VIDEO: when science funding goes towards a much needed holiday

In November last year the Kings Sierra Leone Partnership (KSLP) charity received a funding grant from The Department for International Development (DFID) to continue their efforts against the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone. The charity has been working in Sierra Leone with the Ministry of Health (MOH) there since 2011, to try and improve the health care system and general health of the country. Many volunteers were already in place when the Ebola outbreak started to spread, so they continued their work with the MOH but stepped up their Ebola treatment and prevention efforts.

Now that Ebola cases are sparse in Sierra Leone, I was able to catch up with the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership about the grant money the received last year, what it went towards and how it helped contribute to bringing about an end to the outbreak.

What needs to be funded in Sierra Leone?

I spoke to Max Manning-Lowe, the administrator for the partnership about what the DFID grant money was used for. Manning-Lowe described how the grant money went partly towards funding more medical volunteers, but how also the money was used to look after the mental health and well being of the volunteers already out there. Through simply providing the volunteers with a short break and holiday, this grant money went towards the continuing efforts of all involved with the charity. Although the grant has come from DFID and not the BIS section of treasury (where science funding usually comes from), it is clear that this money went towards furthering health, science and research regardless.

Watch the video below for more.

What was it like in Freetown?

I also spoke to Chris Curry, who is a volunteer with the partnership, about his experience in Sierra Leone last summer. Curry is a final year medical student who hopes to return to Sierra Leone once he has finished his medical training this year year.

He talks through his experience in the youtube clip below.

Video: The Living Planet Report

Where is the enviro chat?

Back in March, George Osborne revealed The Budget to the world (and we live blogged it in the hope to hear about some science funding).

Unfortunately, there was little said about science and the environment. This comes as a particular surprise since the WWF Living Planet Report that was released in September 2014 showed that the population sizes of  all vertebrate species including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, have declined by 52 per cent over the last 40 years.

WWF Living Planet Report

What should the Government be funding to help stop this decline? Tweet us @momoneymosci!

A UK-based research project focused on international development

The data revolution: finding the missing millions

An Overseas Development Institute (ODI) research report

On Thursday 21 May, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) hosted a panel discussion about their recent Development Progress project’s research report The data revolution: finding the missing millions. The discussion was chaired by James Ball, Special Projects Editor at The Guardian and the panelists included Elizabeth Stuart, ODI research fellow and lead author of the report, Rufus Pollock, President and Co-founder of Open Knowledge, Pali Lehohla, Statistician General of South Africa, and Francesco D’Orazio, VP Product of Pulsar.

I spoke with Stuart before the discussion about the key findings of the report, what actions are necessary to ‘find’ the missing millions, and why developed countries should be funding projects largely concerned with the developing world.

If you liked this post and are itching for more, check out this live-blog about what projects are funded by The Wellcome Trust.

Let the people speak! What science should government fund?

We’re big fans here at Mo’money of hearing what you think about science funding issues. Caught up in the post-election fervour and in the spirit of democracy, we decided to find out what people on the street think the most important area of science research is for governments to fund, and if we should be spending more money on science research. Watch the video here!

The people have spoken! It seems (according to these lovely people who agreed to chat to us) that health and medical, as well as climate change in a close second should be the biggest priorities for government funded research. Also, they all said that more money should be spent on research funding.

Do you agree?

VIDEO: Rosetta Mission funding is a huge Facebook hit

Only a few days ago, the Philae probe became the first spacecraft to land on the surface of a comet. It reached Comet 67P on 12 November and after a bumpy and nail biting landing it successfully sent back data to earth. The first of it’s kind in fact. The probe was awake for roughly 64 hours before it ran out of battery and entered it’s sleepy hibernation mode. The Rosetta spacecraft however is currently continuing its orbit and delivering more observations about the comet back to the ESA.

On the day of it’s landing, Scienceogram founder and physicist Andrew Steele, created an infographic about just how much the Rosetta mission had cost. And then it went viral.

I spoke to Andrew about his infographic and newfound fame. Checkout the video below.