I was thinking about this the other day, it would be nice if we figured out a way to connect professors with independent researchers in some way. There’s a lot of grants that independent researchers can’t get, but professors can (https://cset.georgetown.edu/foundational-research-grants/). Plus, it would provide some mentorship to newer independent researchers. Not sure how this would be possible, though. Or if most professors who are interested are already feeling at capacity.
My guess would be they’re mostly at capacity in terms of mentorship, otherwise they’d presumably just admit more PhD students. Also not sure they’d want to play grantmaker (and I could imagine that would also be really hard from a regulatory perspective—spending money from grants that go through the university can come with a lot of bureaucracy, and you can’t just do whatever you want with that money).
Connecting people who want to give money with non-profits, grantmakers, or independent researchers who could use it seems much lower-hanging fruit. (Though I don’t know any specifics about who these people who want to donate are and whether they’d be open to giving money to non-academics.)
I was thinking about this the other day, it would be nice if we figured out a way to connect professors with independent researchers in some way. There’s a lot of grants that independent researchers can’t get, but professors can (https://cset.georgetown.edu/foundational-research-grants/). Plus, it would provide some mentorship to newer independent researchers. Not sure how this would be possible, though. Or if most professors who are interested are already feeling at capacity.
My guess would be they’re mostly at capacity in terms of mentorship, otherwise they’d presumably just admit more PhD students. Also not sure they’d want to play grantmaker (and I could imagine that would also be really hard from a regulatory perspective—spending money from grants that go through the university can come with a lot of bureaucracy, and you can’t just do whatever you want with that money).
Connecting people who want to give money with non-profits, grantmakers, or independent researchers who could use it seems much lower-hanging fruit. (Though I don’t know any specifics about who these people who want to donate are and whether they’d be open to giving money to non-academics.)