Since 2015, public media in Australia has covered the gradual transition of funding for scientific and environmental project to social media. ABC and NBC networks produced updates this week. ABC writes:
“The competition for research funding is driving some Australian scientists to crowdfunding. It can take up to a year for academics to find out if they’ve been successful in getting government grants. It’s highly competitive with the success rate for the Australian Research Council usually about 18 percent. But going cap in hand to the public, via the internet, isn’t a sure thing either.”
Crowdfunding has the potential of being faster than the grant process. But it has its own challenges. Baysave is also learning about crowdfunding; we’ve had some success and some learning experiences that were not immediately successful. In the long run
, I suspect that both methods must be used in tandem for smooth operation in today’s environment.
