Your website says you studied science and have built software for spreadsheets and for 3D printing. I work with oceanographers. There are many who get by with

Your website says you studied science and have built software for spreadsheets and for 3D printing. I work with oceanographers. There are many who get by with rudimentary programming skills but love the help of developers who can help them build tools to analyze and disseminate their data. They love spreadsheets because they don't know how to make databases. Having mechanical or electrical engineering or CAD skills helps them design enclosures for instruments, having software skills helps them add autonomy. However it is not a field where, at least as I've seen, engineers have free rein to improve processes simply for the sake of improving them. You are right that research funding is tight and in most of the world it is getting tighter. Right now many projects are burning through funds while scientists babysit their kids; the research vessels are only now trying to resume operation.