I am a research master student. As many others before me, I am educated and prepared to enter the scientific world by working for a research institute or educational institution in the future. A few days ago I have been to a conference at which the funding trap has been a widely debated issue. When working in the scientific field, you are usually supposed to do research for policy-makers. They tender a research project for which you and your team can apply, ensuring the funding of your work and your institutions. Doing work for policy-makers, however, raises a severe limitation in that you indirectly support the status quo rather than the so much needed systemic transformation. Instead of doing work for politicians,

I want to serve the needs of people!

Inspired by the idea of Peer to Peer (P2P) production which I have been introduced to at the Degrowth conference in Leipzig, I want to work as a freelancing, open researcher. Using an action research approach, I want to produce open knowledge that benefits people and communities who actively work on systemic transformations, e.g. grassroots communities for alternative food production or renewable energy generation.

However, I also need to make a living. Honestly, in my case I don’t need much money. I enjoy a very sufficient and humble lifestyle. Yet I need to somehow make sure that I get funding without comprising the ability for people to ask for help that cannot afford to pay my research that I am doing for them.

The thoughts I have been outlining here are certainly not revolutionary, nor am I the first one to think about this. But by writing this, I also hope to connect to people that can help me finding answers to the following questions: