5. Financing a science shop
5.1 How can a science shop be financed?
5.2 Can we accept sponsorships?
5.3 How can we find funding for our projects?
5.4 How much do we charge our clients?
To the general overview of
Frequently Asked Questions
5.1 How can a science shop be financed?
Science
shops have different sources of funding, depending on
the local situation. In SCIPAS
report 1 you will find additional information
University
funded:
The most readily sustainable model of a science shop has
the universities provide direct financial support. The
Science Shop staff can be dedicated science shop staff
or can be scientific staff, who are conducting part of
their teaching and research in the science shop. The
project research is carried out
either by students for free as part of their
education, by the supervisors as part of their ordinary
work or by the science shop staff. The students are
supervised by academic staff or by science shop staff.
Examples:
- In
The Netherlands, science shops are funded fully by
their universities. There is no legal obligation to
do so, but universities generally mention raising
social awareness of students, regional image
responsibility (or image), practical education
(problem-based learning) and a way of obtaining
interesting research topics. The funding varies:
from 0.8 fulltime job to 12 fulltime jobs per
university; also the material/research budget ranges
from only basic office costs to a few hundreds of
thousands euros to have research done.
- In
The United Kingdom, some science shops are registered charities. In this way the
Northern Ireland Science Shop obtains funding for
one job from the National Lottery. The remaining
costs are covered by both Northern Irish
Universities
- In
Romania, science shops were started with Dutch
seed-funding (a project funded by the Dutch Ministry
of Foreign Affairs through their Matra
Programme. This funding source may be
applicable to other countries in Central and Eastern
Europe, and even Northern Africa/Middle East in the
near future. Also other governments might have
similar funding programmes.
- In
Romania, people and companies are allowed to give
one per cent of their taxes to an NGO (see
also FAQ 5.2). The National Science Shop Network in
Romania and those science shops that have an NGO
status are thus eligible to receive this funding;
other Romanian Science Shops can use the National
Network as intermediary to receive funding (with10%
overhead charge to cover costs). So, all science
shops can approach companies and individuals for
donations.
- Sometimes,
staff can be allowed to work part of their time for
a science shop. This means that they can no longer
do other tasks that they did previously, but also
there is no need of additional funding.
- If
funding is difficult, the science shop may be run by
students (see FAQ 4.3)
Part-funding
by university:
Non-university
funded:
Social
entrepreneurship:
Some
Science Shops, particularly those independent of
universities, act as social entrepreneurs supporting
socially beneficial research activity with NGOs by means
of staff conducting profitable research or other
activities with organisations and funding agencies which
can pay market costs. This model could also be developed
in universities, with Science Shops being part of
research centres where again profits from research
conducted on a commercial basis are used to support the
socially beneficial scientific research of Science Shops
and the day-to-day work operation of the Science Shop.
The
Science Shop Bonn finances its activities from doing
labour-market projects; from the overhead on these
projects and additional project funding they are able to
do research and consultancy for civil society.
In
general:
Co-funding
with NGOs for research and evaluation:
Science shops could be involved with NGOs when the latter are
making application for external funding by having
science shop research written in to the bid to provide
evidence on monitoring and evaluation of services. For
funders this would ensure an independent scientific
assessment as part of the bid, which is likely to work
out to be less expensive than a fully commercial
research and evaluation service. This model is most
likely to develop when there is a long-term relationship
between a Science Shop and a specific NGO.
Studentships
and research grants:
A
further model would provide dedicated studentships and
grants for Masters or Doctorate level students or
researchers in science shops, who would then choose the
most scientifically relevant issues to research. If this
model could be supplemented with basic funding for the
day-to-day work in a science shop it could in the case
of PhD studentships enable sustained research in one
area over a period of years.
5.2 Can we accept sponsorships?
Sponsorship can be helpful, but be aware of your independence (which does not answer this question beyond your own thoughts, sorry…).
5.3 How can we find funding for projects?
If you have to look for funding for individual projects this will most likely cause delays. However, if you have a lack of core-funding you are forced to do so. You can choose whether you or the client (or together) will submit a request for funding; rules for financing public institutes or NGOs are usually different, they have access to different sources.
You can look for charities, which quite often have a large scope of funding projects in which the focus is on action rather than research.
Government grants are usually well suited for research into social issues (e.g. environment, health). Websites offer a great amount of information. -Scientific research grants are also possible, e.g. from Research Councils for Applied Sciences. Usually these projects are quite big and success rate of application varies. Also, most often, matching of funding is required.
The European
Commission finances projects through their DG Research
(for open calls see www.cordis.lu). Of special interest
is their Science
and Society Program.
This program usually funds 100% of the costs, no
matching is required. Some information on new calls is
also send on the Living Knowledge
list
There are also
funding options from other European Commission
Directorates.
In Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council fund Community University Research Alliances/Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. These are co-operative projects submitted by both community organisations and research institutes, who are given research funding for a period of 3-5 year, at a magnitude of 100.000 Can$ per year.
The Living Knowledge network links a wide variety of organisations dealing with community based research. You can use this list to express your interest in research projects and research co-operation and to find partners (and/or funding) for projects.
5.4 How much do we charge our clients?
In general, science shops try to make their services available without financial threshold. This means that you can assess on a case by case basis if the client can come up with some of the cost (or can get subsidies for the research). The Science Shops of Utrecht University use a schedule to calculate what project costs will be charged to the client and what cost will not be charged. Costs to be charged will depend on a.o. type of client, type of research question and whether the project can be carried out in the curriculum or not.
