GPI's vision and mission
There are many problems in the world. Because resources are scarce, it is impossible to solve them all. An actor seeking to improve the world as much as possible therefore needs to prioritise, both among the problems themselves and (relatedly) among means for tackling them.
This task of prioritisation requires careful analysis. Some opportunities to do good are vastly more cost-effective than others. But identifying which are the better opportunities requires grappling with a host of complex questions - questions about how to evaluate different outcomes, how to predict the effects of actions, how to act in the face of uncertainty, how to identify more practically usable proxies for the criteria we ultimately care about, and many other topics. Within this broad class of topics lie a crucial few that are currently relatively neglected with academia.
The Global Priorities Institute exists to develop and promote rigorous, scientific approaches to the question of how appropriately motivated actors can do good more effectively, with a particular focus on areas that are not already well addressed by existing academic research.
This line of thought motivates the following vision and mission:
Our Vision: A world in which global priorities are set by using evidence and reason to determine what will do the most good.
Our Mission: To conduct and promote world-class, foundational academic research on how most effectively to do good.
Embracing diversity
GPI cares deeply about diversity and inclusion. We want everyone to feel welcome at GPI regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability status, form of neurodivergence, age, and national origin. We not only welcome, but also value diversity. We think that global priorities are best shaped through dialogue across a diverse range of viewpoints, and we appreciate the opportunity to learn from those with different experiences and understandings.
You can read more about diversity at GPI here.
GPI’s research agendas
The central focus of GPI is what we call ‘global priorities research’: research into issues that arise in response to the question, ‘What should an actor do with a given amount of limited resources insofar as her aim is to do the most good?’ This question naturally draws upon central themes in the fields of economics, philosophy and psychology.
Thus defined, global priorities research is in principle a broad umbrella. Within that umbrella, our research agendas set out the research themes that GPI is particularly interested in at the present time. You can find our research agendas here.