EA Landscape in the UK

By DavidNash, lynn @ 2022-12-13T12:54 (+84)

(Last updated: October 2023) - EA UK Website

Summary

In this post I’m attempting to give an overview of what EA looks like in the UK, including communities and organisations with a range of affiliation with EA. If you are visiting or new to the UK and are looking to get connected to the local EA community, this guide may be a useful place to start.

EA Hubs in the UK

Most of the people working at EA related organisations are in London, Oxford or Cambridge (sometimes known as Loxbridge), with some remote workers around the UK. It’s quite easy to get from London to Oxford or Cambridge, being about an hour by train, and people regularly travel between them.

London

London probably has the largest number of people interested in EA. There are roughly 150-250 people working at EA related organisations although the majority of people interested in EA are working in the private sector, academia or (non EA) nonprofits. There are also university groups in London at Imperial College London, King's College London, University College London and London School of Economics.

There isn't one main EA community in London, there are quite a few subgroups based around different causes, workplaces and interests. There are also people who have an interest but attend an event or get involved with a relevant opportunity once every few years.

Subcommunities

• Workplace/Cause Communities
  • Charity Entrepreneurship are near Queens Park and with each new cohort there are more organisations set up that work from the CE office, mainly on global health & development, health security or animal welfare
  • The Centre on Long-Term Risk are near Kentish Town and there is a community there for people working on suffering risks
  • Conjecture are close to London Bridge and support the SERI-MATS fellowship, both focusing on AI Safety
  • London Initiative for Safe AI
  • There is a London meetup group on the IAA Slack
  • There is a WhatsApp chat for global development professionals with an interest in EA
• Profession communities
  • EA Finance has quite a few members in London and they have meetups every few months
  • EA Tech have meetups every month or two
  • There is a group for people who are interested in politics and EA
  • There are usually 1 or 2 meetups a year for entrepreneurs and consultants
• University groups
  • There are 4 quite active groups, roughly 20 volunteer organisers as well as the London EA Hub (LEAH) supporting students interested in EA
  • ICL
  • KCL
  • UCL
  • LSE
• Interest communities
  • EA for Christians have had meetups in London every few months
  • There are also meetups for people to play football, dance, go to gigs, stitch and climb

There are now quite a few EA related organisations in London, in 2015 there was just Founders Pledge and some Givewell recommended charities.

• EA Meta
  • Charity Entrepreneurship
  • 80,000 Hours
  • Let’s Fund
  • SoGive
  • Non-trivial
  • EA UK
  • LEAH - supporting EA student groups in London. They are also running a co-working space for students and professionals working on EA projects
  • Effective Giving
  • Rethink Priorities ~18 people based in UK
  • Social Change Lab
• Global Development
  • Against Malaria Foundation
  • Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
  • Malaria Consortium
  • GiveDirectly - London Office
  • Suvita
  • Canopie
  • Lead Exposure Elimination Project
• Animal Welfare - Most of these are the UK based teams for international orgs
  • The Humane League
  • Animal Equality
  • Open Cages
  • The Good Food Institute Europe
  • Animal Advocacy Careers
  • Animal Ask
  • Fish Welfare Initiative
  • Cellular Agriculture UK
• AI Alignment
  • Conjecture
  • The Cooperative AI Foundation
  • Deepmind Safety team
  • Safe AI London
• Long Term Future/Existential Risks
  • Longview Philanthropy
  • London Existential Risk Initiative (aimed at students)
  • 1Day Sooner
  • Center on Long-Term Risk
     

There are some remote staff in London for various EA related organisations, such as Animal Charity Evaluators, Centre for Effective Altruism, GiveWell, Alvea, Our World in Data and Giving Green.  

Oxford

Oxford has two main groups, EA Oxford (mostly university students), and professionals who work at EA organisations, mainly at Trajan House. Organisations at Trajan House include:-

• Centre for Effective Altruism
• Effective Ventures
• The Future of Humanity Institute
• The Global Priorities Institute
• The Forethought Foundation
• The Global Challenges Project
• Our World in Data
• A number of people working at other EA organisations (such as Rethink Priorities, HLI, LEEP and OpenPhil)

 Other organisations in Oxford 

• Wytham Abbey, near to Oxford, which hosts EA related events and retreats
• AI Safety Hub
• Aligned AI
• Leaf

Cambridge

EA in Cambridge has a student group and an office run by Cambridge EA CIC. There are a few EA related organisations as well as academics and other professionals.

• Cambridge EA CIC
• Cambridge AI Safety Hub
• Cambridge Existential Risks Initiative - student group
• Existential Risks Alliance - summer research fellowships
• The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk 
• Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence

Outside of Loxbridge

Outside of London, Oxford and Cambridge there aren’t many active city/regional groups (if you know of any that are active, let me know). In the last few years other groups have been tried in different cities but don’t tend to get much uptake.

• There is the Centre for Enabling EA Learning and Research (formerly known as the EA Hotel) in Blackpool with about 15-25 people.
• Bristol has both a student and city group. 

Student Groups

There are a few student groups that are relatively active although which groups are most active varies from year to year.

• Bristol
• Durham
• Edinburgh (also open to non-students)
• Manchester
• Sheffield
• St Andrews
• Sussex
• Warwick

EA Related Offices in the UK

London

• Coworking space set up by LEAH near Farringdon. You can express interest in working there via this form
• Charity Entrepreneurship have an office near Queen’s Park that sometimes has people coworking from other organisations

Oxford

• Trajan House - application form
• The EA Oxford student group has access to coworking and event space during term times

Cambridge

• Cambridge EA CIC has a coworking space partly used by the EA group there

Blackpool

• Centre For Enabling EA Learning & Research

Events 

UK wide in person and virtual events are advertised primarily on our newsletter (subscribe to receive monthly updates) and EA UK Slack group. 

Useful EA UK Links

• EA UK website
• EA UK Slack group 
• Chat with an organiser or another community member
• Sign up to our monthly newsletter
• Ways to get involved 
• Causes and careers directories

If there is anything missing from above that you would like added or changed, let me know.