SciTree's Final Report

7/31/2019 SciTree's Final Report

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FINAL REPORT FOR VENTURE LABSciTree - Science for Public and BusinessElena Kalmykovaa and John Noel M. Viaaba. Uppsala University, Sweden b. University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

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Executive Summary

SciTree is an online networking platform that aims at bridging the gap betweenScience and business. Here, scientists can post concise non-enabling statementsregarding their research, complemented with patents, articles, presentations, videos,etc. In turn, an investor or company can create a premium account and gain access toexperts, technologies, or patents they need. Thus, scientists, investors, and science andtechnology-related companies or industries can connect and collaborate with eachother. We conducted over 60 online surveys and face-to-face interviews with scientists

and investors, consulted our mentor Dr. Garcia, and have learned that the generaloutlook for SciTree is very positive. Then, we amended our business model based onwhat weve learned from scientists and investors. We identify SciTrees unique sellingpoint as being a global technology network where scientists from developing countriesand lesser-known regions can publicize their novel inventions and discoveries, and getfunding from investors or multinational companies. Our revenue would come frominvestors registering for Premium accounts, successful brokering of partnershipsbetween scientists and investors, and through targeted advertisements (Google Ads) onSciTree. We will be promoting SciTree by establishing booths in scientific conferences,posting advertisements on other sites, Social Media Marketing, and by visitinguniversities to encourage their researchers to create a profile on SciTree. We are

currently in the initial stages of developing our website, but we plan to continue on theproject and officially launch SciTree in 5 months._____________________________________________________________________

I. Fundamental Problem

In developing countries and even in some developed countries, there seems tobe a divide between the academe and the industry or business sector. Academics havetheir own circles where they share their latest discoveries and communicate withcolleagues, while the business sector and pharmaceutical companies also have theirown conventions and scientific discussions. However, with an increasing need for novel

technologies to solve a multitude of problems such as diseases, dwindling resources,and environmental degradation, collaboration between research in the academe andindustry is necessary. Governments and universities, especially those in developingcountries, dont have sufficient funds to fully realize a particular research output into aproduct which society can benefit from. On the other hand, businesses and industriesalso need ideas, skills, knowledge, and basic research from people in the academe inorder to direct research being done in their laboratories.


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Networking events and technology networks exist to connect scientists andinterested companies or investors. However, networking events are expensive to attendespecially for those living in third world countries or for first-world labs that have limitedfunding, Though certain technology networks provide free services, they are only limitedto geographical areas and tend to focus on developments from first world countries

such as USA, UK, and Australia. With novel research of significant potential value beingdeveloped in East and Southeast Asian, South American, Scandinavian, and formerRussian-occupied countries, the need to provide a venue for scientists in thesecountries to connect with interested investors is increasing.

Aside from the disconnect between scientists and industries or investors,scientists in developing countries might also have some difficulties contacting otherscientists, keeping themselves abreast on the latest Scientific developments, andpresenting their research on conferences for other scientists to know about it.Universities and governments in third world countries provide limited funding toresearchers thereby preventing them from subscribing to journals they want or attending

international conferences to expand their network.Of course, the disconnect between scientists in the academe and the industry or

S&T companies has been realized some time ago, which has led to emergence ofinterdisciplinary studies and firms and events bringing together scientists and investors.However, those events face considerable hindrances such as lack of a shared languagefor communication between scientists and business: problems, methods and results areformulated and expressed in different ways.

There are other attempts to improve communication and inform businessmenabout important discoveries in various disciplines. Indeed, there are such journals asScience or Nature, which publish results of that latest research in Biology, Physics,Medicine etc. But, is scientific progress presented in its entirety in Science or Nature

journals? Thousands of scientists, whose papers were rejected by these journals, andhundreds of thousands of those who did not even try to publish there, would disagree.Science is much bigger and more diverse. At least 90% of scientific discoveries are notpublished in top-rated and highly-read journals. As a result, the rejected papers arepublished in smaller, specialized, and lesser known journals that do not reach a wideaudience. Thus, communicating and sharing ones research advances throughpublications, in big, does not work for 90% of the scientists.

Thus, we can conclude that the way of presenting information in contemporaryScience is quite ineffective. The exponential growth of the number of scientific journalsand publications has led to a situation where people cannot read everything about aparticular field, even topics related to a very specific problem. As research done byMichael Mabe shows, the situation nowadays looks completely different than it was 200years ago. The number of scientific journals being published from the 1700s to 2001 ispresented in Figure 1. It can be observed in Figure 1 that the number of journalspublished nowadays are significantly greater than those published in the early 1700sand are even continuing to increase in number.


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Figure 1. Number of journals titles launched from 1700s onwards and still extant in2001

In order to solve this problem, a platform wherein highlights of a research projectare presented in a brief and concise form is needed. Of course, it does not mean thatpeer-review publications will become extinct because of this platform. These two formsof presenting scientific information will be concomitant. But as the new form continues to

grow, develop, and change in accord to the needs of scientists and public, it caneventually become more up-to-date, more efficient and important for the scientificcommunity than journal publications.

One of the ways to improve such platform is to change the way of structuring andcategorizing research presentation. Nowadays, the research nomenclature in Science isisolated: research papers and outputs are separated in accord to not only the problemthey are investigating, but also to the method they are using, and the general disciplinethey belong to.

