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> If you have matching donations or can kickstart an otherwise self-sustaining process They won't have been the first people funding research to have thought o
by throwaway729 10y ago
> If you have matching donations or can kickstart an otherwise self-sustaining process
They won't have been the first people funding research to have thought of this... it's a criteria sometimes used in evaluating in NIH grants, for instance.
> Think of it as venture research
As opposed to?
- jaggederest 10y agoAs opposed to more standard research funding which isn't as goal oriented. I assume they're looking for a "billion dollar exit" from their research funding.
- alsocasey 10y agoOveremphasis on commercialization is a common complaint of the current funding situation in medical research, so I don't think we're failing for lack of interest in commercial exits. In fact, many scientist are serial entrepreneurs. Moreover, many discoveries that went on to make a lot of people a lot of money had no obvious commercial application when they were first being researched... Predicting future markets is hard.
- jaggederest 10y agoNo I don't mean "made money", that would just be standard venture capital. I mean "achieves their targets by reducing the total burden of disease on humanity", which is a different radical exit.
- throwaway729 10y agoI'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean by "achieves their targets by reducing the total burden of disease on humanity". Or maybe I just don't understand the difference between this as merely "achieves their targets by selling useful treatments to people"? Could to elaborate?
- jaggederest 10y agoA malaria vaccine would make no commercial sense but would be a huge reduction in the total burden of disease. That's what I mean.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]