Funding

Overview

Fund raising is extremely important for science projects. We found it very interesting raising money to our project. It was quite difficult to get sponsors and funds but the value of our work was rich in learning experiences. We wrote a lot of applications and reminded them again and again that we were there, before we got an answer. We found out that the funds found it difficult to give us money because of the fact that they had already planned their budget earlier in the year, because of the late letter of application in June. A lot of the turning downs is also based on the fact that our project is only lasting for a couple of months, and that they would like to sponsor longer lasting projects. It is quite easy to get product sponsoring. The problem is however that the biggest post on the budget is travelling and attending fee, and not lab equipment.

Apart from that we got enough sponsor money to make an iGEM team for 10 persons and some supervisors. We applied the different faculties at the university for money to the team. They became our main sponsor and we owe them great thanks. At the university we also found an independent fund, that we apply for, and got money.

Now we know that we next year need to show the funds and companies that they get a lot from sponsoring an iGEM team. We hope that this year’s focus on iGEM from the press and the things we do on campus pay off, so that the iGEM competition become more appealing to sponsors. We also hope that the university would like to sponsor us next year based on the publicity they have gotten this year from hosting us as an iGEM team.