Ph.D. Marine Sciences Student Quoted in Motherboard Article on Research Funding
Motherboard spoke with Katherine Thompson, a Ph.D. marine science student at the University of Maine, for an article about the challenges researchers face with the current scientific funding system. According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, 4 percent of the 2015 U.S. federal budget was appropriated for scientific research, compared to 10 percent in 1968. Thompson is studying the effects of changing water temperature on northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine, and she is using Instrumentl, a scientific research crowdfunding site, to raise money for her research, according to the article. “The thought was that maybe this could give me some short-term, not-too-distant future funding to get supplies so I can obtain preliminary results to strengthen our grant proposals. Anything would help at this point,” Thompson said.