Meet the ocean’s first crypto-funded research thesis
The research was fully funded by SeaStarter, a blockchain-enabled launchpad & crowdfunding platform focused in the marine biology field.
Kristina Loosen, PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, is a shark researcher using eDNA analysis (chemical tracing of DNA left behind by animals in seawater) to determine the biodiversity and species composition of sharks on the South African coastline.
Her work is, according to Women in Science & SeaStarter, the first ever research thesis to have been fully funded by cryptocurrency.
What is DeFi?
Note: any crypto enthusiast should skip this explanation.
DeFi stands for decentralised finance. Blockchain is decentralised (for those who don’t understand, start here). DeFi is a form of financing (sometimes publicly accessible, but in reality always limited by qualifying criteria like being users of a certain cryptocurrency, or token holders and NFT owners in a certain project or protocol). It can be faster, and provide a totally new opportunity to raise money not seen before.
Research Funding is a Painful process; DeFi may Change that
In bygone days as a research assistant who helped with funding grants, I learned
- How intense competition for research grants is;
- How research scopes are limited by scoring criteria: (example: must be focused on ocean acidification; carbon sequestration; climate change or other research trends).
Reliance on centralised grants limit or skew the diversity of research interests, making funding hard or impossible for less ‘glorious’, but often necessary data pursuits that enable proper functioning of statistically sound ecological science).*
3. Heavy reliance on grant cycles/ centralized finance
(DeFi may be able to change that to a limited extent; likely at an accelerated pace as the space matures).
As an aside, multiple marine biologists that I spoke with via my work at Open Ocean Camera expressed difficulties with grant cycles / grant money availability during the COVID pandemic, likely as public funding demands shifted towards other sectors such as healthcare & politics.
Can Blockchain / DeFi solve the pains?
Myself a Marine Biologist turned entrepreneur, I have seen how project finance is a deciding factor in whether a research project can go ahead.
Can blockchain magically solve all the above pain points? No.
Is DeFi going to unlock limitless potential on demand? Definitely not. (Though, in an instant gratification, digitally native world, most ReFi / Conservation DAO token holders certainly act as if they expect as much).
So where is the rainbow? I personally believe there is none. But made up beliefs don’t negate the facts.
In Kristina’s case — when the right people come together, combining technical and field expertise, a rainbow appears. Her work is a fantastic example of an interdisciplinary approach enabling a result otherwise not possible.
A milestone in research. The world’s first DeFi-backed, institutionally-backed PhD thesis. To DeFi users, this may be just another object funded. But what better field for a crypto world’s-first research project than Marine Biology? My favourite field.
Footnotes:
First PhD thesis fully-funded may need to be fact-checked. It may be the first in marine biology; am not entirely certain it is the first in the world across fields. Also, DeFi, startup funding and project loans for other projects have existed for at least a decade prior.
On another note, one exception regarding red tape in scoring criteria for grant proposals may be certain sources of philanthropic money. There may be well-intentioned, well thought out grants by educated families and their family offices that are significantly less bureaucratic. Off the top of my head, I cannot name one, but I am sure a few exist.
National Geographic and ConservationX may come close, though I venture to guess their marketing & operational burn is substantially more than that of most Web 3 projects. (I have not looked at the numbers for reach ratios or reach per spending, although I probably should). Results should be truly remarkable once institutions start to adapt their financing strategies to new fintech.
