Helmsley Trust helps Retraction Watch chart its future with new $130,000 grant

We’re very pleased to announce a new grant for $130,000 from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to The Center For Scientific Integrity, our parent non-profit organization.

The generous funding from the Trust’s Biomedical Research Infrastructure Program will allow us to work with a consultant to develop operational and sustainability plans for the Center. Over the coming months, we will assess the current unmet needs within the realm of scientific integrity, develop a strategic business plan that targets those unmet needs, and explore opportunities for growth. While grants will remain a critical part of our budget, we hope to reduce our reliance on foundation funding and generate revenue for continued operations in the long term.

The grant also provides some part-time salary for the Center’s co-founders, Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, who have been working on Retraction Watch as volunteers for more than five years. The timing felt right for this move, now that other funding has made it possible to create four other full-time positions first.

According to Betsy Fader, Director of the Trust’s Biomedical Research Infrastructure Program:

We are extremely pleased to offer support to the Center for Scientific Integrity to help them develop a plan for their long-term operations and sustainability. The work of the Center, and Retraction Watch in particular, is paramount to improving efficiency and transparency in biomedical research – which is a key objective of our program.

We want to offer our thanks to the Trust and to all of our wonderful readers, without whom none of this would be possible.

About the Helmsley Charitable Trust:  The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting effective nonprofits in health, place-based initiatives, and education and human services. Since 2008, when the Trust began its active grantmaking, it has committed more than $1.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. The Trust’s Biomedical Research Infrastructure Program seeks to lower barriers for biomedical discovery through the development of research tools, training and collaborative platforms that improve the quality and reproducibility of preclinical research. For more information, visit helmsleytrust.org.

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