To ensure interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, the category in

which posts in such platform will be assigned to will be based on the problems they aretrying to solve and not on the scientific nomenclature that they encompass. Such wouldencourage collaboration between people from various disciplines to work on the similarproblem. Thus, the discussion of new discoveries related to the problem will involvescientists from different backgrounds and of different specializations.

Another common problem which is rampant nowadays is the spread of hypedScience news. Most journalists tend to aggrandize Science discoveries to increase the


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popularity of their articles. Unfortunately, this could lead to public misinformation.Scientists are often busy with research and find no incentive in keeping the publicupdated on the latest developments in a particular field of Science.

II. Product

With the problems mentioned in the first part of this report, we have decided to

develop an online networking platform for businesses and scientists in the academe.This will be through a social networking website, Science Tree (http://scitree.org), inwhich scientists and investors can register for accounts and network with each other.On SciTree, scientists can post updates regarding the latest Science news anddevelopments in their research, and investors or Science and Technology-orientedcompanies will have the opportunity to read these, and if they are interested in a project,contact concerned scientists.

In addition to this, the latest Science news will be posted on SciTree by scientists

in exchange for popularity on the website which can draw more people, includingpotential investors, to their posts. With this, the public would have a more reliablesource for Science and Technology news.

The main difference between SciTree and other networking sites for academicsand researchers is that SciTree would encourage more interaction between scientistsby incentivizing scientists who post a lot of content and interact with posts of otherscientists. Scientists will also be encouraged to post updates using 150 words or lessand with less jargon and Scientific terminology as possible. Through such, more peoplewill be interested in reading their posts and investors will easily understand the goals oftheir project. However, an expand option will also be provided in case scientists want to

attach essays or research methodologies to their posts and if people would want toknow more about a particular post.

Aside from the brief and concise format of posts and interactive nature ofSciTree, another unique selling point of SciTree is that being an online platform, anyonecan access and create an account on it. Scientists from developing countries can postupdates regarding the progress of their research, and hopefully, investors andmultinational companies would be able to see it and be interested in funding theresearch or collaborating with the scientist.

In SciTree, posts will be sorted based on the problem theyre trying to solve

rather than on the academic or scientific category they are under. So for instance, aresearch update on the epigenetics of Alzheimers disease will be posted under NeuralDiseases rather than on Epigenetics. This way, investors and companies will be ableto easily navigate through the database and find information they need. Also, scientistscan classify a particular research or product as patented or not yet patented. That way,interested investors can sign a Non-disclosure agreement (via digital signatures orscanned forms) before they could access information regarding a research which hasnot yet been patented that they are interested in. Such would also allow investors to


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determine how to deal with the scientist they might contact. For patented technologies,the investor can collaborate with the scientist in licensing his or her invention or aid thescientist in creating a spin-off company.

III. Team

I. Elena Kalmykova, PhD (Team Lead)

Dr. Kalmykova obtained her PhD in Philosophy from Uppsala University,Sweden. The idea of this project came to her during her doctoral research inPhilosophy, which included investigation of knowledge production and distribution inScience. She has expressed the core idea for this project in a paper Kalmykova E.,The problem of the Interdisciplinary Communication and a Possible Solution to it inSpace of Humanitarian Communication, Kiev, 2009. She believes that it is reallyimportant for a scholar not only to convey his or her research, but also to contribute tohuman wellbeing, making Science work for the society.

For the last 5 years, Dr. Kamykova was working on a dissertation, and in 2011,defended it. After defending her thesis, she worked at Forum for Levande Historia,being a member of a team that makes a calendar of people who risked their livesdefending human ideals. Her tasks include gathering and checking information on theInternet, and working with a database. Meanwhile, she is currently participating inVenture Lab and making a project based on the idea for her doctoral research inPhilosophy.

So now, she is going to continue working with Science and apply her researchskills. However, she wants to really make a change to the scientific community. That is

why she decided to use the knowledge and insights she gained in her PhD researchand develop a system based on it.

II. John Noel M. Viaa

John Noel Viaa has a B.S. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology degree fromthe University of the Philippines Diliman. He has worked at the Laboratory of Molecularand Cell Biology as an undergraduate researcher and has researched onOsmoregulation in Milkfish and Three-dimensional Scaffolds for Neural Cultures. Heis also a member of several international honor societies. He plans to pursue a career inScience and intends to apply for a Masters degree in Neuroscience.

Before joining SciTree, he was a member of Haynayan, Inc. but unfortunately

most of his team members became inactive. In Haynayan, Inc., their team intends tocreate a consultancy firm for scientists who wish to spin-off their research into acompany or outsource some funding from interested investors or Science andtechnology companies. With the inactivity of most members of Haynayan, Inc. he triedto look for a new team through a forum at the Venture Lab. There he saw Dr.


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Kamykovas post regarding SciTree and since it has similarities to the venture we haveplanned at Haynayan, Inc., he decided to leave Haynayan, Inc. and join SciTree.

Being a Molecular Biology and Biotechnology major he has learned thatscientists should not just confine themselves within their own academic or research

circles, but rather try to reach out to companies and investors to fully realize theirresearch goals and even turn their research output into something that can benefit otherpeople. As an aspiring scientist, he believes in the value of collaboration and definitelyin the future, he will be highly interested in contacting biotech companies for possiblepartnerships.III. Reynaldo Garcia, PhD, MPhil (cantab) (Mentor)

Dr. Reynaldo Garcia is a professor of Molecular Biology at the University of thePhilippines Diliman. He is also the director of the Technology Transfer Office of theUniversity of the Philippines. Dr. Garcia has a dual background in Science and

Business. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from theAustralian National University, was a Postdoctoral fellow at the University CollegeLondon and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and was a SeniorResearch Scientist at Cancer Research UK (Beatson Institute). He also has an MPhil inBioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge and has worked as a consultantat Inpharmatica, a research intern at Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, aBioscience Key Account Manager at the London Biotechnology Network, and afreelancer biotech consultant and business intelligence provider in the UK.

