BiosecurityA few weeksIntermediate
Build an open dataset or API for biosecurity
Researchers keep re-collecting the same numbers. Turn one of them into a clean, open dataset or API.
CodeDataView project
BiosecurityA few weeksIntermediateFree
Disease forecasting project ideas
Help forecasters do better: document past model failures, port useful tools, teach the maths, or build early-warning datasets.
Download PDFCodeDataReading & writing
Why it matters
Good forecasts drive good decisions in the first weeks of an outbreak, when they matter most.
Output: A website, tool, dataset or teaching resource.
Ideas
- A website showcasing historical forecasting-model failures
- What do disease forecasters find hardest?
- Which R epidemiology packages should be ported to Python?
- Better tooling and teaching for the maths of epidemic forecasting
- A GIS + virology dataset linking climate change and disease
- Risk-assessment tools for comparing biosecurity measures
Getting started
0 of 5 done-
Read the list of ideas above and pick the one you would most enjoy.
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Check the source to see whether someone has already done it.
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Scope it down to something you can finish in your available time.
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Do a quick first version and show it to someone.
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Write up what you made and share it with the source authors.
All steps done
Share what you made, then try another project. The PDF version has room for notes.
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Further reading
- List of lists of concrete biosecurity project ideas (opens in a new tab)Idea listTessa Alexanian.
- A hundred project ideas in biosecurity (opens in a new tab)Idea listHatta and Bazarragchaa, 2025. Aimed at independent, part-time researchers.
- Warning Shots for AI Existential Risk (opens in a new tab)ReadingAbecassis & Barnett · 2026
- Concrete biosecurity projects (some of which could be big) (opens in a new tab)Idea listLarger, organisation-sized projects.
- Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools (opens in a new tab)ReadingSchick et al. · 2023
Related mentored projects
- From AI Exposure to Economic Shock: Early-Warning Triggers for Southeast Asia (opens in a new tab)SPARSupheakmungkol Sarin, Taiye Chen · AI Safety Asia / Independent Researcher
- Mapping and Quantifying Alternative Pathways to AI-Enabled Biological Misuse (opens in a new tab)SPARSwaptik Chowdhury · Dun and Bradstreet; Odyssean Institute (UK)
- Methods and measure for weight and representation based early detection of major changes during learning (opens in a new tab)SPARNischal Mainali · Principles of Intelligence