January 7, 2015
There is a good article on theguardian.com talking about crowdfunded science and its possible impacts on traditional government funding sources and scientific research:
Crowdfunded science: harnessing the wisdom of the crowd, or selling out?
I tried to extracted some points from the article:
Cons
- limited the research type being funded by the public
- budget cuts and intense competition for government funding
- give governments an excuse to cut more budget
- quality of science being crowdfunded is questioned
- a proposal that is attractive to the public does not have to be as scientifically robust as putting an application into a panel of experts.
Pros
- crowdfunding is a measure of citizen interest and could be used to help decision-makers and experts in their final choice
- allow studies that are overlooked by traditional funding source or considered too controversial to receive government money
- it might change how the public sees science. Scientists might become better at explaining the value of research that’s happening anyway, and non-scientists might become better at tuning in to it
- Only about 10 to 20% of funding applications are successful and it is particularly difficult for scientists early in their career
Some Facts
- SciFund Challenge, for example, has allowed nearly 200 researchers to raise an average of $2,000 (£1,272) for 159 different projects.
- Hundreds of projects on RocketHub have raised up to half a million dollars each.
image source: European Parliamentary Research Service
