• Question: how do you finance your scientific discoveries and research?

    Asked by sluglife to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 6 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      In the past I’ve applied for research grants, stipends and travel grants that enabled me to, for example, do my phd, buy books and equipment, attend conferences, etc. Acquiring research money is difficult, competition is tough, and on occasions I’ve had to pay for things from my salary. At the moment, I’m funded by a large ERC (European Research Council) research grant that was awarded to my supervisor, which is great.

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Mostly through grants thankfully! When I applied for my PhD I was lucky enough to be awarded a Vice Chancellors (VC) Scholarship through the university which meant the university cover my course fees and pay me a stipend. I have also been financially supported by the university which enabled me to purchase recording equipment. In addition to that I was fortunate enough to gain a travel Bursary from Santander to help cover the cost of travel to my study zoos and also accommodation. To attend conferences I usually try and apply for small grants to allow me to attend. The trouble is everything soon mounts up and it is hard to do everything without financial support. I previously worked on a project which was funded by Defra (UK government).

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      I have to be quite crafty because the institute I work at isn’t eligible for a lot of the big grants that are out there. I can usually come up with a way to run research for very little money but you have to get people to understand how important your work is and why they should help.

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      The nice thing about animal behaviour research is that it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money – we don’t always need expensive machines that go “beep!”
      If I want to record birds and analyse their songs and behaviour all I need is a microphone, a recorder and some binoculars. Oh, and maybe a pencil and paper. Travel is the most expensive item, if I need to go a long way away.
      If I want to someone to do a job for me then I need money – and this is difficult to get! You can apply for a grant from the government Research Councils and private charities, but they are very difficult to get as lots of people apply.

    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      As described by Ines and Ellen and others, grants are the regular forms of getting the funds. In conservation, however, the funding can be quite irregular and limited.

      Another source would be philanthropic, where people donate, sometimes the funds come from wealthy persons who want to do good for conservation or by anyone, as in crowd funding. Many projects obtained donations from the public after showcasing the importance of particular species or habitats for the world or the locals depending on the species or habitats.

      Here’s an example
      http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/borneo-lake-restoration-programme

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