The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $2,064,034 AUD (approximately $1,467,570 US at the time of conversion; this amount may be adjusted based on future exchange rates) over three years to the Animal Welfare Standards Project (AWSP) to create an animal welfare-focused institute, to be called the Sino-Australian Animal Welfare Centre, within China. Specifically, AWSP intends to use these funds to open a central hub in Beijing, in liaison with the China Agricultural University, to focus on attitudes, motivations, engagement, and outreach on animal welfare. AWSP will be collaborating with other institutes around China to build animal welfare capacities across the region and hopes these institutes will help develop Chinese animal welfare subject matter experts.
This grant is a renewal of Open Philanthropy's December 2016 support, and falls within its focus area of farm animal welfare. Open Philanthropy wrote more about its original grant to AWSP, and broader decision to support farm animal welfare in China, on this page. Since Open Philanthropy's first grant, AWSP conducted 32 stakeholder workshops and 18 focus groups, created 26 training modules and 22 training videos, and is surveying Chinese producers to assess the full impact of its preliminary activities. The AWSP team have also conducted research with livestock stakeholders across six Asian countries to explore animal welfare initiatives that are likely to be embraced and therefore successful.