Thanks ION
I didn't mean for people to raise money for me though, the price is better than anything we can get in the UK.
I think that very few really qualify for fund raising on the basis that they don't make their work visible to the public, the likes of Slider & Grumage are much more deserving of that as they have more time to use it.
Peter
The fact that there is less visibility for the "hidden projects" on this forum is usually because they are more "sensitive" or more likely to be scrutinized by non-members and possibly plagiarized, or has more possibility of a large breakthrough, as I understand it. But this is not often the choice of the researcher, who is often invited to share his work in the private thread by a select group after it has been started. That these "hidden" projects should be somehow less "worthy" of investment is curious. Personally I am not in favor of private threads but there seems to be no other good solution to protecting the forum at this time. Any ideas on this issue are welcome. Regarding equipment purchases and project allocation, I am keenly aware of the sensitive nature of this endeavor, having been a former Director of Research and Development for many years in my professional life. It was a difficult position, you couldn't please everyone. Generally projects that were most in line with the company mission statement were funded first and with the best equipment and project resources. Other projects didn't make full funding, and some were unfunded and not pursued. All equipment went into an equipment pool and were lent to the projects according to certain criteria. When the project was finished, other projects could request the equipment. One thing is for sure, all projects required that proposals be submitted first, with expected goals and the investment would have to have some success probability attached. Also the projects would be aimed at surpassing current technology by adequate benchmarking with existing technology. Where no such goalpost was to be had, the project was not funded or very lightly funded. Fortunately I do not serve on such a committee here at OUR, as it is a difficult position, and as far as I know there is no such committee, how recipients are selected I do not know. What is obvious is that there are only a handful of posters that actually worked in the real world and had responsibilities and headaches of project management and resource allocation. They know who they are. The other approach is "Hey Hey! Let's buy a bloke a beer" which has it's pitfalls for the bloke might actually be expected to drive "car" home. If there are no expectations, then it could be just "charity". Kind Regards ION
« Last Edit: 2015-02-25, 21:30:50 by ION »
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"Secrecy, secret societies and secret groups have always been repugnant to a free and open society"......John F Kennedy
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