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Funding period for the new CROWD-UC3M call begins

3/7/17

This week the period of crowdfunding for the first of 14 R&D&I projects presented in the new CROWD-UC3M call begins. CROWD-UC3M is an initiative of collective funding for research and transfer that it is in its second year. In the previous call, five projects fomented by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid obtained sufficient funds to be undertaken.

Nueva convocatoria Crowd-UC3M
 

Crowdfunding, or microfinancing, is an instrument that facilitates R&D&I oriented to different social groups. It also allows the public to learn about different projects. The objective is to establish different sources of collaboration, interaction and engagement with society. These sources will contribute to the social, economic and cultural progress of society.

The aim of this second CROWD-UC3M call is to identify, within the different fields of activity at UC3M, research, transfer, innovation and cooperation projects with a high potential impact for the advancement of society. In all, 14 projects promoted by researchers in different areas of knowledge at the University, entrepreneurs from the business incubator of the UC3M Science Park and University alumni are participating.

Based on their interests and the orientation of their projects, the campaign will be carried out on one of two platforms: either Precipita, from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (initialed FECYT in Spanish), or Goteo, an open network of crowdfunding, collaboration and education.  Precipita is specialized in promoting group funding of science. Goteo pertains to the Open Sources Foundation, which is oriented to social innovation projects.

The promoters of each initiative use these platforms to show their project, set out their goals and establish a minimum and an ideal budget, along with rewards for their funders. They can obtain the funds only if they manage to reach the minimum budget; otherwise, contributions from donors are returned.

The first CROWD-UC3M 2016-17 project, which kicks off its donations campaign this year (on April 8th), is called “Socially Responsible Companies for Decent Work and Sustainable Development (RSE 2030)” The head researcher is María Gema Quintero, UC3M Associate Professor of Labor Law and Social Security. Quintero is proposing a study about business social responsibility targeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the framework of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The rest of the projects, which will be presented in the coming weeks, have different goals.  Tending and watering plants by means of an application, promoting the Mediterranean diet as a lifestyle, creating a low-cost telephone device to improve hearing impairment, combating social exclusion through the continuous education of social workers, applying 3-D fabrication for personalized solutions in digital cinema and photography equipment, disseminating the function of archivists and librarians in the digital era, solving the present inefficiency of recognized compensation to victims at the government’s expense, measuring the relationship between environmental innovations and business competitiveness, creating a sciences league for secondary school students, promoting an award for students from technological centers in impoverished countries, improving the relationship between rural food producers with their urban clients through a new application, using robotics as a motivational tool to prevent dropping out of school and releasing videos for a campaign supporting the Sustainable Development Goals are some examples.

Results of the first call

Of the 13 projects that participated in the previous call of CROWD-UC3M, five received sufficient cofunding to be carried out. In total, they obtained almost 3,000 euros. In the entire call, there were nearly 1,000 donations with more than 800 people and some companies participating. The information can be found at: ​ 1ª Convocatoria CROWD-UC3M.

Further information: CROWD-UC3M 2016-2017