Researchers get a new and unusual funding source: the public
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024215
NYTimes.com : Eureka Fund , based in San Francisco, is one of a handful of new nonprofit organizations created to give the general public an opportunity to pay for scientific research that is not fully supported by government or private sources.They are part of a fledgling movement to take the idea of crowd-sourcing and crowd-financing, which has worked in arenas like small business and education, to scientific research.And while the notion of citizens’ directly donating to public research that could ultimately produce profits may raise questions, several ventures are entering the field. Two other websites— Sciflies.org , based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and FundScience.org , in Pittsburgh—plan to roll out their donation platforms to finance independent research by this summer.
