Decision intelligence for animal welfare
- commitment
- 8 hrs/week
- flexibility
- Open to proposals
The project
Animal welfare organisations often need to make difficult prioritisation decisions under uncertainty. Which welfare problems should receive attention? Where are the largest opportunities to reduce suffering? How should limited evidence be incorporated into decision-making?
This project explores how evidence-informed decision-intelligence frameworks can support these decisions.
Building on my Fish Welfare Decision Support System prototype, we will investigate questions such as:
- How should uncertainty and evidence quality be represented?
- How can systems thinking help identify welfare bottlenecks?
- How can decision-support complement existing approaches such as problem-space analysis?
- What kinds of decision-support tools would actually be useful to researchers, NGOs, and funders?
Depending on the mentee's interests, the project could involve literature review, stakeholder interviews, framework development, prototype design, or exploratory research. Fish welfare will serve as an initial case study, but there is scope to explore broader animal welfare contexts.
The mentee's role
I'm looking for someone who enjoys thinking deeply about complex problems and is comfortable working in an exploratory research environment.
Ideal mentees don't need prior expertise in fish welfare or AI, but should be curious, intellectually rigorous, and willing to engage with interdisciplinary ideas. Experience with animal welfare, philosophy, systems thinking, policy, data analysis, programming, or research methods would all be valuable, though none are strict requirements.
Most importantly, I'm looking for someone who enjoys asking good questions and is excited to collaboratively develop ideas that could be useful for the animal advocacy community.
Who I'm looking for
I'm looking for a mentee who is curious, intellectually rigorous, and excited to explore open research questions in animal welfare. You don't need to have expertise in fish welfare or AI, but you should enjoy thinking carefully about complex problems and be comfortable working under uncertainty.
Experience in animal welfare, philosophy, research, data analysis, programming, policy, or systems thinking would be a plus, but the most important qualities are curiosity, initiative, and a willingness to iterate on ideas based on evidence and feedback.
I'm particularly interested in working with someone who enjoys collaborative problem-solving and wants to develop research that could ultimately be useful for the animal advocacy community.
Questions for applicants
- Which research question or problem within animal welfare are you currently most interested in exploring, and why?
- Describe a time when you significantly changed your mind about an idea or approach after encountering new evidence or feedback. What did you learn from that experience?
Support offered
- Project scoping and refining research questions
- Research design and conceptual framework development
- Literature review and evidence synthesis
- Systems thinking and decision-making under uncertainty
- Feedback on research writing and argumentation
- Brainstorming and iterative refinement of ideas
- Accountability through regular check-ins
- Guidance on developing early-stage research prototypes and decision-support tools
- Connecting research ideas to practical applications in animal advocacy where appropriate
- format
- Research & writing · Product & entrepreneurship
- topic
- Tools for advocates · Near-term impact · Neglected animal groups · Macrostrategy
Anusha Narain
Independent Researcher
I am an independent researcher working at the intersection of animal welfare, decision-making under uncertainty, and emerging technologies.
My current work explores how evidence-informed decision-intelligence frameworks can help animal welfare organisations prioritise interventions, identify neglected opportunities, and reason more systematically about complex welfare problems.
I previously developed the Fish Welfare Decision Support System through the Sentient Futures Project Incubator—an early-stage research prototype exploring welfare bottlenecks, systems modelling, and intervention prioritisation in aquaculture. More recently, my work has expanded into the Humane Slaughter Transition Intelligence System (HSTIS), which investigates decision-support frameworks for accelerating humane fish slaughter research and implementation.
My interests include neglected animal welfare (particularly fish), AI-enabled decision support, research prioritisation, systems thinking, and the practical challenges of translating research into decision-making within advocacy organisations.
I enjoy working with people who are excited about asking ambitious questions while remaining rigorous, evidence-oriented, and open to revising their ideas.