Dr. Garcia was a professor of Mr. Viaa in several Molecular Biology coursesduring his undergraduate degree. Knowing Dr. Garcias expertise both in Science and

Business, our team has decided to write a letter to him presenting SciTree and how hisknowledge, Scientific experience, and Bioenterprise acumen is relevant to SciTreesbusiness plan. Were glad that he accepted our invitation and decided to mentor us forthe project.

IV. Business Model

The current business model of ScITree is presented in Table 1. It was edited lastJuly 24, 2012, and reflects some of the suggestions made by our mentor and initialinsights we had from our survey results and interviews with scientists and investors.

Table 1. Business Canvass Model of SciTree as of July 24, 2012Component Description

Key Partnership 1. Research groups and individual scientists (preferably

with PhDs and Master's degrees) from reputable

universities

2. Entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators, and


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investors willing to invest in technology-related ventures,

and individuals with expertise in technological

entrepreneurship.

3. Partnerships will also be forged to industries, specially

MSMEs who are willing to apply innovations to theirsystems, but currently have no capability to do so.

Key Activities - Starting a website, developing the structure of the

system, advertising among scientists and businessmen,

making the system up and running.

- Establishment of contacts both in the industry and in

the academe

- Networking with investing firms and individuals

Key Resources - Web hosting, CMS, database

- Establishment of contacts both in the industry and inthe academe

- Networking with investing firms and individuals

- Resource persons (patent lawyers, technological

entrepreneurship experts) for the seminars and

workshops that will be held

Value Propositions Environment for interdisciplinary scientific work and

direct communication with business.

For investors: finding experts, searching database of

patents.For scientists: publicizing of research results, and get

funding in 150 words.

For public: news of technology and science in simple

format.

Problem-based structuring of state-of-art research,

convertible to real-life solutions.

Customer

Relationships

- Constant correspondence (through e-mail, forums, and

personal meet-ups) with our customers

- Constant updates (through our website) to ourcustomers regarding the latest trends in bioenterprise

establishment, technological entrepreneurship, and

intellectual property protection

- Regular social events that aim to promote networking

between academics and potential investors and


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business partners

Channels Internet, flyers and brochures, free seminars held in

strategic places (premier universities), social gatherings

Customer Segments Our services will be offered to scientists and academicswho want to build a small or medium enterprise based

on their research, or get financing for their research. Also

it is for investors who are willing to fund these ventures

or want some R&D to be done for them. We also see

schools, MSMEs, and offices- all who are interested in

learning more about technology enterprise as potential

customers, and/or applying innovations to their systems.

Cost Structure - Web hosting, web design and maintenance

- Scientific editors for the news- Advertisements (flyers and brochures)

- Tokens and monetary incentives to resource personnel

(patent layers, technological entrepreneurship experts)

that will be conducting consultancies, seminars, and

workshops

- Organization of social gatherings that aim to attract

potential investors and customers (researchers,

professors)

- Recruitment of skilled professionals (technology

enterprise experts, lawyers, etc.) to join the company

Revenue Streams - Targeted advertisements, advertised academic jobs.

science grants (for the initial stage)

- Fees for consultancies, seminars, and workshops

(consultancies will be charged per project while the fees

for seminars and workshops will depend on the type of

seminar that will be facilitated)

- Membership fees for the investors

- Fee for promotion of a scientific news or team

- Subscription to our website/ newsletter containingessential info and latest developments/ trends regarding

technology enterprise establishment and maintenance

Summarizing the results of our surveys and interpreting the trends we have

obtained, reflecting on the responses from the interviews we had with scientists, andfurther applying the suggestions made by our mentor during our consultation, we have


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made some changes to our business model. The revised business model for SciTree ispresented in Table 2.Table 2. Revised Business Model Canvass for SciTree

Component Description

Key Partnership

1. Research groups and individual scientists working in

the academe, especially those from universities in

developing countries

2. Investment firms and investors willing to invest in

technology- related ventures

3. Science and Technology-oriented (Biotech, Pharma,

Nanomaterials) companies looking for research output

to outlicense or for academic researchers tocollaborate

with

Key Activities

- Starting a website, developing the structure of the

system, advertising to scientists and businessmen,

making the system up and running


the

academe

- Networking with investing firms, S&T companies, and

scientists

Key Resources

- Web hosting, CMS, database


the

academe

- Network of investors, people from S&T companies, and

scientists

- Resource persons (patent lawyers, technological

entrepreneurship experts) to help in coming up with

Terms of Agreement and in brokering partnerships


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between scientists and investors or technological

companies (signing of a Non-disclosure agreement,

etc.)

