There is a crisis in research funding, and grassroots support may hold the answer for the most foundational branches of science.

Eugene, OR — Dr. Roo Vandegrift, a recent graduate of the doctoral program through the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Oregon, has launching a crowdfunding effort to attempt to address issues surrounding the systematic defunding of basic sciences in the United States. The campaign is available on Kickstarter from June 22 to July 22, and will fund a project to create and illustrate a guide book to the Xylaria fungi (known as “dead man’s fingers”) of the Cloud Forests of Ecuador as a test case for crowdfunding in the basic science of taxonomy.