Zhenguo Zhang's Blog
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Science without (applying for) funds

Nowdays, scientific research is often done at institutions such as universities and companies.

A fact is that research often costs a lot of money and research results mostly don’t generate profit. Therefore, researchers often suffer the lack of research funds, especially recent years.

I often ponder how research can be sustainable and whether one can do research with applying for funds.

I happened to find Dr. Robert C. Edgar’s web page today when I search literature. His experience is astounding: he earned Ph.D, founded business, and now is an independent scientist. His programs such as MUSCLE and USEARCH have made a huge impact in computational biology.

I like this mode of research – independent research without attaching to an institution. With fast growing data in all fields, it is possible that one day scientists will be retail vendors for solving problems and use profit to support more research – a sustainable mode. Wow!!


Last modified on 2018-07-30

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