Our experiment in open science begins! | Infectious Thoughts

"In early 2012 I came across the SciFund Challenge started by two ecologists from the US National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in California, Dr. Jai Ranganathan and Dr. Jarrett Byrnes. With a passion for communicating science to the public, and spurred on by budget cuts, Jai and Jarrett wanted to see if the crowdfunding model successfully used by artists and musicians could be applied to support science. Rather than relying on one wealthy benefactor for full funding, crowdfunding seeks small contributions from lots of people to get projects off the ground. Using the popular crowdfunding site RocketHub as a platform, the SciFund Challenge has run three rounds, with scientists raising money for projects as diverse as parasitic plants, flying foxes, Amazonian crabs, domesticating algae, duck erections, Roman slaves, zombie fish and undersea kelp forests. I took part in Round 2 of the SciFund Challenge in May 2012, to support a fledgling project in the lab that had been something myself and an old colleague of mine, Bill Hanage (now an Associate Professor at Harvard) had talked about doing for years. I have tried to get this project fully funded several times through traditional grants but, despite excellent feedback from overseas reviewers, have had no luck. Fortunately I was given a little seed money from the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, one of New Zealand’s Centres of Research Excellence, to get the project started. Through the SciFund Challenge, 79 people from all over the world, half of them strangers to me, donated about US$4500 to help this project along. In this funding environment, every little helps! ..."