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

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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.