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

众筹是一种活动，项目创建者向公众呼吁，并从大量社区成员中征求捐款来支持他们的项目。众筹现在经常用于支持各种各样的事业，包括艺术和电影项目、新闻、慈善活动、音乐等。最近，众筹成为科学家和工程师支持他们的研究项目的一种新方式。本次研讨会将从多个角度探讨科学和工程领域的众筹。科学家、众筹平台负责人、非营利组织代表、私人基金会和美国政府机构将分享他们对科学众筹的看法。讲习班的参加者将代表研究界的人口和地理多样性。工作坊材料将通过书面报告和社交媒体进行分发。从社会人类学到网络科学，众筹作为一种社会现象正在用各种方法进行研究。在实践方面，越来越多的研究人员强调学术界与公众之间的互动，以及将STEM发展转化为社会效益。众筹作为一种补充学术界和其他领域研究人员资金组合的机制，其重要性正在日益增强。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众筹的前景。我们将讨论众筹的效用及其潜在的缺陷，其中包括难以进行有力而有效的公开宣传，某些宣传可能缺乏科学有效性，以及众筹项目在公共问责方面的困难。将编写一份讲习班的报告并向公众提供。该报告将对mcb支持的社区产生影响，但也会产生影响，因为所讨论的主题和问题广泛适用于整个STEM企业。

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.