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If you're interested in doing research without an affiliation, I'm building up a network of collaborators for open research. Have a ton of interesting problems

by Blahah 13y ago

If you're interested in doing research without an affiliation, I'm building up a network of collaborators for open research. Have a ton of interesting problems around bioinformatics and computational biology. I've put a couple on http://solvers.io http://solvers.io, but if you just want to chat drop me an email.

jessriedel 13y ago
Does no affiliation generally translate to no funding? In my experience in physics, the lack of affiliation per se isn't a terrible barrier. All papers since 1992 are available for free on the arXiv, and journal editors actually make a pretty honest effort to evaluate unaffiliated authors based on the merits of the manuscript. (Of course, most unaffiliated submissions are of low quality, so it's hard to avoid a bit of prior probability slanted against them.) Funding seems pretty impossible if you're unaffiliated, though.
- Blahah 13y ago
  Funding is harder if you're unaffiliated - unless you collaborate with people in academia. There are more ways to do this opening up though, crowd funding (http://experiment.com http://experiment.com) for example.
  - argv_empty 13y ago
    How common is it for experiment.com funding to include labor? Most of the projects I checked look like they're just covering equipment and travel, and that's not going to be enough to work on the project full time.
- mjn 13y ago
  > Funding seems pretty impossible if you're unaffiliated, though. In CS (I am unfamiliar with other areas), I'll agree that the really big grants usually go to academic institutions, big defense contractors, or consortia of the two. But there are pretty decent funds set aside specifically for small businesses, using funds that Congress has earmarked to the National Science Foundation exclusively for such a purpose. Last I saw, the success rate for applying for such funds (in terms of % of applications successfully funded) was actually higher than for academic applicants, though the total awards are smaller. You do have to convince a funder that your independent research organization is serious and capable of delivering research. But if you can do so, in the U.S. there are two NSF programs specifically targeting research money towards small businesses. The first is the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTP). This requires two organizations, with a small business and an academic institution submitting a joint proposal. They propose a plan for taking current academic results and turning them into viable products that will support a small business. The idea is to give money that will enable the academia-industry barrier to be crossed, with one partner on each side who explains why they are a good team for making the crossing happen. The second is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which small business can apply solo to. This funds activities that take place wholly in the private sector, but present a credible research plan that the evaluators consider to have a high likelihood of producing scientifically interesting results.

by Blahah 13y ago

jessriedel 13y ago

Does no affiliation generally translate to no funding? In my experience in physics, the lack of affiliation per se isn't a terrible barrier. All papers since 1992 are available for free on the arXiv, and journal editors actually make a pretty honest effort to evaluate unaffiliated authors based on the merits of the manuscript. (Of course, most unaffiliated submissions are of low quality, so it's hard to avoid a bit of prior probability slanted against them.) Funding seems pretty impossible if you're unaffiliated, though.

Blahah 13y ago
Funding is harder if you're unaffiliated - unless you collaborate with people in academia. There are more ways to do this opening up though, crowd funding (http://experiment.com http://experiment.com) for example.
- argv_empty 13y ago
  How common is it for experiment.com funding to include labor? Most of the projects I checked look like they're just covering equipment and travel, and that's not going to be enough to work on the project full time.
mjn 13y ago
> Funding seems pretty impossible if you're unaffiliated, though. In CS (I am unfamiliar with other areas), I'll agree that the really big grants usually go to academic institutions, big defense contractors, or consortia of the two. But there are pretty decent funds set aside specifically for small businesses, using funds that Congress has earmarked to the National Science Foundation exclusively for such a purpose. Last I saw, the success rate for applying for such funds (in terms of % of applications successfully funded) was actually higher than for academic applicants, though the total awards are smaller. You do have to convince a funder that your independent research organization is serious and capable of delivering research. But if you can do so, in the U.S. there are two NSF programs specifically targeting research money towards small businesses. The first is the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTP). This requires two organizations, with a small business and an academic institution submitting a joint proposal. They propose a plan for taking current academic results and turning them into viable products that will support a small business. The idea is to give money that will enable the academia-industry barrier to be crossed, with one partner on each side who explains why they are a good team for making the crossing happen. The second is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which small business can apply solo to. This funds activities that take place wholly in the private sector, but present a credible research plan that the evaluators consider to have a high likelihood of producing scientifically interesting results.