Young scientists use crowd sourcing to fund their research

" ... Rather than abandon their ideas and leave research for more lucrative corporate careers, a growing number of early-career scientists are appealing to the public to raise money through crowd funding websites.  Dr Rees' campaign is one of the first to launch on Thinkable, a website for researchers to explain their research to the public and seek sponsorship. The site's founder, University of NSW oceanographer Ben McNeil, said of the roughly 10,000 research ideas submitted to government research funding schemes, such as those run by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council, only about 20 per cent are funded ..."