I have seen several posts about microgrants for hosting events, but I do not see any related to doing open science (hardware) research and development. How effective are microgrants at progressing open science research and open science hardware development? In this context, I am considering $250 to $1000 USD to be microgrant size.
2 Likes
In 2022, we launched the “GOSH 2022 Collaborative Development Program”:
Phase 1 funding breakdown:
- New Project Track: Up to USD 2,000 per project, for up to five projects (up to USD 10,000 awarded in total).
- Established Project Track: Up to USD 4,600 per project, for a total of up to five projects (up to USD 23,000 awarded in total)
Phase 2 funding breakdown:
- New Project Track: Up to three projects from Phase 1 will be approved for Phase 2 funding based on progress evidenced by submitting an interim report. Up to USD 7,600 per project, for up to three projects (up to USD 23,000 awarded in total).
- Established Project Track: Up to three projects from Phase 1 will be approved for Phase 2 funding based on progress evidenced by submitting an interim report. Up to USD 18,000 per project, for up to three projects (up to USD 54,000 awarded in total).
Experiment.com also launched a program called Low-Cost Tools for Science, where some projects that GOSH funded also got some funding.
From my perspective:
- The microgrants can be helpful if the OSH is not a side project (your team already has a salary) and the team has good technical expertise.
- The microgrants usually work well in the Global North. Supply chain, regulations, and economic context widely vary in the Global South, increasing the cost of the components/reagents on average.
5 Likes
To add additional resources to finding resources for micro grants, you should look into Eire Ventures ($500), Bagel Funds ($500), and 1517 Fund Medici Grant ($1000).
From personal experience, I think a major benefit from these micro grants (besides getting the money to support your work) is you’ll hone in on your mission/motivation for building the open-source projects. Plus, you’ll talk to interesting people and join a community specific to the micro grant where you can connect with more like-minded individuals.
2 Likes
Realizing this is 6 months old, a single grant $250 to $1,000 right now would be enabling to finish up a photon tagging system and MCA with 30 psec resolution.
For those who are not familiar wit this, this is how you measure fluorescence lifetimes and also how you study phenomena involving quantum statistics. A micro-grant in this case, would make that capability accessible to researchers with out of pocket level of funding.
1 Like
a single grant $250 to $1,000 right now would be enabling to finish up a photon tagging system and MCA with 30 psec resolution.
So even at the $250 level, it would allow the hardware design to be finalized and released so that it could be replicated? Is the design already available in a repository anywhere?
@biomakers_lab Is GOSH still interested in being a hub for this type of micro grant funding for OScH projects?
1 Like
Hi,
$250 could be enough to make a few boards and verify the design.
1 Like
I think that small grants are a great way of identifying projects and teams with the ability and potential to develop them. The CDP had great things in this aspect: two stages of funding, for two categories of projects.
The “microgrants for events” were also nice, they got my alma mater their first set of PocketPCRs (the first of anything OSH really).
As a disclaimer: I am biased by - and thankful for - the wonderful experiences that GOSH’s grants have funded. I would never have reached this stage were not for them (see https://docs.openlabautomata.xyz/).
Also, there are few financial incentives for documentation, translations, making the visual identity nice, social media posting, or supporting the development of an exploratory idea that one simply does not have the funds for. Perhaps some developers would publish their work if someone offered a little “push” to document them.
There are many more ways in which microgrants for osh could work well. They will all surely require substantial evaluation and follow up work (which can be crowdsourced to an extent).
I agree, and would add a small distinction: also because of this, a small grant under heavy resource constraints can be more meaningful for a team.
1 Like
The front end, pulse shaping, amplifier and discriminator, is a circuit we have been using for a while. Interfacing it to the TDC and writing the code for an MCA are the new parts. But we have some experience with all of this.
We feel we should build and verify the first unit ourselves before we post the circuit.
So… anybody ready to contribute some small funds towards protyping an affordable photon tagging system with firmware/software MCA?