Funding Type: Grants

World Health Organization — Syphilis Treatment for Pregnant Women

Image courtesy of the Human Reproduction Programme

Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $583,544 to the World Health Organization to support a study on the antibiotic Cefixime as a potential treatment for syphilis in pregnant women. Currently, the only WHO-endorsed treatment for pregnant women is penicillin, which crosses the placental barrier and protects the unborn infant against congenital syphilis. Recent shortages of penicillin have made finding alternative treatments more urgent. This study will examine Cefixime’s pharmacokinetics (how the body processes the drug) to support its potential approval for treating syphilis during pregnancy.

This follows our April 2023 support and falls within our focus area of scientific research.

Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention — General Support (2024)

Photo courtesy of Heshani Sothiraj Eddleston

Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of £9,871,536 ($12,529,708 at the time of conversion) to the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention (CPSP) for general support. The CPSP aims to reduce deaths from deliberate ingestion of pesticides by identifying the most frequently used pesticides in suicide attempts and advocating for their deregistration. Our global public health policy team believes that banning pesticides with high case fatality rates is likely to lead to a reduction in overall fatalities.

This follows our January 2021 support and falls within our focus area of global public health policy. 

Trustees of Boston University — LLM Research Benchmark

Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $756,396 over two years to Boston University to support a project evaluating the abilities of large language models (LLMs) at performing academic machine learning research, led by Professor Najoung Kim and Professor Sebastian Schuster. 

This grant was funded via a request for proposals for projects benchmarking LLM agents on consequential real-world tasks and falls within our focus area of potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.

YIMBY Law — General Support (2024)

Image courtesy of YIMBY Law

Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $180,000 over three years to YIMBY Law for general support. YIMBY Law advocates for more affordable housing in California and pursues litigation to ensure that localities comply with state and federal housing law.

This follows our June 2022 support and falls within our focus area of land use reform.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease — Conference Scholarships (2024)

Photo courtesy of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $55,000 to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease to support scholarships for people attending the 2024 World Conference on Lung Health in Bali. These scholarships were designated for academics, experts, and researchers from low- and middle-income countries.

This follows our October 2023 support and falls within our focus area of global health R&D.