In the world of research funding, there have been some interesting news stories of late.
Are you in need of funding for your research? A recent NPR blog post, “Scientists pass the hat for research funding“, highlights an emerging trend for raising research funds – crowdfunding. Scientists at uBiome and American Gut recently raised more than $600,000 using Indiegogo, and other sites have popped up to help steer scientists and donors to this new funding approach. In his June 2012 article, “Crowdfunding: A New Opportunity for Science and Innovation“, John Platt points to a few other funding sites like FundaGeek, TechMoola, RocketHub, and the #SciFund Challenge, which can also serve as communication tools for scientists to explain their work to the public. With continuing cuts in research funding from larger institutions, is this the wave of the future?
In other news, after the US Government Accountability Office audited three federal agencies that provide about 94% of all federal funding for medical-sciences research in the United States and found “a potential for unnecessary duplication”, the authors of “Research Funding: Same work, twice the money?” conducted an analysis of the potential for doubly funded projects. They compared 850,000 funded grant and contract summaries submitted to five of the largest US funders, and found that 167 pairs reached a certain measure of similarity… and those projects involved $200 million.