6 ms·
This is a great idea, and I hope they will be able to scale it beyond UCB/Stanford/UCSF. A little cynically, I wonder whether PIs at these #1-ranked universitie
by moab 5y ago
This is a great idea, and I hope they will be able to scale it beyond UCB/Stanford/UCSF. A little cynically, I wonder whether PIs at these #1-ranked universities in CS/Medicine actually need an additional funding program since they are probably doing just fine with NSF/NIH and other existing funding agencies. On the other hand they are offering more services than your typical funding agency (planning to help with spin-outs, etc). Also being geographically close together and being near the valley all make sense from the POV of quickly pushing research from academia to industry.
- ethanbond 5y agoNSF/NIH are great funding sources but: overhead! Straight up less paperwork is a serious improvement.
- rackjack 5y agoAlso, budgeting instability due to political delays in the American government.
- Symmetry 5y agoGrant writing takes up, what, half of a PI's time typically? Reducing that would be huge.
- TigeriusKirk 5y agoFrom the blog on the Fast Grants program they did earlier- "57% of respondents told us that they spend more than one quarter of their time on grant applications." Also, "According to the NIH, a grant application will typically result in a decision after something between 200 and 600 days." The whole post is worth reading in light of this new announcement. https://future.a16z.com/what-we-learned-doing-fast-grants/ https://future.a16z.com/what-we-learned-doing-fast-grants/
- randomsearch 5y agoProfessors at top universities waste the majority of their time writing grant proposals.
- DantesKite 5y agoI'm almost sure they picked it because that region has a lot institutional power around CRISPR. And when you look at the people they hired, you'll find nearly everyone has dabbled with it. I expect a lot of the funding and research to be directed in those areas.