Quote:
Originally Posted by Hans Tucker
99% of Bintel's sales would be to the Amateur market .. Being an FLI dealer I guess they advertise the complete range .. Amateur to Professional. Maybe some University with a dedicated program might invest in this. But you have to wonder what scope would compliment a camera like this ... I just don't think my AP130GTX is up to the task.
Imagine trying to put a Business Case to Miss Ministry of Finance.
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It rare for a uni to fund research internally; maybe some seed funding but not this sort of money. Wollongong invested considerable internal funds to medical research as part of a strategic plan to move into that area and I imagine other unis have made similar strategic investments. However the vast bulk of funding for research comes from the Australian Research Council and equipment is normally via a Linkage Infrastructure Equipment Fund grant. Obtaining a grant is a highly competitive process. Preparation of a grant proposal takes months and has about a 10% success rate. Applications generally close around Feb-March and so many academics spend their christmas 'holiday' preparing their proposal. All proposals must be cross-institutional, academics from 6-8 institutions is common, and preferably cross-disciplinary (though that is more important on a research proposal than an equipment proposal).
Applications are judged against a range of criteria by an expert panel. I've seen an academic with a pile of proposals as high as their desk which he had to get read and evaluated in a few weeks (and this on top of all his regular duties). Proposals need to demonstrate that there are projects ready to go that require the equipment, that there is no other suitable equipment available, that the researchers are competent to operate the equipment and have the necessary support infrastructure, that the research is relevant, important and will benefit society etc etc. The evaluations of all panelist are compiled and converted to scores and the proposals ranked. Grants are awarded from the top down until the year's funding is exhausted. Often the grant is for less than what was requested and researchers are told to find the funding elsewhere. Hence the high rate of bank robberies by struggling academics
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The relevant Minster is then supposed to rubber stamp the panels decision but recently there was a controversy when he vetoed a project (in the humanities) because he said it wasn't in the national interest and that from now on all projects must satisfy this criteria. The truth was the the national interest test was already in place and a group of individuals better qualified than the Minister had already said it met the criteria.
So ensuring that taxpayer money is well spent is actually a rigorous and expensive exercise. Negotiating with the 'Ministry of Finance' may be the easier option
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