Money to fund serpent research is getting harder and harder to find. Research grants are few and far between, but scientists are starting to get creative when it comes to bringing in the dough. A process called crowdfunding may be the new avenue of securing research money. Crowdfunding works by funding projects through many small donations solicited over the internet. Currently, 50 scientists from around the globe are participating in the #SciFund Challenge, a project that has brought them together to raise research money through crowdfunding on the RocketHub website - http://scifund.rockethub.com. One participating scientist, a Ph.D. student named Bree Putman, is looking to get people interested in snakes and why we should study them. She is studying the predator-prey interactions between rattlesnakes and ground squirrels in California. She has used creative techniques (
check out her promotional video) to pique the interest of web surfers whom she hopes will fund her research. Check out her creative way of
raising money: …and support her research as fellow snake lovers.
