Metascience 101 - EP4: "ARPAs, FROs, and Fast Grants, oh my!"

IN THIS EPISODE: Stripe Press’s Tamara Winter talks through the broad range of scientific funding institutions with guests Professor Tyler Cowen, Arc Institute Co-Founder Professor Patrick Hsu, and Convergent Research CEO Adam Marblestone. They pay special attention to the renaissance in new, exploratory scientific funding models.

“Metascience 101” is a nine-episode set of interviews that doubles as a crash course in the debates, issues, and ideas driving the modern metascience movement. We investigate why building a genuine “science of science” matters, and how research in metascience is translating into real-world policy changes. 

Chapters

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:01:53) Why now?

(00:06:16) Focused Research Organizations

(00:12:15) Arc Institute

(00:16:15) Fast Grants

(00:22:26) Convergent project selection

(00:27:31) Counterfactuals and when they matter

(00:35:43) Type of person for FROs

(00:41:29) Is OpenAI an FRO?

(00:45:30) Dealing with risk

(00:51:55) Underinvested weird science

(00:56:13) Government’s role

(01:00:20) Reasons for excitement

(01:07:12) What’s next?

(01:12:32) Get involved