What is FundMyResearch.org?
FundMyResearch.org is a 501c3 non-profit organization currently seeking tax-exempt status.
FundMyResearch.org (FMR) presents a new and unique mechanism for funding scientific research through small, public donations (micro-grants) which combined together can provide a significant funding source for scientific researchers to access world-wide. Funding for scientific research is highly competitive, and the budgets of virtually all funding agencies, both public and private, are woefully small. FundMyResearch.org seeks to engage the general public, through on-line donations, in the research process. It will allow the world community at large to have access to researchers and to participate directly in funding projects and studies relating to subjects they are personally passionate about.
Currently, research funding comes primarily from the National Science Foundation and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with very limited financial resources. In 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) received more than 40,000 grant proposals and only 11,000 proposals were successfully funded. This means that only about 27% of the researchers seeking funding from the NSF were successful and that 29,000 potentially exciting and valuable projects went unfunded.
Obtaining adequate funding for scientific research is a common and significant challenge among science professors, science students, and scientific researchers. They spend a substantial amount of their time developing proposals and attempting to obtain funding, and only a small percentage of their proposals are successful. The primary reason for funding “failures” is a shortage of money within the funding organizations.
Oftentimes, researchers have a difficult time demonstrating the need for funding if their specific research does not fall within the scope of projects that the funding agency is interested in or if it presents a new or an unexplored question. When the federal government and a limited number of private agencies with specific missions and agendas choose which research is funded, the power is taken away from the people who will ultimately be affected by and benefit from the research results --the general public and “the world community”. Current funding mechanisms actually drive research topics and research results toward specific subjects that agencies and organizations are interested in instead of allowing the researchers to be creative and answer much broader questions, including those that may be unpopular or that may lead to truthful results that do not validate current thinking.
Organizations are deciding for “us” what topics the collective “we” are interested in. They do not always get it right.
