Why did a three-month gig with a technology program end up lasting for six years?
Humanitarian scientific research. Volunteer computing. Global community.
These are concepts that intrigued me enough to respond to a recruiter email about a temporary marketing position in corporate philanthropy. The position began in late 2015 and was supposed to last until the spring of 2016. Instead, I had the privilege of spreading the word about World Community Grid for six years. And once the program is fully relaunched at Krembil Research Institute, I’ll happily resume spreading the word as a volunteer.
Although I had been writing about medical research and patient care for more than a decade, I was shamefully unaware of some of the most common global health issues. For example, I had previously believed that tuberculosis was nearly eradicated. In fact, it’s one of the leading causes of death by infectious disease. Below are some of the other things that I learned—and have tried to teach others—during my time behind the scenes at World Community Grid.
Research is directly affected by local and world events. Working at World Community Grid was a front-row seat on how scientists are impacted by factors far beyond their control. A few things that I directly observed: When immigration patterns change in response to new laws, scientists may have a harder (or easier!) time finding students and postdocs to work in their labs. And large-scale public health crises (with COVID-19 being the primary example) quickly shut down labs, cause researchers to spend much more time on childcare and schooling, or make equipment and materials harder to find due to supply chain issues.
University-based scientists are expected to spend substantial amounts of time and energy looking for more funding. This is especially true in basic research, which can produce breakthrough data, but doesn’t directly lead to the manufacturing of new treatments or the adoption of new methods. So World Community Grid scientists do a large amount of grant writing, which naturally limits time they can spend on research, teaching, and administration duties.
Volunteers have a large appetite to learn more about World Community Grid projects, and to connect with each other. One of my daily tasks was answering questions and comments on World Community Grid’s social media accounts. I particularly appreciated constructive criticism, such as the requests for more frequent information about active World Community Grid projects. This inspired me to begin writing monthly project updates in addition to the periodic formal updates directly from the researchers. I also enjoyed seeing people connect positively with each other online (such as through long-standing team and country threads in the World Community Grid forum).
I loved working directly for a philanthropic program that made seemingly impossible research projects come to life, so the initial commitment of three months wasn’t long enough! And it turns out that six years isn’t long enough either, as I am still a World Community Grid volunteer and supporter as the program moves into its next chapter. I hope to see many of you (and your friends) in the coming years as fellow volunteers and beacons for science.