Value Propositions

- Environment for interdisciplinary scientific work anddirect communication with investors and S&T companies

- Problem-based organization of Science research

focusing on real world problems rather than on

Scientific

concepts/ topics

- A global technology networking providing information

regarding latest Scientific developments and providing

opportunities for contacting investment firms andmultinational S&T companies

For investors and S&T companies: finding experts,

searching database for patents that can be

outlicensed,

collaborating with scientists in the academe, obtain

information regarding novel discoveries from

developing countries

For scientists: publicizing of research results, licensing ofpatented technologies, outsourcing of funding for

research, collaborations with the industry

For public: reliable Science news in a brief and concise

format

Customer

Relationships

- Constant correspondence (through e-mail and forums)

with scientists, investors, and people from S&T

companies

- Constant updates (through our website) to our clientele

of

the latest developments in Science and Technology

- Featuring cases of successful partnerships between

scientists and investors/ S&T companies on the website


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- Setting-up booths in scientific conferences and giving

away freebies such as notebooks, shirts, etc.

- Participation in business meetings and conferences

involving investors and S&T companies

Channels

Internet, flyers and brochures, Booths in scientific

conferences, Direct contact with universities and

Technological Transfer Offices; Communication (direct

or e-mail dropshots) with investors and S&T companies

Customer Segments

- Scientists and academics who want to collaborate with

each other and/or are looking for external financing fortheir research and for S&T companies or investors

interested in outlicensing patented research outputs.

- Investors and S&T companies who are willing to fund

these ventures, want some R&D to be done for them,

or

collaborate with existing research groups.

- The general public who wants to get brief, concise, and

reliable updates on the latest developments in Science

Cost Structure

- Web hosting, web design and maintenance of the site

- Advertisements (flyers and brochures)

- Recruitment of skilled professionals and technical

staff(technology enterprise experts, lawyers, marketing

personnel, scientific editors, programmers, etc.) to join

the company

- Setting-up booths in scientific conferences and givinggive-aways

- Visiting universities to encourage their scientists to join

SciTree

- Participation fees in networking events and business


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meetings to promote SciTree to investors and S&T \

companies

Revenue Streams

- Targeted advertisements (Google Ads)

- Membership and monthly subscription fees (e-mail and

social media feeds) for investors and people from S&T

companies

- Payments upon establishing successful partnerships

between scientists and investors (signing of a

Non-disclosure Agreement, etc.)

- Job listings

- Partnerships with companies selling relevant Scientificmaterial

- Market Research and Analysis

For our revised business model, we have removed some consultancy servicesoffered by SciTree, and instead, we have decided to focus on the networking feature ofSciTree. We have also added new avenues for promoting SciTree based on what wehave learned from the interviews we have conducted. We have also removedconsultation fees for our revenue streams and added payments upon establishing

successful partnerships. Overall, we have added elements In our business modelcanvass that we believe, would emphasize SciTrees main focus in connectingscientists, investors, and S&T companies.

V. Sales and Marketing Strategy

To effectively market SciTree, we have to identify its unique selling points and itsadvantages over commonly-used networking sites by academics and scientists. Wehave thought of the following strong points of SciTree

- Networking, Funding and Collaboration Opportunities: Possibility ofcommunication and collaboration with scientists, investors, people working inS&T companies, and other people who are interested in Science. Posts on theprogress and type of their research by scientists can be of interest to investors

orS&T companies, and provide avenues for collaboration, outlicensingopportunities, or additional funding sources. Investors and S&T companies

wouldreceive regular updates regarding a problem or topic they are interested in and


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would be provided with options to directly contact scientists.

- Global in scope: SciTree is an online network rather than a physical oneallowing scientists and investors all around the world to participate and create

an

account. Investors and S&T companies can get updates regarding novelresearch being done not only in first world countries but in developingcountries

as well.

- Problem-based organization: Posts on SciTree will be categorized basedon

the problem that a research group is trying to solve rather than on the specificScientific category or field in which a particular research can be classified.

- Unique content: Short yet concise and reliable posts by scientists; constant

updates regarding a particular scientific problem rather than jargon-rich andlongtechnical posts. A rating system wherein active users (those who post andcomment most frequently) will have their posts appear higher on keyword andproblem-based searches will also be implemented to encourage scientists toparticipate actively and post frequently on SciTree.

The main promotion and marketing channels that we will be using for SciTreeinclude

- Establishing booths in scientific conferences and presenting in thesebooths

what SciTree is about and how it can potentially help scientists find alternativesources of funding and collaborate with other scientists. Freebies and give-

awayssuch as notebooks, pen, etc. can also be distributed in these booths

- Directly contacting universities and encourage their scientists to create anaccount on SciTree and post updates regarding their research on the site

- Attend business and networking events to contact investors and encouragethem to take a look and explore SciTree

- Encourage those who already have created SciTree accounts to expand theirSciTree network and invite friends and colleagues to SciTree

In order to determine how well SciTree will perform in the social networkingmarket, we have researched on who our major competitors are. The advantages ofSciTree over these sites are presented earlier in the report where SciTrees uniqueselling points are enumerated. SciTrees major competitors are:


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- ResearchGate: Social network for scientists, 1.7 million users. Deficiencies:scientists only, output in a form of lengthy articles.

- Academia.edu: Social network for scientists, 1.8 million users. Deficiencies:

scientists only, output in a form of lengthy articles.

- Science Business: One of several consulting firm, helping to find objects oftechnology investment for businessmen. Deficiencies: high price, lack oftransparency, lack of direct contacts with scientists, no third-world technologies

Lastly, In order to obtain gain money from SciTree to be used for its maintenanceand expansion, the following revenue streams will be utilized:

1. Advertisements

One of the most natural ways of making revenue for a website is throughadvertising (using tools such as Google AdSense etc). The size of online advertisingmarket is very big: the overall US display advertising market, which includes spendingon online video, sponsorships, rich media and banner advertisements, is $12.4 billion in2011.[1]

Benefits of this form are: low production costs, no need for support. We canplace several banners, and they will make revenue for us 24/7. Moreover, we can havetargeted ads, as our audience is well-defined. This will allow us to sell ad space at ahigher price.

