Lessons From an Evaluation of a Training Program of Paid Eldercare Workers

The present study is based on a three-year evaluation of an Israeli training program for local paid elder care workers, called “community care.” Interviews were conducted with all stakeholders involved in the program, including program developers, facilitators, funders, trainees, dropouts, employers, and older care recipients. Qualitative thematic analysis was used, supplemented by quantitative data concerning the program’s inputs, outputs and outcomes. The program had multiple strengths, including a substantial funding stream and a highly skilled and committed team. Yet, out of 130 participants (in the 7 training programs evaluated), only 94 completed the program and 31 were later employed as care workers. Three main challenges to the efficacy of the training program were identified. The findings stress the importance of adequately conducting the appropriate needs assessment prior to embarking on a new social program and illustrate the tension between an ideal prototype and real-life constraints.

Should mitochondrial replacement therapy be funded by the National Health Service?

A clinical trial on mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) is currently being conducted and if this technique proves effective, National Health Service (NHS) England will fund MRT through the highly specialised services (HSS) funding stream. This paper considers whether MRT should be publicly funded by the NHS. Given the current financial pressure the NHS is experiencing, a comprehensive discussion is essential. There is yet to be a thorough discussion on MRT funding, perhaps because this is a small-scale issue and presumed to be covered by the HSS budget. However, the source of funding has not been confirmed due to the trial’s incompletion. Upon its completion, reasoned decisions need to be made over the allocation of scarce NHS resources. It is therefore important to consider the following arguments in advance. Three arguments given against NHS funding of MRT will be evaluated. The first argument against NHS funding examines the HSS overspending its budget in an underfunded NHS, suggesting funding must be carefully reprioritised. Second, the ethical issue of allowing public access to a technique with insufficient evidence behind it will be explored. The final point considers the option of privately funding MRT and how this would affect the treatment’s development. After illustrating the weaknesses of such arguments, it will be concluded that MRT should be funded by the NHS.

The Past Polluted: A Pigovian Approach to the Black Market in Antiquities

In the global struggle to protect not-yet-excavated archaeological sites from looting, despite legal strictures, the playing field remains badly tilted against the site guards, customs officials, antiquities police, and prosecutors who lack the financial resources to enforce existing laws. To supplement and give teeth to the strict, but ineffectual, legal regime now in place, economic theory points to a policy solution: a “pollution tax” on antiquities purchased by residents of “market” countries, designed to internalize the social costs of looting so that the industry either takes measures to clean itself up or pays the government to prevent or mitigate the harm the industry causes. Tailored to fall more heavily on antiquities with weaker provenance or extremely high prices, and channeled into an antiquities-protection “superfund” (as was done to clean up toxic chemical sites) or via existing governmental agencies, a Pigovian tax on antiquities could provide a sustainable funding stream for more robust monitoring and enforcement efforts against the illicit market as well as for better site security. Archaeologists and dealers may find the idea of this kind of tax repugnant, but such feelings may be overcome through sustained discussion and negotiation explaining the benefits to both sides of a more licit regulated market.

Science Education Funding in Europe and the Inspiration for Chain Reaction

This chapter aims to introduce the policy perspective of the relevant European funding stream, tracing the evolution of the science with and for society call from the first Framework Programme through to Horizon 2020. It also introduces the Pupil Research Initiative (PRI) and how the Chain Reaction project built upon PRI's legacy, using its successes to inform a project that was relevant across Europe. The chapter highlights the key aspects of the chain reaction project, for example the Pupil Research Briefs (PRBs) and Express Yourself Conferences, and how these were adapted, and in the case of the PRBs, expanded upon to be more relevant to different partner contexts and the needs of their education systems and curricula.

Funding Science with Science: Cryptocurrency and Independent Academic Research Funding

Scientific funding within the academy is an often complicated affair involving disparate and competing interests. Private universities, for instance, are vastly outpacing public institutions in garnering large, prestigious, science-related grants and external research investment. Inequities also extend to the types of research funded, with government, corporate, and even military interests privileging certain types of inquiry. This article proposes an innovative type of science research fund using cryptocurrencies, a fast-growing asset class. Although not a total funding solution, staking coins, specifically, can be strategically invested in to yield compound interest. These coins use masternode technologies to collateralize the network and speed transaction pace and may pay dividends to masternode holders, allowing institutions that purchase these types of central hubs to potentially engage in a lucrative form of dividend reinvestment. Using cryptocurrencies as a new funding stream may garner large amounts of capital and creation of nonprofit institutes to support the future of funding scientific research within educational institutions.