2024/04/01
Summary
Applications closed today for our July courses. In total we had 4.1k student applicants over the four courses (CN: 1800, DL: 1000, NAI: 800, CMA: 550), which is down from last year for every course and underperformed on expected numbers for new course launch. In contrast, total TA applicants stayed the same or increased. Additional info in detail section below.
The Climate Impact Scholars Program (CISP) effectively concluded with the seminar presentation series from the “Fellowship-like” cohorts last week. These presentations were overall well attended and ran smoothly (after a few last minute fixes). One of the groups will proceed to journal submission/publication.
We had to let go of our NMDA contractor due to poor performance. We have restructured our interviewing process and are interviewing new candidates for the project.
We have moved to Phase 3 of the Tools Competition, a $250,000 grant from Schmidt Futures, OpenAI, and others to support development of our matching algorithm and adaptation of it as a Canvas module.
Some groups sustain interest in matching as a service, we renewed contracts with ASCB and opened registration for the matching service we are performing for Wellcome Trust . While there are aspects of this business model that are not good long term, we are taking what revenue we can get and using it to build relationships.
We were invited to give a joint presentation to the NIH and NSF on how matching may help increase efficiency and collaboration in the grant proposal process.
We spoke this last month at the Culminating Conference for the Year of Open Science. We were invited by a funder and talked about the role of grassroots communities in sustaining open science practices. It was well received.
We received almost 500 applications in two weeks for our Staff Scientist/Assistant Professor role we posted. After reviewing all applications, Nick narrowed them down to 50 and interviewed the top 10 in a first round interview. We had great applicants who are well qualified and motivated even after understanding the soft money aspect of the position. More interviewing to come through April. Additionally, we have been in conversations with an accomplished computational neuroscientist that has been running a multi-country remote-only research lab that was funded partially by government funding and partially by industry partnerships. They seem like the exact type of experience we need in launching our research institute. Nick is exploring a part time contract with them to help fundraise for kickoff funding for the research institute.
We have $239k in the bank, $226k in billable (money on grants or contracts we could bill for now), and an additional $1,075,000 in long term accounts receivable (money on grants or contracts for the future). We have $1.8M in submitted grants, $0k in submitted contract bids.
Program Updates
Sciencematch
We have been highly interested in NeuroAI as a new course because it would generate a lot of insights on the appeal of Neuromatch by looking at returning students from CN and DL courses, inform us on whether our Graduate student cohort was saturated and would come back to this course, and other potential pieces of information. After seeing that applications to all courses were down and that NeuroAI didn’t cross 1,000 applicants and had the same profile (undergraduate and master’s student dominated) as the other courses, there is some data to suggest a deeper issue with our model and appeal. We are going to launch a more in-depth analysis to understand the more specific identity of NeuroAI applicants as well as try to understand the reasons that CN and DL alumni didn’t apply to this one. Other reasons for course numbers being down in general could include a shift in application window time, poor execution by comms team, changes to Twitter algo, lower overall shared enthusiasm and promotion of the course(s), or general environmental factors such as the return of in-person summer schools. Despite similar volunteer numbers to previous years, engagement has been somewhat worse (though we did send out just as many emails, sent more social media, etc). Further, the organic engagement we have seen previously (sharing and promotion by board members, local network sharing by other volunteers, etc) has been reduced, so it is possible our email campaigns are seen as less authentic and have less impact due to the lack of personability by the sender.
In short, the results we see point to likely deeper concerns around our business model, our appeal, team energy, or appropriateness of this task for volunteers. Likely it is some mix, and we are trying to learn more.
On a positive note, the Climatematch Impact Scholars Program was a great success, is well received, and is highly interesting to funders. The program provides micropublication outputs and research seminar presentations to a public audience, both of which have generally gone well despite a small authorship dispute. This program overall addresses a critical need for many scholars, which is relevant research experience and proof of that experience when applying to other programs or pivoting their research. Gatsby gave us detailed personal feedback on the sustainability of this model from a funder perspective, and indicated willingness to support ongoing financial commitment to launch a similar program for comp neuro.
Scholar Nexus
Konstantine is performing Scholar Nexus work extracurricularly.
Financial Report
Treasury Review
Bank of America Account: $183,556 USD
Lending Club Account: $55,988 USD
Mercury Account: $88,720 USD
Stripe: $0
TOTAL: $328,264 USD
TOTAL NM SPENDABLE: $239,544 USD
Note: I show Mercury account here for a financial picture overview, but it is not considered in our runway and budget calculations. It is budgeted and managed separately.
Fundraising Status
Received Donor Funds and Commitments
We have invoiced Columbia and Google and received approval from Gatsby to invoice, generating $152,000 in AR. We also successfully coordinated Paul Heubel, one of our curriculum specialists through a redirect of our NFDI4Earth grant to Hamburg University in Germany to comply with grant requirements, effectively receiving the $10,000 grant through a different university. Megan got and received a ~$40,000 grant from CIFAR to support development of the NeuroAI course. This grant is kind of interesting and special as it suggests that one way to fundraise for new courses would be on a ‘by module’ basis, as she raised it specifically for her day she is producing.
In Discussion Donor Funds
We have been in discussion with Simons on a new grant mechanism that could provide more regular support for efforts like Neuromatch. Applications open today and we are applying this month.
We moved to Phase 3 of the Tools Competition, a $250,000 grant to support our matching algorithm, Portal, and adaptation of the Matching Algorithm to be used by Canvas courses. Nick is pitching with help from Megan and Konrad later in April.
Fundraising Plans
Given the effort on the Common Fund Data Ecosystem Training center grant and the low chance of receipt, we chose to skip it. We will attempt to apply for the Innovations in Graduate Education grant this month instead.
Earned Income
We earned $4500 in matching fees from ASCB, which is logged to AR.
Financial Projections
Income
Our main sources of funding for this year will likely be government grants and earned income through R&D partnerships.
Major Costs
Our greatest upcoming costs are new hires and prepod, but we also expect an invoice for $22k from 2i2c.
Runway
Our runway remains unchanged and our out of cash date is March 2025.
Hiring, Team Changes, and People Updates
Next Hires
Business Administrator (to help us with finances, taxes, and admin tasks) and Marketing Hire to help promote research partnerships and course.
Other Notifications
Market analysis: there is an increasing concern over an ‘enrollment cliff’ in higher education in the US. That is, too few students need or want to go to college, dropping enrollment rates may take away a key income source for most universities in the US. State and federal funding of universities and schooling has dropped in favor of private tuition over time, leaving their business models vulnerable to this loss. In response, universities are moving towards certificates and online education in even greater numbers, offering more flexible programs, certifications, etc in order to recoup this revenue and expand their geographic reach, making universities compete more with each other than before. While this is also competition with Neuromatch, it also implies we are in a good place.