Deficiencies include the following: we can have ads only from a narrow range ofcompanies such as book sellers, electronics, lab equipment and reagents providers,etc. Additionally, ads do not bring that much money in the beginning, when there are stillfew site visitors. However, it is a good source of revenue for a mature website. Thus, tostart earning sufficient revenue from the ads we have to get hundreds of thousandsvisitors per day. So it is better to postpone placing ads until we actually get that manyvisitors on a regular basis otherwise ads will repel and irritate people.

2. Job listings

This is a kind of revenue a lot of science-related websites are using. We can findjob listings on academia.edu, http://jobregister.aas.org/, and many others. TheUniversities pay for people to come and see their job advertisement. 2.5$ 50 jobs -10.000 per month.

3. Partnerships with relevant companies

We can partner with companies selling Science magazines and books, laptops,laboratory equipment and glassware, reagents, and other things needed for a laboratory


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We can announce discounts for such products, publish reviews of the products, madeby authoritative scientists. Since we can target the products for a specified audience (forexample, make it visible to those reading news about diabetes only), this kind ofpartnership will be effective and be beneficial for us, the advertisers, and the audience.

Partnerships can also include buy using link for the advertised products, wherewe will get a particular percentage of the total product cost. But since mostly thepurchases of such products are made by universities, this will not bring much revenue.We can also advertise and sell online education software, possibly including games,and Science memorabilia such as t-shirts and mugs.

4. Charge for corporate membership and monthly subscription

Universities can advertise their department or institution on a regular basis. Wecan also have featured institution for every month to advertise institutions results,conditions, and attract researchers, businessmen, and grant givers. Additionally, we are

going to make special paid accounts for investors. Paid accounts give access to all theinformation on the website and would allow investors or people from S&T companies toreceive regular updates on their fields of interest. Premium accounts will be charged amonthly subscription fee of around $5 to $10.

5. Market Research

We can also perform market research and charge for it. As soon as there will beenough active visitors on the website, we can start to make our own market research:polls, concept testing, statistics, etc. This means that in such market analysis, we caninvestigate scientists as customers of some products or services. This kind or marketresearch can be made easily on our platform as it does not cost much and targetedquestions can be easily done.

6. Payment for Brokering Deals Between Scientists and Investors

Once a scientist and an investor or multinational company have decided that theywant to collaborate, we can secure both parties a Non-Disclosure Agreement to protectthe Intellectual Property of the scientist especially if his research output has not yetbeen patented. In such deals, we can gain money from investors once the IntellectualProperty Protection transactions are successfully completed.

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VI. Risks

The main risks are related to the lack of interest of our customers to the project.But we can manage this risk by keeping track of what really attracts people to thewebsite, and putting this kind of information forward. As the project is quite flexible, we
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can maintain the interest of people by being adaptive to their needs. Well try toconstantly communicate with them through forums on SciTree to know what featuresthey want and what changes in SciTree they would wish to see.

Another risk is related to the failure of online brokering. If investors will fail to buy

expertise or patents via our website, we are going to lose a big part of revenue. In thiscase we will have to focus on other revenue streams such as as advertising, premiumaccounts, partnerships, selling analytical papers etc.

Yet another risk is if one of our competitors will copy our strategies and features.For example, Academia.edu could introduce short format for science news. In this case,we will strive to improve our proposition to the customers, make our service better, andtemporarily focus on offline recruitment of new allies.

VII. Partners and Allies

In a project like SciTree, some of our partners and allies will be actually ourcustomers as well. We have to attract investors to the project, as their presence on theweb site will guarantee the success of the project. There are several kinds of investorswhich could be interested in this kind of platform. These are:

1. Investors, who need scientific expertise for the technology they are going to buyor project they are going to invest to.

2. Big companies, which are interested in strategic investment to R&D.

3. Businessmen, who want to buy know-how or new technology.

Thus, we will address the investors in the 1st and 3rd groups personally throughmeetings, calls, through networking, etc. For the time being, we have managed tocontact several investors, and they seem to beinterested in the project. Moreover, theinvestors have contacted fellow investors to know their opinion regarding SciTree. Thus,the word about the project is spreading among investors.

With scientists, the strategy can be the same. In addition we are going toorganize or attend social events that aim to promote networking between academicsand potential investors and business partners. We also plan to distribute flyers and set-up information booths on scientific conferences.

Another kind of partners we can have are big organizations: Universities or bigcompanies. We will have to arrange meetings with representatives and decision-makersfrom such organizations. We expect that partnership with them will be possible onlywhen the project becomes big and popular enough.

Lastly, we will try to integrate SciTree to other social networking sites such asFacebook and Google Plus and also to e-mail service providers such as Yahoo Mail


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and Gmail. With such, scientists, investors, and people from S&T companies wouldhave access to SciTrees updates via whatever way/ mean they prefer. It could alsoencourage more people to register and create an account on SciTree since a lot ofpeople already have existing accounts on these social networking sites.

