Research topics we recommend
Are you searching for a research topic that has the potential to significantly improve the world?
Explore our ideas on how to work on some of the most pressing global problems in the profiles below, or sign up to the Topic Discovery Digest for ideas delivered straight to your inbox.
See here if you want to learn more about why we prioritise these topics and here for a map of how these profiles relate to each other.
We encourage you to take your interests, aptitudes and degree level into consideration as you explore whether to work on one of these ideas for your thesis – learn more here.
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Use the menu to find ideas tailored to your discipline, from broad introductions to deep dives into specific areas. We also encourage you to also explore beyond the content listed under your discipline!
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AI sentience, moral status and rights
Deep dive
How should the possibility of AI sentience guide the development of AI and related institutions and norms?
Alternative proteins research and development
Deep dive
The consumption of animal products causes suffering to billions of animals each year. Alternatives could shift consumer demand away from animal products.
Altruistic decision-making
Research area introduction
How can we encourage effective action to help others?
Anti-ageing research
Deep dive
Aging is a major risk factor for many diseases that medical interventions try to prevent. Can we target aging as an underlying cause of disease?
Antimicrobial resistance
Deep dive
Antimicrobial resistance already kills tens of thousands each year, and could kill millions without innovation. What are the best strategies to prevent it?
Applied mental health research
Deep dive
It’s estimated that around 10% of the population suffers from diagnosable mental health conditions, with most of them not receiving treatment.
Attitudes to existential risk and longtermism
Deep dive
To increase the chance of our species having a flourishing future, it’s helpful to understand how we feel and reason about the future of humanity
Behavioural and attitudinal change in animal products consumption
Deep dive
How do attitudes towards animals affect animal product consumption and what interventions are effective in decreasing it?
Biological sciences
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in biological sciences could improve the world.
Black soldier fly sentience and welfare
Deep dive
Black soldier fly may be farmed on a huge scale in the coming decades. To decrease their potential suffering, we need to understand more about their welfare and capacity for sentience.
Cause specific mortality in wild animals
Deep dive
Understanding the causes of wild animal mortality can help us build a picture of the current state of welfare in nature and how we can improve it.
Charitable donations decision-making research
Deep dive
Charitable donations can do a lot of good, but donors rarely prioritise their impact. How can we encourage more effective philanthropy?
Civilisation collapses
Deep dive
Studying past civilisational collapses may help us predict and safeguard against future collapse and increase the chance of recovery.
Consumer research related to alternative proteins
Deep dive
Demand for animal products is increasing but so is the availability of alternatives. How can consumers be encouraged to explore alternative proteins?
Detection and identification of dangerous pathogens
Deep dive
Using metagenomic surveillance and broad-spectrum diagnostics to detect dangerous pathogens.
Developing solutions to climate change
Deep dive
Climate change is already causing suffering on a huge scale, and may increasingly contribute to many different crises in future. Although many resources are already dedicated to this area, there are gaps that further research is needed to fill.
Economics
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in economics could improve the world.
Engineering
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in engineering could improve the world.
Existential and global catastrophic risk
Research area introduction
How can research protect humanity's long-term potential from catastrophe?
Farmed animal welfare
Deep dive
Animal agriculture causes suffering to billions of animals each year. How can we improve welfare standards as much as possible?
Forecasting the long-term future
Deep dive
To reliably improve the long-term future, we must address the challenge of predicting the long-term impact of our actions
Global health and wellbeing
Deep dive
In 2021 about 9% of the global population was living in extreme poverty. How can we increase living standards and wellbeing in low- and lower-middle-income countries?
Global priorities research
Deep dive
There are many neglected, foundational uncertainties about what it means to improve the world and what actions we should take to do so
Governance of artificial intelligence
Deep dive
AI could radically transform the world, for better or worse. How can AI governance mitigate the risks and increase the chance it contributes to humanity's flourishing?
Great power coordination
Deep dive
How can we coordinate action between the Great Powers to address existential and global catastrophic risks?
Historical persistence and contingency
Deep dive
Improving predictions of the extent to which important features of the world today will persist into the future, and how contingent the future is on the actions we take in the present, could help inform attempts to create long-lasting positive change.
History
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in history could improve the world.
