School of Computing Research Colloquia

Crowdfunding and its applicability to university funding

Alexa Ruppertsberg, Faculty of Medicine & Health

Abstract: Crowdfunding has a number of different applications in university funding: for Technology & Knowledge Transfer Professionals as a means of raising investment to innovate, for academics the possibility to fund research projects, for students the opportunity to launch their own projects and new ways for universities to engage with alumni.

It’s a fast changing industry that has seen some of the largest platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo raise over $722m and $100m through donation and rewards-based crowdfunding. Here in the UK, equity crowdfunding platforms like Crowdcube and Seedrs have raised >£15m and £1.4m for businesses respectively.
What about the university sector and where does crowdfunding sit alongside traditional and innovative enterprise finance? In the USA, many universities such as Illinois, Colorado State, California, Utah, Virginia and Georgia now see crowdfunding as entirely consistent with their mission. How do UK universities regard crowdfunding and what is it good for?

I will cover crowdfunding and its applicability to university funding, which will be based on the attendance of a recent Institute of Knowledge Transfer event on the 17 January at the University of Westminster.