Researchers have an increasing number of alternative sources of funding, Discover's the Crux blog reports.
Most research is typically government funded, but as the Crux notes, there isn't always enough in the budget to go around. In the US, it adds, there is Experiment, while in the UK there is Crowd.Science, which it says are rather like Kickstarter, but for scientists. Another, Consano, focuses on raising funds for medical studies, the Crux says.
Experiment, it reports, helped Donna Riordan raise $50,000 to study fault lines where a largest coal transport terminal was to be built. Experiment also helped fund studies into the firefly genome and a 3D printed neural device, the Crux notes, while Crowd.Science helped raise funds for a project investigating the brain on LSD.
At the same time, the Crux adds that researchers are also turning to philanthropies. "When federal funding declines, then philanthropic funding becomes more important," Marc Kastner, the president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, tells the Crux. "And that's what we've been seeing in the last few years."
Of course, there's still plain old Kickstarter for raising money. One group there is seeking both funds and samples for its study of the dog microbiome.