Historical story

Crowdfunded science projects in the Netherlands

Since the establishment of the first crowdfunding platform for scientists last year, more and more Dutch scientists have become fascinated by the possibility of having their projects sponsored by ordinary citizens. Which crowdfunded research projects are there now and how can the results influence your life?

We want RoboCop!

One of the best-known examples of successful crowdfunding – the (online) raising of funds from individuals and other non-government parties – is currently being made from bronze in Detroit. Thanks to the campaign Detroit Needs A Statue of RoboCop!, Set up by artists John Leanord and Jeffrey Paffendor via, among others, the American crowdfunding platform KickStart, $67,000 was raised within a week to make a bronze statue of Paul Verhoeven's action hero RoboCop.

And there are many other playful or funny projects that are sponsored by citizens or associations.

But crowdfunding is much more often used to sponsor projects that are serious (from the start). From art projects to charitable causes. Scientists are also increasingly discovering the 'power of crowdfunding'. Including in the Netherlands, where since the launch of Flintwave.com, Dutch scientists also have a website to advertise their projects to a wider audience in order to obtain crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding for science

That has already resulted in the necessary interesting projects, which - if they can continue thanks to sufficient sponsorship - could have a significant impact on society.

Take one of the first projects on Flintwave.com that involved research into the causes of hereditary heart muscle disease iDCM. Cardiologist Folkert Asselbergs, affiliated with UMC Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute, hopes to use crowdfunding to finance at least part of the research.

You can hear tumors!

And what about Wiendelt Steenbergen's project? Earlier this year, the Twente professor reported the project You can hear tumors to raise money for his research to detect breast cancer tumors using laser light and photoacoustics, instead of mammography (the X-ray method now used to screen for breast cancer).

“The research results were very promising, but when they trickled in, the research money was gone. Then we started thinking about crowdfunding. Early and accurate detection of breast cancer tumors is, after all, sorely needed, because the disease still makes many victims. Many women also experience the current breast cancer detection methods as painful, because the breast has to be compressed; our method is pain-free,” he explains his mission.

It is now clear that the research meets a need. The Steenbergen team is now one of the three remaining candidates for the Annual Academic Prize of € 100,000 that will be awarded on October 23 and, linked to this, for the NWQ public award of € 5000. The project has also been nominated for the De Herman Wijffels Innovation Prize.

An effect that Flintwave founder David van Hartskamp often sees. “Crowdfunding is often just one small part of a larger whole. Scientists who have started a crowdfunding project often find new collaboration partners, sponsors, grants and media attention.”

Need a new pair of ears? On to the 3D printer!

Ernst Jan Bos of the VU Medical Center is also looking for crowdfunding to give medical science a boost by means of new technology. His dream? Using the rapidly emerging 3D printing technology to print individual ears from a suitable liquid, in order to facilitate home transplants after, for example, facial burns.

Ernst Jan Bos about printing new ears

But there are also plenty of non-medical studies that have successfully gained crowdfunding, thanks to Flintwave.com and other channels.

1001 women

A good example was the 1001 women project. Under the editorship of Elk Kloek, more than 300 authors portrayed 1001 remarkable, infamous or otherwise high-profile women from Dutch history, the majority of whom had never made it into the history books. This is because for a long time the historiography focused mainly on men.

In exchange for their donations, donors received the book for free. The fact that the book was also appreciated outside this circle is evident from the fact that it has now been nominated for the 2013 Libris History Prize 2013, intended for historical books that appeal to a general audience.

North Pole

Sustainability can also be an important drive. Polar researcher Maarten Loonen reported the project Expedition NL, Science at the North Pole to Flintwave.com for crowdfunding. His goal? Fundraising for an expedition to Edgeøya to investigate the influence of human activity on the Arctic ecosystem.

But crowdfunding is about much more than just donations.

Science outreach

Besides the fact that scientific research projects with a high social relevance that might otherwise not have been realized thanks to crowdfunding, crowdfunding can also lead to scientists communicating more clearly and more often with 'the common man.'

As a result, there is less and less room for the infamous ivory towers and to communicate in jargon, argues biologist and founder of SciFund Challenge Jai Ranganathan in Scientific American.

Delia de Vreeze, Head of Alumni Relations &Funds Department at Wageningen University, who researched the motivations of philanthropists to sponsor university research, confirms this trend.

“Citizens are willing to pay something for science – provided they understand the importance of it, they do want to feel that their contribution matters. The scientist must therefore be able to communicate clearly and accessible about his project," she recently said during the first professional conference for science communication in Rotterdam.

Bye, bye 'pure' science?

But doesn't all this emphasis on social importance lead to a situation in which scientific projects that primarily revolve around expanding knowledge and less about social relevance will automatically fall outside the crowdfunding boat?

Fortunately, that doesn't seem to necessarily have to be the case.

For example, the Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva receives many millions of donations from private individuals and other non-government parties, who enthusiastically sponsor CERN's quest for the origin of the universe through a simulation of the Big Bang. For its part, CERN regularly opens its doors to the public and also provides a special public center to keep the world informed about what is happening in the particle accelerators in its underground tunnels.

Friends with benefits

The public need not be the only one who can benefit from more intensive communication between scientists and the public. “I was positively surprised at how many academic benefits it can have to be in close contact with non-scientists,” said Mark Dingemanse, affiliated with the German Max Planck Institute, at the first science communication conference.

Dingemanse keeps the common man informed about his research into African languages ​​through his web blog The Ideophone, now sponsored by the NWO. “You really get so much in return. From better insights because laymen can sometimes ask very different, sharp questions, because they have a different perspective on your subject, to indirect benefits.” An example of the latter, in Dingemanse's case, was a commentary sent to a newspaper, which "finally appeared in the well-known scientific magazine Science landed.”

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