What Are Pivotal Questions?
A pivotal question is an empirical uncertainty that could change what an organization funds, recommends, or studies. Instead of starting with a paper and asking whether it is good research, we start with the decision and ask what evidence would actually matter.
Which unanswered, quantifiable questions matter most to organizations' policy or funding choices?
Once a question is clear enough to answer, we connect it to existing research, commission expert evaluations where useful, and summarize the evidence in a form decision-makers can use. Sometimes the output is an evaluation. Sometimes it is a workshop, a forecast, a public database entry, or a sharper statement of what still is not known.
Our Approach
In practice, this means doing a few plain but important things carefully:
Demand-Driven
We ask funders, practitioners, and researchers which uncertainties are blocking a decision or making a recommendation fragile.
Decision-Relevant
Each question is tied to a practical choice. If a different answer would not change behavior, we keep refining.
Quantifiable
We turn broad concerns into measurable claims, probability judgments, or quantities that can be compared with evidence.
Evidence-Linked
We connect questions to papers, forecasts, workshops, evaluations, and public discussion so the reasoning is visible.
Workshops in Practice
Our workshops are a practical way to move from a vague uncertainty to a more useful research question. We bring together people who know the evidence, people who use the evidence, and people who can challenge the framing. The format is deliberately modest: focused online sessions, background notes, belief elicitation, and public writeups where appropriate.
Wellbeing Measurement
This workshop looked at whether WELLBY-based cost-effectiveness estimates are reliable enough for funding decisions, and how funders should compare WELLBYs with DALYs or QALYs. The materials now include a workshop summary, readings, belief responses, and notes on the StrongMinds vs AMF focal case.
Cultivated Meat
This workshop focused on cultivated meat's cost trajectory and what it implies for animal welfare funding. The discussion centered on why techno-economic analyses disagree, including media costs, bioreactor assumptions, gene-edited cell lines, and the gap between modeled costs and commercial reality.
Plant-Based Substitution
This workshop asks how much plant-based alternatives actually substitute for animal products, especially chicken. It will review scanner data, choice experiments, field experiments, and the broader substitution landscape that matters for animal welfare grantmaking.
The Process
Eliciting Questions
We collect questions from funders, practitioners, researchers, and public discussion. The first test is simple: what would someone do differently if they knew the answer?
Selecting & Refining
We rewrite broad questions into measurable claims, note the decision context, and look for the cruxes where evidence would most change beliefs.
Convening Workshops
When a question needs live synthesis, we convene focused workshops with researchers, evaluators, funders, and practitioners, with room for asynchronous input.
Linking Research
We curate relevant work, commission expert evaluations when needed, and connect the question to forecasts or belief elicitation where uncertainty remains large.
Publishing What We Learn
We share summaries, databases, recordings, evaluations, and open questions where appropriate, including caveats about what the discussion did not resolve.
Who Benefits?
Funders & Grantmakers
Clarify which empirical uncertainties matter for grantmaking, where existing evidence is thin, and which further research would be worth paying for.
Policymakers
Use concise evidence summaries and uncertainty ranges on questions that bear on policy choices, not only academic debates.
Researchers
See which questions practitioners actually need answered, and where a careful paper, replication, or evaluation could be unusually useful.
Implementing Organizations
Surface the assumptions behind program choices and get help turning them into questions that others can evaluate, forecast, or debate.
Browse Our Questions
We maintain a public database of pivotal questions, including draft formulations, related evidence, and current status. It is a working document, so some entries are more mature than others.
Have a Pivotal Question?
If your organization faces a decision that hinges on uncertain evidence, we want to hear from you. Submit your question for consideration.
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