Science Exchange, the brainchild of Elizabeth Iorns, Ryan Abbott and Dan Knox, originally popped up on the radar in August 2011 and has been garnering attention from the media as well as the research community ever since. Now, with a user base of over 5000 scientists at over 400 institutions, its mission to “improve the efficiency of scientific research by making it easy for researchers to access the global network of scientific resources and expertise” is taking good shape.
Science Exchange, the brainchild of Elizabeth Iorns, Ryan Abbott and Dan Knox, originally popped up on the radar in August 2011 and has been garnering attention from the media as well as the research community ever since. Now, with a user base of over 5000 scientists at over 400 institutions, its mission to “improve the efficiency of scientific research by making it easy for researchers to access the global network of scientific resources and expertise” is taking good shape.
The service acts like a dating agency between researchers who need access to, say, mass spectrometry, RNA microarrays, or next generation DNA sequencing and providers. These service providers could be anywhere, from your neighborhood DNA sequencing lab to (potentially) the microgravity research facility on the International Space Station. And while the focus is currently on pre-clinical life science research the marketplace is steadily expanding.
This service, unlike the majority of online dating agencies who try to hide fees, is transparent: it’s free to subscribe, free to search and even free to list yourself as a provider. Researchers requesting services are charged a nominal one-time fee per transaction at the time of purchase, which is added automatically to the service provider’s estimate – the price the researcher originally sees.
Researchers follow four simple steps:
1. Search for a service from over 1495 currently listed providers.
2. Request estimates from your choice of providers or submit an open request to providers across 200 institutions.
3. Communicate with the chosen provider directly using the platform.
4. Monitor the status of ongoing projects via a project dashboard, with notifications of new status updates and the ability to ask questions or easily exchange data.
There are plenty of fish in this sea.
For more information and to sign up click here.
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