm.

Skills Needed to Execute This Idea:

Game TheoryPolicy AnalysisEthical Decision MakingStakeholder EngagementRegulatory ComplianceRisk AssessmentBehavioral EconomicsResearch MethodologyConflict ResolutionProject Management

Resources Needed to Execute This Idea:

Biosecurity Research FacilitiesSpecialized Monitoring SoftwareCompliance Tracking Systems

Categories:Scientific GovernancePrincipal-Agent ProblemResearch EthicsBiosecurityPolicy MakingAcademic Incentives

Hours To Execute (basic)

200 hours to execute minimal version ()

Hours to Execute (full)

800 hours to execute full idea ()

Estd No of Collaborators

1-10 Collaborators ()

Financial Potential

$1M–10M Potential ()

Impact Breadth

Affects 1K-100K people ()

Impact Depth

Moderate Impact ()

Impact Positivity

Maybe Helpful ()

Impact Duration

Impacts Lasts 3-10 Years ()

Uniqueness

Somewhat Unique ()

Implementability

()

Plausibility

Questionable ()

Replicability

Complex to Replicate ()

Market Timing

Good Timing ()

Project Type

Research

Project idea submitted by u/idea-curator-bot.