endnote
Crowdfunding Art, Science and Technology A Quick Survey of the Burgeoning New Landscape
As is widely known, the number and scope of tradi- and the University of Edinburgh’s partnership with the tional funding sources for art and research have been de- Scottish platform ShareIn. In consequence a valuable ele- clining over the past decade. Fortunately, a new, dynamic ment of Research-ACf has been observed: The focus shifts player on the field, crowdfunding, is growing exponen- perceptibly from outcomes to process. tially in international market size and strength. Universities engaging in Research-ACf have generally Crowdfunding is the innovative use of the Internet and pursued one of three methodologies [1]: social media to fund endeavors through the receipt of small monies from large numbers of people. It has proven First: Faculty members utilize the same partner pages notably successful, especially for specific industries and used for student projects (e.g. MIT Media Lab and artistic endeavors such as gaming, tech innovation and Wharton). film. The largest international portals include (U.S.-based) Second: The university enters a set agreement with Kickstarter and Indiegogo and (U.K.-based) CrowdCube. the portal for the Research-ACf effort—an arrangement Independent research firms (e.g. U.C. Berkeley’s Fung more refined than the partner page option (e.g. Experi- Institute) estimated that the crowdfunding market ranges ment’s partnerships with Tulane and the University of from US$4 to $5 billion as of the end of 2013. Washington). The art-science-technology community should take Third (the most common methodology): The univer- note: The majority of those billions funded artistic sity hosts a private crowdfunding portal for its students/ endeavors (films, music, etc.), tech innovations (3D print- faculty, often using white-label software such as Scale ers, mobile phone accessories, etc.) and software launches Funder, USEED or Launcht (e.g. University of Cali- (games, apps, etc.). fornia, MIT, Colorado State University, Arizona State Given that a significant portion of successful crowdfund- University, Cornell and the University of Virginia). ing has originated with higher-education students, many universities now encourage, if not facilitate, some form Regardless of which method is implemented for of crowdfunding. This academic crowdfunding (ACf) is Research-ACf, the mission will commonly fall within one primarily achieved via curated/partner pages for the uni- of three categories: (1) funding full experiments/research versities on portals such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Over endeavors; (2) purchasing equipment/software; or 50 colleges and universities worldwide have such pages, (3) supplementing existing studies (e.g. Priscilla Cacola’s including MIT, Columbia, Stanford, Duke and the Uni- 2013 campaign at the University of Texas-Arlington uti- versity of Edinburgh. lized the Experiment portal to raise approximately $3,000 Furthermore, ACf is now making a strong appearance toward her Developmental Motor Cognition Lab). in faculty research funding. In the United States, leading Finally, an important synergistic benefit for academic portals for academic research crowdfunding (Research- and art crowdfunding arises in the amounts sought. ACf) include Experiment, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Industry opinion advises capping typical campaigns at Rockethub. Non-U.S. universities are also moving to $10,000. This appears optimal for Research-ACf, accord- integrate Research-ACf, as in Melbourne’s Deakin Uni- ing to a recent study: “$10,000 per fundraising campaign versity’s partnership with the Australian platform Pozible [is] an ideal amount for funding a pilot study, purchasing
104 LEONARDO, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 104–105, 2015 doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00813 ©2015 ISAST
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References and Notes 1 These methodologies are explored in greater depth at
Endnote 105
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