Crowdfunding Microarchaeology

Regular readers of my blog will have heard that I am soon to be leaving academic research for a while, and will be working full time doing outreach and recruitment work, part of which will be encouraging women and students from disadvantaged backgrounds to study geosciences and engineering. However, I hope this is not the end of my work as a geoarchaeologist, and I have been developing a plan to stay involved in archaeology in a voluntary capacity. Initially I thought about trying to do this as a consultant, but to be honest there just isn't the market for this type of work outside academic research, and in any case I would much rather focus on the teaching aspect, where I can give my time to projects that interest me, rather than any old commercial work. So, I have devised a plan to set up a travelling field laboratory, initially to complete my work at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney, but with the longer term aim of doing outreach work with school groups and volunteers, using archaeological microscopy to teach people about science Scottish and Northern English heritage.
To do this, I need to have a dedicated polarising microscope. I have previously been able to use university equipment, but as I will no longer be employed as a researcher, I will obviously not have access to this. Someone suggested that this could be a good project to use crowd funding, and so I have set up a campaign on IndieGoGo. Although I have backed several projects on IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, this is the first time I have ever tried running my own crowd funded project. Despite the fact I will merrily ask research councils for tens of thousands of ££, it is a bit nerve racking asking ordinary people! Knowing the names of the individuals who want to support your project adds an extra level of responsibility and accountability, but at the same time is so much more satisfying, as it  shows that there are real people out there interested in the work that I do. Please do read through the campaign, and consider funding if I have convinced you it is worthwhile - I have come up with some fab geoarchaeology themed perks for supporters too! If you have any questions at all please do comment either on the campaign page or here on my blog.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/under-the-microscope-ancient-orkney-scotland/x/10255275#/story