VIII. Funding

There is an immediate need for funding to support the rollout of the proof-of-concept pilot project. The funding will probably most easily be raised from bigorganizations, financing science, such as EU CORDIS - Community Research andDevelopment Information Service, is an information space devoted to Europeanresearch and development (R&D) activities and technology transfer. We can alsoexpect funding from foundations with interests in early stage business, such asInnnovationsbron (Stockholm). Once the website software is completed and thebusiness model has been proven, SciTree will need to initiate significantly largerfundraising efforts in order to scale up the organization and its impact. These funds will

most likely be acquired through appeals to individuals and government and internationalagency programs. The following are the most plausible funding sources for SciTree:

1. Large Foundations

There are Sweden-based and international foundations that provide funding tosupport scientific infrastructure development efforts. In addition, there are largefoundations that provide funding to projects that address issues of education,information distribution, globalization many of which SciTree addresses.

2. International Grant-giving Agencies

Much of the scientific infrastructure development work currently underway isfunded by grants from international organizations or funds specifically created tosupport and facilitate it. For example, the overall objective of the Researchinfrastructures part of the FP7 Capacities programme is to optimise the use anddevelopment of the best research infrastructures existing in Europe. Furthermore, itaims to help to create new research infrastructures of pan-European interest in all fieldsof science and technology. The European scientific community needs these to remain atthe forefront of the advancement of research, and they will help industry to strengthenits base of knowledge and technological know how.[1] As it is stated in the samedocument, The EU Member States have earmarked about 1.8 billion for funding this

theme over the duration of FP7. Thus, there is a big budget available for projects likeSciTree. There generally exists very formal application processes for such fundingrequests and management of the grant can be onerous, but the relatively large sums ofmoney available through these channels make sure efforts well worth it. Thus, thissource of funding should be considered as one of the most relevant for SciTree project.

3. Individuals (venture capitalists, business angels etc)


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SciTree will always be willing to accept contributions from individuals inclined tosupport the project. The expectation, however, is that ultimately a very small portion ofthe annual contributions will be from these sources. The project does not have a naturalconstituency on which to draw (as, for example, a university). Therefore there will besignificant costs associated with outreach to potential individual donors and raising the

awareness of the issues with interdisciplinary research and science connections withbusiness and public. However, this situation will change gradually, when the website willstart growing and becoming more popular and known. So we should expect surge ofcontributions from individuals two to three years from the launch of the project.

[1]http ://cordis .europa .eu /fp 7/capacities /research -infrastructures _ en .html

Appendix

A. Transcript of Interviews with Scientists

In order to determine how scientists are receptive to an online networking platform suchas SciTree, our team has interviewed two scientists, both of which are Principal Investigatorsand are running their own laboratories. We asked them several questions regarding the placewhere they look for Science news and journals, how they share discoveries and advances intheir research, the major cost of a research project and the primary sources of funds for projectsin their laboratories, willingness to collaborate with investors or private companies, and interestin creating an account on SciTree. We hope that through such questions, we would be able todetermine if scientists will be interested in joining SciTree and if they think they can benefit fromsuch website. Prior to the interviews, we have made a list of questions so as to facilitateuniformity of the interviews and to ask all relevant questions during our interviews. Data

obtained from such interviews will then be used to complement our survey results and earlyinterviews with post docs during the initial stages of the project. Videos were also taken duringthe interviews and will be shared to the class on our final presentation.I. Reynaldo Garcia, PhD, MPhil (cantab)

Aside from being the mentor of our project, Dr. Garcia is also the head of theTechnology Transfer Office of the University of the Philippines System, a professor at theNational Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and heads the Disease MolecularBiology and Epigenetics Laboratory at the University of the Philippines Diliman. We interviewedDr. Garcia last July 10, 2012, and he was able to share with us not only his viewpoints as ascientist working on Pharmacogenomics and Epigenetics, but also as the director of the

University of the Philippines Technology Transfer Office in which he supervises the filing ofpatents and commercialization of research being done at the University of the Philippines.

In order to keep himself updated on the latest scientific breakthroughs, Dr. Garcia has amonthly subscription to The Scientist, a magazine published in the US that has bothpaperback and online versions. Though it is biased for the Life sciences, it also covers otherareas such as Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. Dr. Garcia admitted that hes not reallyinto reading too much Science outside his field unless its multidisciplinary, has bearing on theLife Sciences, or something that really interests him such as antimatter. He said that information
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presented in such magazine is very good, technical and informative while at the same time,would be easy to follow if read by a non-scientist. The citations presented in The Scientist arealso very helpful since they make it easy enough for scientists to access the original article. Dr.Garcia said that presenting Science news in a more compact and simpler form will be good andin fact, theres a website that presents news in a compact one-paragraph form.

Being a Molecular Biologist by training and currently working on Epigenetics andPharmacogenomics, topics which have medical applications, Dr. Garcia has subscriptions toFirst Biotech and First Pharma and also reads journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Headded that he only reads some paragraphs in topics which he is not directly involved in, and ifan article is something about epigenetics, pharmacogenomics, or cancer research, he reads thewhole article. He also said that hes very good at reading Science news, reading them almostevery day due to the regular e-mail feeds he gets from First Pharma and First Biotech. He saidthat its the beauty of having news in e-mail form because he receives them daily and can keepa separate folder in his e-maul inbox for news which he finds interesting and would like to readmore later on. Dr. Garcia mentioned that most e-mail feeds he receives are done in the industry,and he would like to read more on hardcore science. However, because of limited funding, thereare some journals which he is not able to follow.

When asked if he still contacts scientists working on the same field as he does, Dr.