Human-aligned artificial intelligence
Deep dive
Artificial intelligence will likely become an increasingly powerful force shaping humanity’s future, so research to align it with human values is vital.
Improving aquatic animal welfare
Deep dive
How can we help the hundreds of billions of aquatic animals that are raised and killed for human consumption every year?
Improving health and wellbeing metrics
Deep dive
Current health and wellbeing metrics have many shortcomings, leading to misallocation of resources. Developing the 'WELBY' could help.
Improving institutional decision-making
Deep dive
Large institutions have vast resources and capacity to help solve global problems. How can we improve their decision-making processes?
Improving pandemic governance
Deep dive
Pandemics pose a humanitarian crisis that could even threaten humanity’s future. How can governments prepare for future pandemics?
Improving the measurement of animal welfare
Deep dive
Wild animals make up the vast majority of sentient beings, but their welfare is highly neglected. One promising approach to understanding their quality of life is comparing rate of biological aging in different populations.
Improving voting methods
Deep dive
Learning how voting systems have been changed in the past to understand how to improve voting systems used today
Insect welfare in farmed, wild, and research contexts
Deep dive
Insect use and management occurs at a scale rarely seen across the animal taxa; despite this scale, their welfare has largely been neglected.
Longtermism
Deep dive
Is improving the far future one of the key moral priorities of our time? If it is, how should this influence our actions?
Mechanistic interpretability
Deep dive
Mechanistic interpretability could help us understand and control the inner workings of AI systems, ensuring that their decision-making aligns with human values and goals.
Medical interventions against dangerous pathogens
Deep dive
To address future pandemics, we need medical interventions against pathogens to be faster to produce, effective against a broad range of threats, and cheaper and easier to produce at scale.
Moral circle expansion
Deep dive
How can we expand humanity's moral circle to create a more compassionate future?
Moral weight research
Deep dive
Foundational research exploring animals’ experiences and moral standing could help prioritize animal welfare interventions
Most important historical trends
Deep dive
A better understanding of historical trends and what they tell us about humanity's trajectory could inform efforts to improve and prepare for the future
Non-pharmaceutical pandemic interventions
Deep dive
How does the transmission of dangerous pathogens occur and how can innovation in areas such as testing, PPE, distancing and contact tracing reduce transmission?
Nuclear war prevention and recovery
Deep dive
Could nuclear winter pose an existential threat to humanity's future and in what scenarios? How can we decrease the risk of nuclear war and increase civilisational resilience?
Philosophy and ethics
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in philosophy and ethics could improve the world.
Preventing great power conflict
Deep dive
Great power war could pose an existential risk, while a breakdown in cooperation could undermine vital coordination on many global problems. How can we reduce the risk of conflict?
Preventing the release of dangerous pathogens
Deep dive
How can we reduce the likelihood of intentional or accidental release of dangerous pathogens?
Prioritisation research
Research area introduction
How can we encourage effective action to help others?
Progress studies
Deep dive
Advances in science, technology, institutions and culture have caused huge improvements in standards of living. How can we increase the rate of progress?
Psychology
Discipline introduction
Start here to learn how research in psychology could improve the world.
Reducing physical pain
Deep dive
Hundreds of millions of people live with chronic pain and other intensely painful conditions. What are the most urgent conditions where progress could be made?
Reducing risks from malevolent actors
Deep dive
How can individuals with particularly dangerous personality traits be prevented from gaining power?
Resilient foods research
Deep dive
How would we feed everyone in the event of a global catastrophe, such as the sun being blocked during a nuclear winter or significant disruption to electricity or industry?
Risks from volcanic eruptions
Deep dive
Volcanic eruptions could lead to catastrophe by causing food shortages and disruption to vital global systems. How can we monitor and mitigate the risks?
Space governance
Deep dive
Outer space is an increasingly valuable resource and may one day be permanently settled. How can its use be safe, sustainable and contribute to a flourishing future?
Understanding the impact of social movements
Deep dive
Social movements can significantly improve the world. What factors determine the change a social movement achieves?
Wild animal welfare
Research area introduction
Researching how to responsibly improve the wellbeing of wild animals.
Wildlife fertility control research
Deep dive
Many wild animals suffer due to resource competition. Population management of some species via contraception could increase welfare and survival.
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