The survey that Liz talked about above is now live! We are now ranking funding ideas, and looking for new funding ideas!
Use this Wiki Survey link to rank the ideas. The link will take you to a page where ideas will be shown two at a time. Each time, you choose the idea you think is more useful for GOSH achieving its Roadmap. This will generate a prioritized list visible to everyone. You can also submit your own ideas by filling out the “add your own idea here…” box.
Funding ideas we have so far are described in fuller detail below. If you add an idea to the Wiki Survey, please also add it to this thread, in a similar format to that below. Please indicate how much money (in USD or as a percentage of the budget) you think should be allocated to the idea.
The survey will close on September 14.
Using the results of the Wiki survey, the council will make a recommendation to the Open Science Hardware Foundation (formerly GOSH, Inc) on funding areas and amounts for the next year, which they in turn will use in their discussions with the Sloan Foundation.
The ideas so far
Funding for infrastructure (Tools, Machineries, Community Lab setup, etc)
Provide funding for infrastructure for local labs and makerspaces. Infrastructure includes tools such as 3D printers, pcb milling machines and laser cutters, but not limited to. Could include requests for funding up to $10,000. This funding should not be distributed to a single person but rather should be communally operated and/or managed, and communities/labs should be custodians of this infrastructure.
Regional Event Funding
Largely the same as what it is now, the GOSH Regional Events Funding program is for groups that want to host an event, workshop, conference, or get-together aimed at supporting open science hardware. There are typically three funding tiers available, USD $9910, $6000, or $3000.
Fund existing projects that have the potential to be ubiquitous in their area of science
Fund existing projects that can demonstrate potential for ubiquity in its field. It’s like finding an open source and taking it to a commercial level of polish and performance that it completely dominates the market, achieving ubiquity in one area of science. This would entail funding of several tens of thousands of USD over a year or more.
Intro or beginner-level science hardware workshops/classes/events
The idea behind this is to provide microgrants (a few hundred USD) requiring very little review to provide short introductory courses on science and science education. The intent is to cheaply spread the seeds of science education without strong expectations of success.
Global Event Funding
Funding for the next Gathering, an event convening the global open science hardware community. The purpose of the Gatherings is to work on deliverables set out by the GOSH Roadmap and to help make OScH ubiquitous by 2025. The budget for the Global event is around $100,000 (depending on the location being selected to host the event).
Collaborative Development Funding
The GOSH Collaborative Development Program is for organizations and groups working on existing or new open science hardware projects, with the aim of building collaboration with industry experts, groups, and organizations. This program funds new and existing projects in two phases. In the past, a total of $77,000 USD was allocated to established projects and $33,000 USD was allocated to new projects.
