Crowdfunding for research dollars: a cure for science’s ills? - from Scientific American blog

Scientists – and science generally – are in a moment of crisis on multiple fronts. The gap between science and society has grown to a chasm, with disastrous consequences for issue after issue. For example, just last month, Tennessee passed legislation permitting creation “science” into classrooms. On another front, the concern of Americans about global warming has dramatically declined over the past decade, despite the scientific consensus on the clear and present danger caused by climate change.



But science illiteracy in the general public isn’t the only crisis in science. Funding for research is becoming increasingly unattainable, with funding rates at their lowest levels in a decade at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the two most important American science agencies (see here and here for details). The situation in many other nations is no better. In Spain, for example, science spending by the central government has fallen by 20% since 2009. Even worse, research funding from traditional sources will likely be even harder to come by in the years to come due to ongoing economic instability around the world.

The solution
The public disengagement with science and the difficulty of funding research are very different problems. Unexpectedly though...

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/05/23/crowdfunding-for-research-dollars-a-cure-for-sciences-ills/

New Law Raises Funding Hopes For Startups, Worries Over Fraud

Please see article/audio from NPR.ORG
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/03/29/149620312/new-law-raises-funding-hopes-for-startups-worries-over-fraud

The Jobs Act would clear the way for new companies to advertise that they're looking for investors, and it would let anyone invest in privately held businesses, making it a lot easier for startups like Space Monkey to raise money and for new sites like AngelList to get off the ground.

Business

National Trend 'Mobs' Local Businesses With Cash WBFO

The new law also opens the door to online crowd-funding sites where startups can strut their stuff and jockey for small investors' attention. Dozens of entrepreneurs, like Sara Hanks, see a big opportunity in that. But as a securities lawyer, Hanks is also skeptical.
"I think we can expect to see the African princes inventing cold fusion any second now," she says. "Wherever there's money, there's going to be fraud. I think we have to stipulate that up front."
Hanks is the former general counsel for the congressional oversight panel charged with keeping an eye on the federal banking bailout, so she knows a thing or two about financial shenanigans.
But that's not stopping her from launching her own online crowd-funding portal. Unlike most of her potential future competitors, her plan is to hire securities lawyers to sift through the startups that want to raise money on her site and weed out the crooks. Still, none of those companies will be a sure thing.

ACA, JOBS Act, National health info, Crowdfunding and the Healthcare Market

HealthWorks Collective - The world's best thinkers on healthcare

Affordable Care Act Hits Two-Year Mark

Last week marked the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). With heightened focus on the ACA continuing this week, especially on the individual mandate, it’s important to take a step back and understand the strides that ...

PharmTech Talk

JOBS Act Passage—A Boost for Biopharma?

Amid one of the most divisive eras in our nation’s political history, one thing we can all pretty much agree on is the fact that our stalled economic engine needs a jumpstart. According to recent *data* from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ...

American Medical News

National health information network soon will stand on its own

Health care organizations and federal agencies that piloted a data exchange say it’s ready to separate from the government.

How Crowdfunding Affects the Healthcare Market, and Your Walletfrom HealthWorks Collective - The world's best thinkers on healthcare by HerinaAyot

Crowdfunding may have an interesting effect on the healthcare space. Unlike technology, entertainment, retail and other sectors, novel medical technologies and therapeutics take years of pre-development, and require institutional manpower to further growth. Thus, most biotech and pharma companies do not consider their early-stage investors to be the general public, and only in certain cases are they in a position to raise ‘quick capital’ at this juncture.