Building Up Community Support for your BioMakerspace
Written by Maya Mysore and Karenna Rehorn from UC Davis’ BioInnovation Group with feedback from the BioMakerNetwork.
When beginning a BioMakerspace, students usually find themselves lacking in the resources they need to function and the support needed to get those resources. For our lab space, the BioInnovation Group (BIG) at the University of California, Davis, we started with little funding and limited access to resources. However, we were able to get the needed support and access by connecting with stakeholders in the community.
We started by developing a mission statement, organizing a leadership team, and finding a lab space. (If you are still in the process of doing these things, check out this helpful guide.) Once we did this, we needed to get better access to funding, technology, and mentorship. In order to do this, the BioInnovation Group had to prove its value to stakeholders. This brought up an important question: who are the stakeholders in a community BioMakerspace? Here are a few common examples, especially for BioMakerspaces working out of a university lab:
Students
These are the people that will benefit most from the creation of a BioMakerspace. From being able to work more independently on projects of their choosing to developing basic lab skills, students’ educational experiences are greatly enriched by the opportunities a BioMakerspace presents. I’ve spoken to students who want to turn their theoretical projects into real prototypes in our lab space, and my experience leading a project helped me get a great internship at a biotech company. Knowing how much students can learn in a BioMakerspace, it’s important to build a strong network of current students and alumni. Many of these individuals go on to work with impressive companies and build startups. If they have a good connection to their former BioMakerspace, they become people you can reach out to for financial or company support. Later in the article, I will talk about reaching out to companies for support.
Alumni
Alumni can be another source of support due to their real-world experience and ability to give advice. They may have also been involved in starting a previously related group and might be able to lend some experiences that may be useful in starting your BioMakerspace. The MIT BioMakers was founded by several alumni who started their own companies and continued to support the BioMakers efforts in building a new space dedicated to undergraduates interested in building their own biomaking projects. Eventually, alumni and faculty came together and got support in order to advocate for the creation of the current BioMakerspace facility. Alumni often also can give monetary support (partly because they have stable jobs and potentially learn a lot), as was the case for this space, and are an essential part in helping maintain institutional memory of your group beyond your time at your university.
Professors and Faculty
These are the mentors that often jump at the chance to guide and work with students on projects. Nearly all the BIG projects collaborate with a faculty lab to get access to specific equipment and focused advice regarding their work. By the time you try to build more outward forms of community support, you will want to have already formed connections with these people.
Administration
BioMakerspaces provide additional value and support to the educational goals of the administration. From training students in standard lab techniques to providing experiential learning opportunities (through working in teams, setting and executing goals, and planning/organizing experiments), BioMakerspaces enhance the experience of students at the university — sometimes teaching more than any lecture-based class could. This gives the administration a reason to support your BioMakerspace.
Local Companies and Entrepreneurial Ventures
Especially if you can work with them for little to no cost, local companies and startups are willing to work with students in BioMakerspaces. They get to progress on their company goals while students get the valuable experience that comes with the partnership.
Gain Support Within the University
So now that you know who the community stakeholders are, how can you gain their support (and hopefully access to their resources)? The best way to do this is to start with your university administration, as the steps that work here are a good jumping off point for other stakeholders. There are a several immediate steps you can take to get them to support your BioMakerspace:
1. Identify their goals
University administration typically has clear goals for what their role entails, e.g. increasing the percentage of undergraduates doing research projects. By identifying what their goal is, it informs you on what value they are trying to provide to the university and what you can do to help them achieve their goals.
2. Offer programs and projects that align with these goals
Once you know what they are trying to accomplish, you can develop programs that further both your own mission statement and the university’s goals. This gives you leverage when asking for these people to support your BioMakerspace.
3. Make friends with these people and show them you are helping with their goals
Once you have data on how you are helping accomplish their goals, you can convince them to take a meeting with you and give yourself a chance to show the value of your community lab. This helps you get name recognition, builds relationships, and helps potentially secure future funding.
Gain Support Outside the University
If you have taken steps to get support from people inside your university, you are in a good position to start looking outward. While you don’t have to follow the order of starting inside the university and working outward, it helps to have a strong reputation with upper administration in your university before you try to convince outside people to give you their time and money. It helps prove that you have an established and successful model for student-led research, and if you have data on money given to support you or success of your projects/programs, it makes you more credible to a company that is on the fence about working with you.
From there, you can try taking the following steps to get greater community involvement:
1. Reach out to local companies in the biotech space, other similar groups, or potentially alumni
Even if you don’t get a lot of feedback, it will help with getting your name out there. You can also do this with nearby startups. Another related option is to support student entrepreneurs in your lab space so that when they become full-on companies, they already have a connection to your lab and a desire to give back. Several BioMakerspace groups also live near community biolabs or other kinds of companies in the biotech space and may be able to provide support in the form of materials, experience, and publicity — not just funding. Alumni are a good point of contact within these organizations.
2. If you get a meeting with a one of these groups, ask them to support a specific program or project
You need to have a clear objective and desired outcome for your meeting. Going in prepared with what you want from them also helps establish that you and your group know what they’re doing. Even if it’s something as simple as getting them to present on internship opportunities, never hesitate to form connections. It can only benefit your group in the future.
3. If they agree to fund a project or program
Make sure to regularly update them on progress, keep organized materials, and have a dedicated team that is highly professional. Also collect A LOT of data so you can show the company that their time and money are being put to good use.
4. Make sure to have a clear wrap up point and present a detailed written report on your findings
This was something the HM Clause project from UC Davis BIG recently did. This helps with maintaining a professional relationship. Having a clear wrap-up point also shows the group that you have a well-thought out proposal and have a good estimate of how much time and money they will have to put in to support your work.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve gone through all those steps, you probably have a lot more community support, especially from people who can give you money, resources, and even credibility (not a resource to be taken lightly). It is important to realize that you can keep going. You can find other on-campus programs that could support you, and other departments that have an interest in the work you’re doing. Continue reaching out to them. It will help you build a strong support network and will help ensure your lab has the resources needed to sustain itself.
I want to leave you with the following key points:
- Reach out to as many people as you can. It will never hurt to have more people aware of your lab, and it will more than likely benefit you in the future to have lots of friends.
- Always have clear goals for what you want when reaching out. Make sure to have data and other ways to show where people’s time and money will go, and how you have had past success to justify them giving you resources. This will help you convince people that you know what you’re doing, which can be a challenge with undergraduate run labs, and will ensure you net more money and resources.
- Finally, all labs and universities have very different environments. While we try to be comprehensive when writing materials like this, it’s not going to be a perfect match to every school. Find allies who can help you navigate your university-specific resources and administrations. Building goodwill will also help you expand your intra-university network in the long run, so never take it for granted.
