Philanthropy News Digest
February 21, 2017
U.S. research institutions received more than $2.3 billion in private funding for basic science research in 2016, a report from the Science Philanthropy Alliance finds.
Based on survey responses from forty-two universities and research institutions, the 2016 Survey of Private Funding for Basic Research (summary report, 5 pages, PDF) found that foundations, corporations, grantmaking public charities, and individuals awarded $1.9 billion, or 84 percent of the total, to research in the life sciences, $300 million (13 percent) in the physical sciences, and $80 million (3 percent) in mathematics. For the twenty-six institutions that completed the survey in both 2015 and 2016, private funding in those three areas increased 31 percent, from $1.19 billion to $1.56 billion, while funding for basic research in all areas — including behavioral and social sciences and the arts and humanities — increased 28 percent, from $2 billion to $2.56 billion.
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Philanthropy News Digest
February 18, 2017
Through the partnership, AAAS will allow Gates Foundation-funded researchers to publish their research under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY), enabling any article submitted to an AAAS journal after January 1 to be immediately available to the public to read, download, and reuse.
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Philanthropy News Digest
February 9, 2017
In a move prompted in part by fears of foreign influence on public policy, India's health ministry has decided to take over funding responsibility for an immunization program backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reuters reports.
Funded by the Gates Foundation since its creation in 2012, the Immunization Technical Support Unit at the Public Health Foundation of India provides technical and monitoring assistance to the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), which supports the government's extensive immunization program. Starting in March, however, ITSU will be funded by the government, which felt the need to manage the program on its own, senior health ministry official Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters. "There was a perception that an external agency is funding it, so there could be influence," said Swaminathan, who also noted that no instances of inappropriate influence have been found.
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