• Question: Why are your ideas worth funding more than the other scientists' ideas?

    Asked by mikemooreish to Chris, Kay, Kerstin, Lorna, Liv on 17 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Olivia Hibbitt

      Olivia Hibbitt answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Hi Mikemooreish,

      Oh no!! The ever present question! It’s so hard to answer that! Most research is worth funding because most questions are worth asking. Look at the five people here, I think we all work on really REALLY important things that are all going to benefit humans in the long run….but we are all very different and I don’t think anyone here has ideas that are more valid than anyone else!

      When you ask for funding from funding bodies they look at three things: are the ideas good, is the method good and is the person asking for funding capable of doing what they say. So in that case I would say that using genes to treat genetic conditions is a really good idea because it uses genes like a drug which will produce a more specific result. My method for getting the genes into people is new and exciting and I think better than some of the other methods because it doesn’t use viruses which can cause really serious problems! Lastly….well I’m just awesome!

    • Photo: Kay Penicud

      Kay Penicud answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      I think cancer research is worth funding because it affects so many people (1 in 3 people in their lives will get cancer) so the possible impact if we can design better treatments is huge.

      Understanding cancer better does also help us to understand better how our bodies work, as when basic processes in our cells (such as the repair of broken DNA) goes wrong thats how you can develop cancer.

      So cancer research gives you both better disease understanding and treatments, and better understanding of basic biology!

    • Photo: Kerstin Zechner

      Kerstin Zechner answered on 18 Mar 2010:

      I think you should decide to fund whichever idea you find the most interesting 🙂 To me it doesn’t really matter if that’s mine, as long as you think the person you vote for is doing something you find exciting.

    • Photo: Chris Needham

      Chris Needham answered on 19 Mar 2010:

      I’m sure all of our ideas are worth funding. However, here you can vote for whichever of us you’d like to see get £500 for science communication. So vote for me. I’ll put it towards a summerschool.

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