I’ve sent hundreds of email inquiries to professors around the country to see if they might be interested in me as a graduate student in soil science and sustainable agriculture. Most of them say something along the lines of, “Your background is very strong and I would be interested in working with you, but I don’t have the funding to support a new student at the moment. If you bring your own funding, perhaps we can work something out.”
Luckily, I got in touch with a small handful of professors who, while they didn’t have funding, were willing to accept me first and then sort out the money issue later.
Next September I could be merrily on my way to studying the disease suppressiveness of compost, and how it can be engineered to target specific diseases. Or some other really awesome thing in soil ecology, like how to balance predator-prey relationships in the soil food web to prevent the establishment of disease species.
But there’s still a money issue.
Recently, there has been interest in crowdfunding science. A project called the #SciFund Challenge was initiated by two ecologists, which supports small crowdfunded grants in science. Most of these campaigns are small, from $500-$2,000. They’ve partnered with RocketHub to support a community of crowdfunded research projects.
Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols prefers to be an independent scientist, affiliated with a wide variety of organizations rather than one university. He started an innovative donor subscription program called 100 Blue Angels, which supports his research on sea turtles and ocean awareness campaigns.
FundAGeek is a new crowdfunding site expressly for science and technology projects. As Kickstarter is mostly design, art, and business projects, FundAGeek is the science and technology version.
It seems it’s about time scientists began talking to the public in a more cultural setting, rather than in an expert journal. Scientists are in no way outside of society, they are a part of the social fabric. There is no duality between science and policy. Scientists are not robots, they have intuitive minds as all human beings do.
I submitted a proposal to the prestigious National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship, which would provide a grant of $40,000 a year for 3 years, covering my tuition and living expenses, and dissolving all my funding problems into the ether. But I won’t hear back from them until May. As I hope, pray, and wish for my proposal’s acceptance, I can’t help but consider a Plan B. If external funding proves to be a dead end, I have the option of taking out a loan. But I don’t really want to take out a loan…
If I were to start a crowdfunding campaign, I would be looking to fund my first year of graduate research and education. Tuition, living expenses, and research. This might turn into a price tag of somewhere around $30,000 – $40,000. *gulp*
I write this out of a surge of inspiration and visioning. Ideas of micropatronage and ecourses are flowing through me like tidal waves.
I could finish that Urban Composting course I’ve been dreaming about. I could write monthly updates on my research and education, I could start a community dialogue around soil and compost ecology. I could vision a really ingenious, culturally engaging project idea that would hit home for so many of us interested in expanding the use of sustainable techniques in large-scale farming. I could expand my Urban Composting course into an online Composting School, with workshops and compost recipes to deal with specific gardening issues.
And then the fear hits. Can I really do this? No one has done this before! Who has done this before, to prove to me that I could do it too? Who am I to do this? I would be the laughingstock of the mainstream science community. Will my mentors think I’m crazy?
So I email the scientist who are brave enough to experiment with public crowdfunding and hope they will support me and offer me some advice.
And then I write this post, to see what you think about this process.
If I were to pursue this path, I wouldn’t start until after May, after I hear that I haven’t been selected to receive an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
If you have a moment, I’d love to hear your thoughts on crowdfunding a graduate research education: Click Here to submit your thoughts.
Lynn,
It’s a very innovative idea! I appreciate the central thread which is reconnecting science with people. This may be part of the new wave of evolution of consciousness occurring around the world. I love all your creative ideas! You are clearly a highly creative person and I say let it flow! Whether crowdfunding will work on this level, I don’t know but it seems like the time is ripe for trying new ideas.
Thanks, Sandra! Let it flow – oh yes, this is the theme I’m flowing with right now!
Hi Lynn. I think it’s a great idea. Science needs to be communicated better in the public view, outside of mainstream media and the limited topics they are interested in and myriad taboos they are not.
When broad thinkers like yourself get involved, the meanings and implications of detailed research can be very effectively communicated.
Some modern science magazines do a pretty good job of this… I could really see you working with a sustainability focussed one: one of them very much is, forget which. New Scientist? Not sure.
Thanks, Ali! Haven’t heard of New Scientist, but I’ll look into it. Thanks for the rec!
Do it. Blaze a new trail. Then get to the top of that mountain. How do I help you “pack”?
Something you might want to check out: One of our Boston NPR affiliates has a local weekend show called “Innovation Hub”. A few weeks ago, their episode was on crowdsourcing for science, medicine and government. I caught a little bit of it; you might find a nugget you can use:
http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Crowdsourcing-For-Science-Medicine-And-Government-5542
Thanks, Bill! I would definitely need some help to put this together, but for now I’ll keep hoping for fellowships and federal funding. Glad to see crowdfunding science is gaining some media attention! It’s really a great idea.
We know that people support causes they believe in and they flock to places of shared values.
I think the trick to effective funding is flowing value along the way. The trick is finding out what people will pay for.
I bet you have a future portfolio of information products that would fund your way forward. People want more science in their life when they know the benefits.
Thanks for the tips! It’s true, the challenge is to convey the benefit of this research. Or, I could just continue to launch products. I am working on an online composting course that would contribute to this cause.
Ah, but it is precisely BECAUSE nobody has done this before that you can do it! Think of all of the people who are just starting out with gardening and need someone to show them how to incorporate composting into their plan. You could be the go-to person that people turn to and trust to guide them in the right direction!
I think it’s because there is so much potential here that you’re afraid. Stuff that isn’t exciting and doesn’t matter isn’t worth being afraid of. It’s the good stuff, the challenge, that makes us hesitate! Embrace it and move forward, Lynn.
Haha, thanks Andrea! You rock! It’s true, the more potential there is for transformation, the more frightening it is. Hope all is well with you!!