At last, microgrants

“Sit by the river long enough, and you will see the bodies of your enemies float by.”

I’m invoking this vengeful proverb about the virtues of patience because, two and a half years ago, I wrote:

(M)icro-loans have been so successful at creating wealth that some of the first to use this strategy were recognized with a Nobel Peace price in 2006.

Where are the equivalent micro-grants?

Finally, someone is making that a reality, and that someone is BenchFly.com. They have a program called “Search for Research.” And good on Sigma-Aldrich for supporting this initiative.



I hope this it will get people thinking seriously about new ways to grease the wheels of research.