Halifax-based marine research network launches federally supported crowdfunding model for science

The Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), a Halifax-based not-for-profit organization, has launched a co-funding model for scientific research that combines crowdfunding and federal investment.

Called the Fathom Fund, the program asks researchers to raise the first 25% of costs through crowdfunding. Once this target has been achieved, MEOPAR, which is funded by the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence program, contributes the remaining 75%.

The first project to receive co-funding through the program is led by Vancouver-based scientist and social entrepreneur Dr. Nathan Vadeboncoeur. The project, “Coastal Pollution Mapper,” will test for and map pollution in Semiahmoo Bay, just south of White Rock, B.C. “We’re doing this project to support the federal reclassification of the area, so the Semiahmoo Bay First Nation can collect shellfish again as part of their traditional activities,” Vadeboncoeur says.

“As far as I’m aware, this is the first instance of a granting agency or an organization that grants research funds allowing the crowd to participate in that decision process,” Stefan Leslie, executive director of MEOPAR, told RE$EARCH MONEY.

Vadeboncoeur says the Fathom Fund was essential in getting the project going. “Tying in to this crowdfunded science model is a great way of creating grassroots projects that might get missed because they’re not aligned with the priorities of an academic research grant or a not-for-profit granting agency.”

Click here to watch a video on the Coastal Pollution Mapper project.

“I think it’s phenomenal, the idea of having crowdfunding come in and support local areas,” says Chief Harley Chappell of the Semiahmoo Bay First Nation, located on the bay just north of the B.C.-U.S. border. The small community hasn’t been able to harvest shellfish from its territorial waters since 1976, when the federal government closed the fishery due to contamination. Environmental conditions in the bay have improved since then, and the band is working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to try to reopen the fishery, Chappell says. “We’re invested in that, obviously, because we see the benefit for our children and our grandchildren to be able to harvest shellfish in our front yard.”

Keeping science honest and solving real problems

MEOPAR launched its Fathom Fund in December after Leslie got the idea while listening to a podcast featuring Perry Chen, principal founder of the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. “I was thinking about what MEOPAR does and how we could blend the idea and some of the benefits of crowdfunding with the benefits and advantages of research granting,” Leslie says.

The idea of crowdfunding scientific research isn’t new. Online platforms such as Kickstarter, experiment.com, Indiegogo and Microryza are used for this purpose. “But what is new, or what MEOPAR could add, was the integration of a granting group like us with the crowd,” Leslie notes. “It allows the crowd, including other potential funders and project partners, to directly participate in the selection of research that matters most to them. And it promotes an atmosphere or a mechanism for researchers to engage with the community.”

Vadeboncouer says that although a crowdfunding campaign is a lot of work, “it compels you to put out a message that resonates with people and it helps validate the research idea.” The co-funding model, he adds, “is a great way of building bridges and engaging people in science, and also keeping science honest and making sure that it solves real problems.”

Supporting the needs of a community

[rs_quote credit="Stefan Leslie" source="Executive Director of MEOPAR"]It allows the crowd, including other potential funders and project partners, to directly participate in the selection of research that matters most to them.[/rs_quote]

The “Coastal Pollution Mapper” project will develop and field-test two tools aimed at significantly reducing the cost of pollution testing. Vadeboncouer, who has a PhD in resource management and environmental science from the University of British Columbia, is president and founder of Smart Shores, a social enterprise that provides remote sensing and communications materials to support coastal management. He says that from a small business owner’s perspective, “MEOPAR’s funding made it possible to conduct research and develop a product that’s got a lot more social than economic benefit, while at the same time supporting the needs of a community.”

Eighty percent of the project’s crowdfunding of over $12,600 was contributed by not-for-profit groups and people with a direct interest in ensuring the health of Semiahmoo Bay and surrounding ecosystem, Vadeboncouer says. Project partners and collaborators include Ducks Unlimited, Friends of Semiahmoo Bay, Shared Waters Society, A Rocha, Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club, pollutiontracker.org, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, and Michael Smith Laboratories at UBC.

Model complements traditional research funding

MEOPAR’s Fathom Fund is open to any researcher with an academic partner and a marine research project proposal, Leslie says. “The best thing they can do is talk to us as they’re developing the idea, because we can provide them with assistance in shaping that idea in such a way that is going to best fit with this kind of model.”

Each proposal is evaluated by a MEOPAR research management committee to ensure the project’s quality, feasibility and fit with the agency’s mandate. Once approved, each researcher chooses his or her crowdfunding platform and, if the crowdfunding target is met, MEOPAR contributes the balance, representing 75% of the project cost, to a maximum $37,500 per project. MEOPAR has so far received two other applications for the Fathom Fund, for a project on the West Coast and another on the East Coast.

Leslie says the co-funding model fills a niche not met by other programs, especially for smaller and remote communities, including those in Northern Canada without institutions that are eligible to receive traditional federal research funding. If the model proves successful, and as the Networks of Centres of Excellence program comes to an end in 2022, there is strong potential for Fathom Fund to either become a separate organization or be adopted by other federally supported research granting groups, he says. “For us, this is not just about engaging with the communities on the research. It’s about engaging with others who are interested and would like to support research and possibly building another model to complement the much more sizeable, pre-existing research granting process.”

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