Access to research funding is a pivotal factor in healthcare research, but traditional models often struggle to meet the demands of complex, long-term studies while remaining neutral. Corporate funding, for example, has one hand in deep pockets, but the other holds the strings that steer findings toward biased outcomes or suppressed results.
Other sources, such as government grants, institutional budgets, and philanthropic donations, are invaluable and welcomed by researchers. However, these funds are frequently tied up by bureaucratic red tape, geographical restrictions, and funding cuts, which hinder sustained progress. These limitations are painfully evident in crucial fields like pediatric cancer research, where despite the devastating impact it has on families, the rare diagnoses and small patient populations mean that it is largely overlooked.
This widespread inability of existing systems to provide consistent and adequate funding leaves researchers navigating a maze blindfolded, trying to get crucial research finalized. They try to create treatments for those who need them most, while constantly responding to bureaucratic hurdles thrown in their path. In fact, it’s believed that researchers spend 50% of their time applying for research funding. Instead of spending their time doing this, researchers could be getting on with other things — like, you know, breakthrough medical advancements. The funding process is ineffective and slow, further damaging an already damaged healthcare system.
Enter DeSci.
DeSci to the Rescue
Unless you’re a big fan of Web3 and decentralized blockchain technology, you could get a free pass for not knowing what DeSci is yet. However, chances are you will soon, as it’s poised to revolutionize scientific research processes, and aims to — among many other things — help solve research funding issues.
In a nutshell, decentralized science (DeSci) is a global movement created to entirely reimagine how research operates, from funding and interdisciplinary collaboration to the peer-review process and publishing. Although it covers all forms of scientific research, many DeSci entities pay particular attention to healthcare processes and medical discovery. Many DeSci organizations seek to improve the lives of all by wresting away control from big businesses and giving power back to researchers. DeSci also overcomes geographical and governmental limitations through its decentralized design, meaning that access to research funding isn’t contingent on any specific location or socio-political agenda.
DeSci is a hot property right now, too. Everyone, including institutions, is paying close attention due to its potentially transformative nature. Also, DeSci aligns with a general consensus of people sick to their back teeth of corporate greed infecting a sector created to help people. Heck, even the big boys like Binance and Pfizer are getting involved.
Now, of course, DeSci itself is just the idea — the decentralization of scientific research and data sharing. However, it can also play a pivotal role in how researchers secure funding. So how do they do it? Well, beyond donations, one-off crowdfunding initiatives, and partnerships made by the DeSci entities themselves, the key to research funding comes in the form of DAOs.
DAO Way or the Highway
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are not only an ESL’s verbal nightmare; their organizational design creates a direct and effective method for researchers, especially independent researchers, to access research funding from people actively interested in helping. DAOs have an official organizational structure where stakeholders (those who own DAO tokens) can vote on actions. The DAO can then use blockchain technology to organize people and direct resources toward collective goals.
There are plenty of reasons someone may be interested in joining a DeSci DAO. They may be patients, family and friends of those affected by a particular condition, crypto investors with good intentions (yes, they exist), private biotech companies, or independent investment firms. Anyone interested in having governing rights concerning the direction of the DAO simply needs to buy tokens. Subsequently, researchers can duck under all the red tape and connect directly with an investing community.
Through a DAO, researchers can typically access a funding vehicle for their work in a matter of days (or even hours) after a proposal is submitted for review. These funds may be applied to basic research, operating clinical trials, and beyond. Compared to traditional funding models, the process is light-years faster, far more effective, unbiased, and most importantly — since no central governing body controls the direction — the funds don’t come with strings attached.
Now, of course, this doesn’t mean that DeSci is a Shangri-La of medical research and immune to all challenges. However, what it is, is a huge step in the right direction. DeSci can give researchers a more direct source of funding while removing bureaucratic procedures that are a relic of an outdated past. The DeSci approach also allows researchers to stop kissing the boot of corporate overlords.
Most importantly, it allows researchers to secure funding fast and get back to doing what they do best — finding cures and saving lives.
