Team:Macquarie Australia/Outreach/SponsorSupport

Package overview

Synthetic biology is a relatively new industry with a lot to offer - with applications ranging from the use of alternative biofuels, contribution to human health, detecting pathogens and the conversion of feedstock to chemicals.

The growth of this industry seems to be at threat as funding opportunities are narrow. In comparison to American and European researchers, the Australian field of Synthetic Biology receives significantly less money. A report released in 2010 reveals that United States received a sum total of roughly 430 million dollars in funding for Synthetic Biology research (Kuiken, 2010). European researchers in Netherlands, UK and Germany have received a sum total of $160 million in the same time period (Kuiken, 2010). In comparison, the Australian Synthetic Biology landscape is barren of funds, particularly when it comes to funding from the public sector. Macquarie University has received AUD 1 million for a Synthetic Biology project tilted Yeast 2.0 from the New South Wales State Government and La Trobe University managed to secure AUD 400,000 for a three year project (Mann, 2014). Other than the aforementioned projects, there appears to be no publicly funded Synthetic Biology research projects.

The grim state of funding for Synthetic Biology research also translates into minimal funding for iGEM teams. This is primarily because of the lack of visibility of Synthetic Biology research in Australia, coupled with a lack of confidence in the capability of undergraduate research. In our experience, private funding is also notoriously hard to get, primarily because most relevant organizations (biotechnology companies, lab equipment companies etc.) are usually based in North America or Europe and regional branches are unlikely to have the budget to fund teams in the Oceania region.

How to put together a sponsorship package

From our experience, getting funding for an iGEM team in Australia is difficult to acquire and highly competitive. With only limited avenues available for sponsorship, you must think of the best possible way to demonstrate that your project is worth funding.

From our experience, one of the first things that users on So You Think You Can Synthesize asked was – How do you raise funds for your project? We recognized that this must be a common problem most iGEM teams face. The problem is perhaps particularly severe for Australian teams given that funding opportunities are narrow in Oceania region.

Despite all these constraints, the Macquarie iGEM 2014 team’s fundraising efforts were immensely successful. We attribute this to our cleverly articulated sponsorship document which highlighted why our project was worth funding, and also what the sponsors will get in return for investing in our project. We wanted to make this sponsorship document publicly available, so all future iGEM teams can use this as a template, and hopefully this can help them with their fundraising initiatives. Please find the attached link to download a PDF version of our sponsorship document.

The Macquarie iGEM team 2014 believes strongly in the important ethic of open sourcing in science, and we hope that having our documents publicly available will prove to be a massive advantage for other future iGEM teams, particularly Australian ones.

References

• Kuiken, T. (2010). Trends in Synthetic Biology Research Funding in the United States and Europe. Washington: Wilson Centre.
• Mann, G. (2014, October 16). Synthetic Biology Initiative Gets a $400k Funding Boost From Office of the Naval Research Global (ONRG). Retrieved from Defense Science institute: http://www.defencescienceinstitute.com/2013/10/24/synthetic-biology-initiative-gets-400k-funding-boost-office-naval-research-global-onrg/