People power

摘要

Researchers are starting to turn to crowd-funding as a way to support their work, says Simon Vincent, head of personal awards and training at Cancer Research UK in London. At the 20 September Naturejobs Career Expo in London, Vincent said that in a lean funding environment, seeking donors can be easier than navigating the grant-application process. "There's no peer review or middlemen," he told conference attendees. "If you have a good idea and can convince enough people, you get the money'' But Vincent warned that crowd-funding - seeking funds through the online community - also has downsides. Traditional research-grant peer review provides quality control, a reality check and a way to hone and refine an idea, and the interaction with the funder can provide links to large, established networks in the scientific community.