Garcia said that he used to do so quite often in his previous job In London as the BioscienceKey account Manager of the London Biotechnology Network. He still does these days, and hesaid that he does not have qualms in asking fellow scientist materials that he needs such asplasmids. For him, the Science world is small enough that he can contact fellow scientistswhenever he wants and notes that some of them are really good at answering. Dr. Garcia saidthat an online network of scientists would be very useful, but obviously, people will havereservations in trying to participate. There might be some information that they could share andthose that they cant, especially those involved in intellectual property. He added that mostscientists now are IP-savvy and they know what they can and cannot share yet. Dr. Garcia isalso interested in collaborating with other scientists and said that its the way to go. He added

that scientists should network with scientists in other fields because there are a lot of things thatthey can learn from scientists working in other fields.

Dr. Garcia admitted that currently, hes rarely able to update other scientists as to hisresearch because there havent been occasions where he gets to participate in conventions andconferences which are multi-disciplinary. He also thinks that most conferences are too focused,and its problematic especially when a project is on practical applications. He suggests reachingout to people in other fields such as Physics or Engineering because knowledge from thesepeople could be very helpful in a lot of things. In sharing information to other scientists, he saidthat if he believes that something should be part of a public domain and theres no worry ofcompromising the patentability of the research work hes doing, then obviously, hell try to shareas much as possible. Being the director of the Technology Transfer Office, he cautions that if

there are intellectual properties he must protect, he definitely will. When asked how manywords are recommended for a status update, he said that 100 to 200 words are enough forposts targeted to investors, scientists, and the public. He added that investors couldnt bebothered with too much technical details and in making updates targeted to them, the technicaldetails should be kept to a minimum and zero in on is the applications of the research and isthere a need for it.

For most projects in his laboratory, Dr. Garcia said that funding comes from thegovernment and from the university. He hasnt explored partnerships with the industry yet but


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cites that if the project is in another country, funding can be easily obtained from the industry.He also said that when the time comes for him to outsource funding from private companies, itwould not be that difficult for him given his experience as the manager of the LondonBiotechnology Network. For the pharmacogenomics and epigenetics hes currently working on,Dr. Garcia got $83,333 and is trying to get another $95,238 from the university. Research donein Dr. Garcias lab can be turned into commercial products, and Dr. Garcia, being the director if

the universitys Tech Transfer Office, is also very interested in turning them into a commercialproduct. He said that his projects right now are still in the proof-of-hypothesis stage so he stillhas to do some basic research. The ultimate product of his project would be a DNA chip that willidentify likely responders and non-responders of a particular drug, and he states that he needsaround $238,000 to $476,000 to reach that stage. He also mentioned that in the field ofdiagnostics, transforming basic research into a commercial product is very plausible in thePhilippines; however, for drug discovery, its a different story. If ever Dr. Garcias product wouldreach the market, 60% of the profit will go to the university and 40% will go to the researcher, asstated in the Technology Transfer Act of 2009 and Magna Carta for Scientists and Researchers.

When asked if hes willing to outsource funding from private companies or outlicense hisdiscoveries, he said that its one of the strategies hes trying to educate everyone as the director

of Tech Transfer Office. Because the university does not have the resources to bring everythinginto the market, scientists are encouraged to outlicense their discoveries after a certain stage.He also mentioned that through the tech Transfer Act of 2009, the university incentivizesscientists to do spin-out companies and even allow scientists to file a Leave of Absence to spin-out their inventions. He said that there are currently UP-developed technologies that are beingnegotiated with big and small international companies for licensing. For local companies, Dr.Garcia said that its a different thing dealing with them since local companies are not yet thatmature in terms of trying to deal with university bids such as knowing how much they shouldoffer. As the director of the Technology transfer Office, Dr. Garcia said that hes currently tryingto engage the industry in partnering with local scientists to aid in developing their research.

For topics demanded by an investor, Dr. Garcia is willing to pursue them, and hes also

willing to collaborate with other researchers. He also mentioned that some labs in the universityhave already established collaborations with other research laboratories in the world. He alsostated that hes willing to go to other labs and its definitely the way to go nowadays.

We have asked Dr. Garcia if hes willing to create an account on SciTree. He said thathe has to read the Terms of Agreement first, but hell be willing to register if he finds themagreeable and if he finds the site useful. He also said that he knows IP laugh enough to knowwhat he can and cannot disclose. Hell be willing to share on SciTree experiences with hisresearch, optimizing conditions and protocols and other methods in Molecular Biology which hethinks will be of benefit to other people. Things which can be patented will not be shared though.When asked if hes willing to share confidential information with investors, Dr. Garcia said that ifnovel results that can be developed into a novel product will be shared, a Non-Disclosure

Agreement will be required. He would also be interested in reading, rating, and commenting onnews posted by other scientists. He needs to know first how the website works beforerecommending it to other scientists. If he feels that some scientists are prematurely disclosingvaluable intellectual property, hell ask them if they are sure about disclosing such information orif it would be better to share it later.

Lastly, we asked Dr. Garcia if its possible to advertise SciTree on scientific conferences.He said that in conferences, for instance, Bio, there are companies selling products, services,


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and websites which could benefit or be of use to people in the industry/ life science. If peoplefind such products useful, they will definitely buy or subscribe to it.

