You could frame this as an extension of number 3, but an additional thing that foundations can do, but s-processes with rotating casts of recommenders can’t do, is active grant-making.
Foundations can decide that theres’s a specific project that they want to to exist, and then go out in the world and try to find the people who can do it, and offer to fund those people to do that project. That’s not something you can do, if you’re hired to be a recommender for 3 months and then go back to your other job, and you can’t make commitments on behalf of the grant-making org.
Yes, I came here to say this. I have been doing active grantmaking for reprogenetics, but it’s quite difficult without anyone having said “I want to fund topic/project/goal X for up to $Y [/if there’s a good case for it or something]”. Each active grant takes at least days, more like weeks or months of work (depending how you count; there’s lots of background to catch up on, searches to run, networking to do, etc.). That investment is much easier to be wasted without some sort of reasonably solid budget / feedback / conditions under which funding can be secured.
Cf. the creation of molecular biology by the Rockefeller Foundation. Still learning about it, but it sounds like they kinda just decided to create a new field and then did it (with a ton of money and a ton of active grantmaking and recruiting and institution-building).
You could frame this as an extension of number 3, but an additional thing that foundations can do, but s-processes with rotating casts of recommenders can’t do, is active grant-making.
Foundations can decide that theres’s a specific project that they want to to exist, and then go out in the world and try to find the people who can do it, and offer to fund those people to do that project. That’s not something you can do, if you’re hired to be a recommender for 3 months and then go back to your other job, and you can’t make commitments on behalf of the grant-making org.
Yes, I came here to say this. I have been doing active grantmaking for reprogenetics, but it’s quite difficult without anyone having said “I want to fund topic/project/goal X for up to $Y [/if there’s a good case for it or something]”. Each active grant takes at least days, more like weeks or months of work (depending how you count; there’s lots of background to catch up on, searches to run, networking to do, etc.). That investment is much easier to be wasted without some sort of reasonably solid budget / feedback / conditions under which funding can be secured.
Cf. the creation of molecular biology by the Rockefeller Foundation. Still learning about it, but it sounds like they kinda just decided to create a new field and then did it (with a ton of money and a ton of active grantmaking and recruiting and institution-building).
Great point. But [speculation granters / regranters] can do part of this (but not all).
It’s just not that much money, especially for bio-related grants that are more like $100ks rather than $10ks.