Team:Edinburgh/Human Practices/Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding

During the discussion about human practices, science and the public we have looked for phenomena that can bring academics closer to the public. As one example of such opportunity we have researched the potential of crowdfunding in science. We believe it offers a platform for communication and funding previously unavailable to researchers. We are want to investigate whether crowdfunded projects are less constrained compared to other funding mechanisms

As part of our research we have investigated multiple science-related crowdfunding projects from different websites. Several case studies are presented below.

Project Description 1: UCL project (Sponsume)

University College London iGEM’s project is an example of a successful synthetic biology project. They have decided to fund part of their iGEM work via Sponsume. Their idea is to engineer a bacteria that would turn plastic waste in oceans into an island that they named Plastic Republic. Backers of the project were rewarded for their support with ownership of a virtual piece of land on one of the islands.

This project demonstrates that a project based on synthetic biology can become very popular and successful. UCL’s project was featured in several magazines and helped to popularise iGEM and synthetic biology. It is important to point out that the project was well organised which helped to attract attention of the backers. Visit UCL’s iGEM wiki for more information on their crowdfunding idea and their Plastic Republic project.

Project Description 2: DIY projects (kickstarter)

OpenPCR and BioCurious - these two projects have a clear connection to the DIY biology community that we have researched as part of our human practices. Using Kickstarter, the authors managed to raise significant funds for development of their projects. OpenPCR is a cheap but fully functional thermocycler - its creators hope that lower price will mean more people having access to basic tools for molecular biology. BioCurious is a community labspace located in California and available for people interested in biology.

The two DIY projects from Kickstarter show that crowdfunding can be very successful when it comes to developing technologies and initiatives that affect whole communities. Such projects have an intrinsic potential for attracting attention and funding and make great use of crowdfunding platforms.

Project Description 3: Cheetah Conservation (Petridish)

Cheetah conservation research from Petridish is an interesting example of a project that offers a closer involvement of backers as well as interaction with the researcher. The goal of the project is to raise money for cheetah trap research that would help in the conservation effort for these big cats. The authors hope to increase the scale of their research using raised money. As a reward, backers can chat with the researchers and are offered photographs of cheetahs.

This shows that a direct interaction with the project may be attractive for the backers. This project also represents a significant group of ecology based projects that often get noticed due to their connection to wild animals. Projects that have a potential to form a strong emotional link between the backers and the research are therefore more likely to attract attention and funding.

Project Description 4: cancer yeast (Rockethub)

The last project, hosted by Rockethub, raises funds for cancer research. The authors use yeast to examine proteins that may be associated with cancer. Their crowdfunding project aims to raise money for antibodies used in the experiment. It is an interesting case where the research is conducted at an academic research facility (in this case the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Manchester) but the project aims to raise funds in order to enhance a specific part of the project.

This case shows that big research topics (such as cancer research) that are researched at the universities can also benefit from crowdfunding platforms and such projects have a chance to engage with the public and raise necessary funds.

As part of our research we have analysed multiple crowdfunding projects and websites. We have performed a series of searches on several websites, typing "biology" or "science" into the search bar. Below is the summary of our findings, where we attempt to compare the platforms by their attitude and usefulness to scientific projects.

* Cumulative number of results when searching for "biology" and "science", without using advanced search options (projects may repeat throughout both searches)
** Number and percentage of successful (fully funded) projects from the aforementioned search.

It is important to point out that in case of most popular sites, many projects found by searching for "science" and "biology" keywords aren't related to scientific research. Instead the project often includes portraying science in art or funding of technology-based products. That puts an important emphasis on sites such as Petridish which are entirely focused on science-related projects. Even though they tend to have a smaller user base, the projects and backers are much more focused which results in a fairly high rate of projects that are completely funded (in case of our search, 56% biology and science projects received full funding).

Questionnaire

In order to further analyse the crowdfunding potential of science, we approached Gregory Vincent, the founder of Sponsume, one of the crowdfunding platforms that we researched as part of our project and which was used by UCL to fund their project. We asked him several question related to crowdfunding, science, synthetic biology and iGEM.

Question 1: Do you think that scientific projects (specifically biology projects) are within the field of interest of Sponsume users?

Absolutely, particularly if these projects can appeal to the broader public. I think that's what Plastic Republic's success demonstrates.

Question 2: Can you think of any quality that distinguished UCL's Plastic Republic project from a non-scientific project?

Research and innovation to solve a problem that affects us all are probably the key qualities that distinguished the Plastic Republic project.

Question 3: Can crowdfunding sites provide an alternative, independent way of funding a scientific project?

Yes. The key variable is actually that the scientific community itself needs to become aware of the power of crowdfunding for raising funds and awareness about scientific projects.

Question 4: Can crowdfunding be a better platform for funding research with no immediate application but with future potential/just a cool idea?

It can but you will have to be able to explain to the public why it matters in simple terms, or appeal to a narrower public of more knowledgeable enthusiasts or activists.

Question 5: Do you think that DIY communities could use crowdfunding to fund their projects?

Yes, I don't see why not. In fact we will soon add tools on Sponsume aimed at facilitating co-working or co-creation on the site. We think crowdfunding can be very powerful in particular with regard to "open source" innovation and research (already highly developed in the world of software development).

Question 6: As Sponsume representative, do you think funding DIY biology projects could raise safety or legal issues at any point?

We would have to look at specific cases.

Question 7: Do you think that Sponsume and other crowdfunding platforms could be a good way to sponsor iGEM projects in the future?

Yes. Once again Plastic Republic have been pioneers and showed it worked.

Question 8: Do you think that crowdfunding projects will be more useful as a means of acquiring funding or as a means of widening general awareness of synthetic biology?

That's a great question! We generally stress the fact the main benefit of crowdfunding is actually publicity (raising awareness). Many project creators who have used Sponsume in the past to successfully fund their venture would argue that the biggest advantage they derived from their campaign was the attention their project and the subject they dealt with received (both during and after the campaign).


We would like to thank Mr Vincent for his time and answers that helped us in getting a better understanding of the topic.