RESEARCH CONTRACTING

with Prof. Jamie Lloyd-Smith at UCLA: transmission of Leptospira in California Sea Lions and Channel Island foxes.
with Prof. Raina Plowright at Montana State University: dynamics and spillover of coronaviruses and henipaviruses in flying foxes.
with The Marine Mammal Center: mitigation of entanglement in California Sea Lions.
with U.S. Fish & Wildlife: Eastern Pacific marine one health network building.
with Dr. Alison Peel: dynamics of henipaviruses in flying foxes in Australia.
with Dr. Lorraine Barbosa at Oiled Wildlife Care Network: analysis of Guadalupe Fur Seal anesthesia data.

Easy to hire

for projects of any duration, from hours to months

An experienced researcher

knows how to work hard and efficiently to get the work done.

New interactions

can bring fresh insights and inspiration.

Opportunity

to be exposed to new skills, concepts, approaches, workflows.

Non-exhaustive list of possible contributions

Experimental design

Write project grant applications

Write and publish manuscripts

Biological field work

Prepare data for analysis

Student mentoring

Teaching

Statistics

Bayesian MCMC

Mathematical modeling

Machine learning

Private/Public speaking

How does this work?

Here are some hypothetical examples of when a research contractor can be useful:

Dr. John Reijniers received a research grant and needs someone to statistically analyze a dataset. They already have a PhD student but they lack the necessary skills and the grant doesn't provide a salary for a postdoc that does. There is however a small batch of funds that could be invested in a research consultant to perform the statistics and teach the PhD student how to do the analyses.

Not-for-profit organization OceanHealth wants to expand their research branch, but do not have the in-house expertise to lead certain parts of the project they want to apply for. They involve a research freelancer to help write the grant, with the non-committal option for the research consultant to be part of the research project if it is accepted.

Professor Humbleduff had a graduate student that performed a large amount of work collecting data. The student started analyzing the data and writing a manuscript, but left unexpectedly to pursue an opportunity to work for their dream organization. The professor does not have the time and funds to finish the work himself or hire a new graduate student, but would still love to publish the interesting work. He therefore uses some left over money to hire an experienced and efficient researcher that is able to continue the remaining analyses, finish the manuscript and get it through peer review.

Nature conservation NGO Conservation Research & Applications received a grant to perform research into the role of ecosystem boundaries for pathogen spillover between species. They now need someone to lead the experimental field work, guide data collection and sample analysis in the laboratory, and train someone to perform the work independently. They hire a researcher who knows how to do and organize field work, collect and analyze samples, and mentor students.

If any of this resonates with you, you are warmly invited to get in touch at bennyborremans@bbresearch.org.