Workshop: The Role of Crowdfunding in the STEM Ecosystem; October 9-10, 2017, Alexandria, VA

研讨会：众筹在 STEM 生态系统中的作用；

• 批准号: 1745230
• 负责人: Morris Cohen
• 金额: $ 4.19万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1745230&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Workshop; Role; Crowdfunding; STEM; Ecosystem

Crowdfunding is an activity in which a project creator appeals to the public and solicit donations from a large pool of community members to support their project. Crowdfunding is now regularly used to support many kinds of endeavors, including art and film projects, journalism, charitable efforts, music and others. Most recently, crowdfunding became a novel way for scientists and engineers to support their research project. The proposed workshop will examine crowdfunding for science and engineering from various points of view. Scientists, the principals of the crowdfunding platforms, representatives of non-profits, private foundations and U.S.government agencies will share their perspective on crowdfunding for science. The workshop participants will represent demographic and geographic diversity of the research community. The workshop materials will be distributed through written report and the social media.Crowdfunding as a social phenomenon is being studied using a variety of approaches, from social anthropology to network science. On a practical side, a growing number of researchers emphasize interactions between the academia and the general public, as well as translation of STEM developments into societal benefits. Crowdfunding is growing in significance as one mechanism of supplementing the funding portfolios of researchers in academia and elsewhere. The main goal of this workshop will be describe the landscape of crowdfunding in the context of the changing science policy in the US. We will discuss the utility of crowdfunding as well as its potential pitfalls, which include, among others, the difficulty of making a strong and effective public pitch, possible lack of scientific validity of some of the pitches, as well as difficulties in public accountability of the crowdfunding projects. A report of the workshop will be generated and made publicly available. The report will have impact in the MCB-supported community but also beyond, since the themes and issues being discussed are broadly applicable across the entire STEM enterprise.

众筹是一种项目创建者向公众呼吁并从大量社区成员那里募集捐款以支持其项目的活动。众筹现在经常被用来支持各种各样的努力，包括艺术和电影项目，新闻，慈善事业，音乐和其他。最近，众筹成为科学家和工程师支持他们研究项目的一种新方式。拟议的研讨会将从各种角度审查科学和工程的众筹。科学家、众筹平台的负责人、非营利组织、私人基金会和美国政府机构的代表将分享他们对科学众筹的看法。研讨会的参与者将代表研究界的人口和地理多样性。研讨会的材料将通过书面报告和社交媒体分发。众筹作为一种社会现象正在使用各种方法进行研究，从社会人类学到网络科学。在实践方面，越来越多的研究人员强调学术界和公众之间的互动，以及将STEM发展转化为社会效益。众筹作为补充学术界和其他地方研究人员资金组合的一种机制，其重要性日益增加。本次研讨会的主要目标是描述在美国不断变化的科学政策背景下的众筹前景。我们将讨论众筹的效用及其潜在的陷阱，其中包括，除其他外，难以做出强有力和有效的公共宣传，一些宣传可能缺乏科学有效性，以及众筹项目的公共责任的困难。将编写研讨会报告并向公众提供。该报告将在MCB支持的社区中产生影响，而且还将超越，因为正在讨论的主题和问题广泛适用于整个STEM企业。