What do you mean by “There haven’t previously been many options available”? What is stopping you from just giving people money? Why do you need an institute as middle hand?
My understanding is that (1) to deal with the paperwork etc. for grants from governments or government-like bureaucratic institutions, you need to be part of an institution that’s done it before; (2) if the grantor is a nonprofit, they have regulations about how they can use their money while maintaining nonprofit status, and it’s very easy for them to forward the money to a different nonprofit institution, but may be difficult or impossible for them to forward the money to an individual. If it is possible to just get a check as an individual, I imagine that that’s the best option. Unless there are other considerations I don’t know about.
Btw Theiss is another US organization in this space.
If it is possible to just get a check as an individual, I imagine that that’s the best option.
One other benefit of a virtual research institute is that they can act as formal employers for independent researchers, which may be desirable for things like receiving healthcare coverage or welfare benefits.
Thanks for mentioning Theiss, I didn’t know of them before. Their website doesn’t look so active now, but it’s good to know about the history of the independent research scene.
Theiss was very much active as of December 2020. They’ve just been recruiting so successfully through word-of-mouth that they haven’t gotten around to updating the website.
I don’t think healthcare and taxes undermine what I said, at least not for me personally. For healthcare, individuals can buy health insurance too. For taxes, self-employed people need to pay self-employment tax, but employees and employers both have to pay payroll tax which adds up to a similar amount, and then you lose the QBI deduction (this is all USA-specific), so I think you come out behind even before you account for institutional overhead, and certainly after. Or at least that’s what I found when I ran the numbers for me personally. It may be dependent on income bracket or country so I don’t want to over-generalize...
That’s all assuming that the goal is to minimize the amount of grant money you’re asking for, while holding fixed after-tax take-home pay. If your goal is to minimize hassle, for example, and you can just apply for a bit more money to compensate, then by all means join an institution, and avoid the hassle of having to research health care plans and self-employment tax deductions and so on.
I could be wrong or misunderstanding things, to be clear. I recently tried to figure this out for my own project but might have messed up, and as I mentioned, different income brackets and regions may differ. Happy to talk more. :-)
What do you mean by “There haven’t previously been many options available”? What is stopping you from just giving people money? Why do you need an institute as middle hand?
My understanding is that (1) to deal with the paperwork etc. for grants from governments or government-like bureaucratic institutions, you need to be part of an institution that’s done it before; (2) if the grantor is a nonprofit, they have regulations about how they can use their money while maintaining nonprofit status, and it’s very easy for them to forward the money to a different nonprofit institution, but may be difficult or impossible for them to forward the money to an individual. If it is possible to just get a check as an individual, I imagine that that’s the best option. Unless there are other considerations I don’t know about.
Btw Theiss is another US organization in this space.
One other benefit of a virtual research institute is that they can act as formal employers for independent researchers, which may be desirable for things like receiving healthcare coverage or welfare benefits.
Thanks for mentioning Theiss, I didn’t know of them before. Their website doesn’t look so active now, but it’s good to know about the history of the independent research scene.
Theiss was very much active as of December 2020. They’ve just been recruiting so successfully through word-of-mouth that they haven’t gotten around to updating the website.
I don’t think healthcare and taxes undermine what I said, at least not for me personally. For healthcare, individuals can buy health insurance too. For taxes, self-employed people need to pay self-employment tax, but employees and employers both have to pay payroll tax which adds up to a similar amount, and then you lose the QBI deduction (this is all USA-specific), so I think you come out behind even before you account for institutional overhead, and certainly after. Or at least that’s what I found when I ran the numbers for me personally. It may be dependent on income bracket or country so I don’t want to over-generalize...
That’s all assuming that the goal is to minimize the amount of grant money you’re asking for, while holding fixed after-tax take-home pay. If your goal is to minimize hassle, for example, and you can just apply for a bit more money to compensate, then by all means join an institution, and avoid the hassle of having to research health care plans and self-employment tax deductions and so on.
I could be wrong or misunderstanding things, to be clear. I recently tried to figure this out for my own project but might have messed up, and as I mentioned, different income brackets and regions may differ. Happy to talk more. :-)
+1.