We have also learned from our interview with Dr. Garcia that there are networkingevents worldwide being held for scientists and investors. However, they are very expensive toattend especially if you come from a third world country or even from a first-world lab without

much funding. He said that if we will be able to organize a networking event or platform onlinesuch as SciTree, then, the possibilities are endless.II. Neil Andrew Bascos, PhD

Dr. Bascos is the Principal Investigator of the Protein Structure and ImmunologyLaboratory (PSI Lab) at the University of the Philippines Diliman. At PSI Lab, he works on thebiophysical analysis and characterization of integrins and several fluorescent proteins. Dr.Bascos is also a professor at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology inUP Diliman where he teaches Molecular Biology and Biophysics courses at the undergraduateand graduate level. We interviewed Dr. Bascos last July 15, 2012, and he gave some very goodinsights regarding our project and also gave some suggestions on how it can be further

improved.

We asked Dr. Bascos first on where he gets his latest Science news and how often doeshe read journal articles and Science updates. He said that for his research, he uses PubMedwhile for keeping himself updated on the latest developments in other fields of Science, hereads magazines such as Nature and Science. He finds articles from both Nature and Scienceunderstandable enough so that scientists who read articles that are not in their field of expertisecan still comprehend these articles. He cautioned though on reading Science news from otherwebsites since these news tend to be hyped. As to how often he reads journal articles, Dr.Bascos said that he reads two articles per week, and he tries to read the whole article to get themost out of it. He said that hes contented on what he gets from these journals, but noted that inorder to know more about a particular field or contact people working in his field of interest, he

attends scientific conferences to meet and communicate with fellow scientists. He also getsadvice from friends from grad school when he needs some help for his projects. Hes alsowilling to collaborate with scientists from other fields and sees an online network for scientists assomething positive since one can find out whos working on something to avoid duplicates andalso to get help from them, if possible.

We then asked Dr. Bascos on how he keeps scientists working on the same area as hedoes updated on the latest developments in his research. He said that his lab tries to publishand present their labs output in conferences. He also said that presenting or reporting yourdevelopments online is a double-edged source because theres always a risk of sharing toomuch information. However, if its congenial and theres no piracy involved (copying of ideasand methods), hes willing to share these information but it would be important for him to choose

who to share it with. Hes also interested in sharing to the public parts of his research that havebeen published. Dr. Bascos also mentioned that he, together with other faculty from UP, aredoing a similar kind of activity through the National Science Development Week wherein theydiscuss their research to High School and College students. Lastly, when asked how manywords he needs to pitch an idea for an investor or post an update regarding his research, hesaid an abstract-length post would be enough. When asked if 100 words would be enough for apost, he said that something can be said with 100 words, but if such length would suffice willlargely depend on the type of information that will be given and updates that will be made. Healso suggested that we can add a feature wherein one can post something for 100 words or less


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and then for some more insight, they can post something longer. Such suggestion was reallygood, and our team has thought of adding an expand button for people who are highlyinterested in reading more about the material and for scientists who would like to add someextra information regarding their original post.

For most projects done in Dr. Bascoss lab, funding comes from the government, and a

good budget for the type of research they do is $7,143. However, his lab is currently making dowith $3,571 per project. Dr. Bascos is also interested into turning some of the research output inhis lab into a market product. Some of their output can be developed further but it will dependon who the market is. For instance, the plasmids that they have made can already be sold tointerested scientists. In order to further develop some of the output in his lab, Dr. Bascos saidthat the university is committed in helping him, especially with patenting. However, Dr. Bascossaid that extra funding is always welcome, and he is willing to outsource funding from investors.Though he hasnt tried contacting investors yet, he believes that collaboration between investorsand the university is doable. He is also interested in receiving financing from investors for aproject that they would dictate as long as the research topic is relevant to what his lab currentlydoes and if it will benefit the lab both financially and intellectually. Dr. Bascos is also willing tocollaborate with other researchers and even visit other laboratories for such projects. However,

when we asked him if hes willing to sell his initial results to investors, Dr. Bascos said that hedoes not want to sell his results because of his emotional and intellectual commitment to theproject, and that he would rather partner with a company rather than sell his results to them.

Lastly, we asked Dr. Bascos if hes interested in creating an account on SciTree. Hesaid that it will depend on how SciTree works and how much information hell be posting therewould be controlled and how much of it would be available publicly. He cited Facebook as anexample wherein theres control to post something on your wall in which everyone can haveaccess to or send someone a private message wherein only two people will be able to accessthe post. He also said that hell be willing to share some of the major developments in hisresearch without detailing on the methodology because there are particular things that cant bedisclosed prior to a patent application. Dr. Bascos will also be willing to share some confidential

information with investors as long as they would sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. When asksif hell be interested in rating and commenting on news and posts by other scientists, Dr. Bascosgave a positive response. He also said that hell recommend SciTree to other scientists if hellhave a good experience with the website. We also asked him if hes a member of any local orinternational scientific organization, and if during conferences by such organizations, there arecommercial products which are advertised. He said that he might already be a member of aparticular society, and there are Science-related commercial products during conferences. Dr.Bascos also said that give-aways will be a good draw as long as we explain in these freebieswhat SciTree is, but hinted that wordspreads of SciTrees benefits will be better in promoting it.He also suggested that in SciTrees booth in a conference, we should be able to demonstrateour capabilities, what SciTree can do, and how easy and useful it would be for its users.

B. Results of the Surveys Conducted

I. Survey for the General Public


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II. Survey for Science Majors and Scientists


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III. Survey for Business and Economics Majors, Entrepreneurs, and Investors


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