Longecity Soliciting Project Proposals for 2012 Funding Cycle
Longecity has funded modest scientific projects relating to longevity and aging for a few years now, raising funds through many modest donations from the community - efforts that predate the present crop of crowdfunding sites for scientific research, largely modeled after Kickstarter. Past Longecity projects include a study on laser ablation of lipofuscin, and a test of transplanting microglia into the brains of aging mice. These projects are generally funding for less than $20,000 - one of the noteworthy results of the ongoing biotechnology revolution is that significant small projects can be accomplished at this sort of funding level.
I note that the Longecity volunteers are seeking proposals for new projects to fund in the next cycle this year:
LongeCity continues its proud tradition to support small-scale, high-impact life extension research in 2012. (For a review from 2011 see here).Projects should:
- aim to make a scientific contribution to the extension of the human lifespan
- be applied research or basic research with some potential for applied development
- present short updates for LongeCity Members with interim data, photos from the facility etc at agreed intervals
- be led or overseen by a person with a postgraduate qualification in the relevant field or by a person with demonstrable equivalent experience
- have a flexible project structure that can be adjusted according to the amount of money raised
- be small in scale - one or two key workers
- be short in duration - approx 6 months maximum
- not be confidential. LongeCity will expect open and public presentation and discussion of research results. However, confidentiality will be accepted where a manuscript or patent is in preparation.
LongeCity will be able to support a project with a minimum of $2000 and up to $8000, subject to matching by other donors. LongeCity will launch a call for matching donations and every donation generated in that call will go towards the project budget (Thus projects can have a total budget of $4000 - $16,000).
Interested parties should send:
- a project outline of no more than 800 words written in lay language (can be supported by up to 10 literature references)
- a curriculum vitae of the project leader
to research@longecity.org.
Initial Deadline: August 31st 2012!
The 2011 review of funded projects is well worth reading. Not everything runs smoothly, and to the credit of the Longecity team they are open on the shortfalls as well as the successes. Crowdfunding science and organization of projects at these levels of funding can be a challenge, as no-one has the exact recipe for success - but as demonstrated by the present greater interest in science and community funding, it clearly has a role in the future. Advocacy organizations with an interest in specific branches of science, such as the development of ways to slow and reverse aging, should definitely be getting involved in this area. Only by forging ahead can the best practices and methodologies be developed.