Simon Institute for Longterm Governance
GCR Reduction Field Building and Advocacy
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance (SI) works to mitigate global catastrophic risks, building on Herbert Simon's vision of future-oriented policymaking. With a focus on fostering international cooperation, the organisation centres its efforts on the multilateral system.
What problem is the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance working on?
In order to guarantee the survival and flourishing of humanity, international policymakers must enhance their understanding of extreme risks, address the impacts of technological innovation on our world, and consider the interests of future generations in political processes.
SI's current work is focused on mitigating extreme harms from AI and promoting its responsible development through multilateral governance.
What does the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance do?
SI focuses on cultivating effective multilateralism, enhancing global technology governance, and shifting policy focus to the long term. Specifically, SI:
- Informs multilateral policy processes, especially via the UN and OECD systems, through its public participation and specialised advice to policy actors on technological development and the evolution of risk landscapes.
- Synthesises knowledge by translating complex scientific, technological, and policy concepts into accessible language to ensure that decision-makers understand and act on policy-relevant developments.
- Fosters collaboration and knowledge exchange through workshops, meetings, and events, bridging the gap between technological innovation and policymaking, and nurturing networks of like-minded actors.
Since SI’s founding in 2021, the organisation has contributed to key intergovernmental processes for reducing global risks, hosted numerous workshops with researchers and policymakers to coordinate multilateral action, and delivered the first UN report on existential risk and rapid technological change.
What information does Giving What We Can have about the cost-effectiveness of the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance?
We don't currently have further information about the cost-effectiveness of SI beyond it doing work in a high-impact cause area and taking a reasonably promising approach.
Please note that GWWC does not evaluate individual charities. Our recommendations are based on the research of third-party, impact-focused charity evaluators our research team has found to be particularly well-suited to help donors do the most good per dollar, according to their recent evaluator investigations. Our other supported programs are those that align with our charitable purpose — they are working on a high-impact problem and take a reasonably promising approach (based on publicly-available information).
At Giving What We Can, we focus on the effectiveness of an organisation's work -- what the organisation is actually doing and whether their programs are making a big difference. Some others in the charity recommendation space focus instead on the ratio of admin costs to program spending, part of what we’ve termed the “overhead myth.” See why overhead isn’t the full story and learn more about our approach to charity evaluation.