National project · Citizen science infrastructure
Fold it!
Crowdfunding campaign to bring an app that predicts protein stability and dynamics to Ibercivis’s BOINC platform
About the project
Fold it! was a crowdfunding campaign to fund a web server where researchers could predict the stability and dynamics of a protein of interest from its structure and other data.
The tool aimed to help biomedical researchers design new experiments rationally, saving time, money and resources.
The campaign was launched on 1 October 2014, World Foundations and Donors Day, through the iLoveScience portal. Its goal was to raise €3,500 in 60 days, with contributions of between €10 and €2,000. In return, backers received information, training and recognition.
Project objectives
In its first phase, the project set out to port the application developed by researcher Pierpaolo Bruscolini to the Ibercivis BOINC volunteer computing platform.
It also aimed to channel the public’s growing interest in taking part in science, not just as spectators but also by co-funding research.
The role of Ibercivis
Fundación Ibercivis promoted the campaign together with iLoveScience and provided its BOINC platform, on which the application was to run. The research team was led by Pierpaolo Bruscolini (University of Zaragoza), with Adrián Velázquez and Sergio Pérez Gaviro (Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems, BIFI) and Francisco Sanz García (University of Zaragoza).
Project details
Type of project
National
Duration
2014
Funding
Crowdfunding through iLoveScience (target: €3,500)
Area
Citizen science infrastructure