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This question may sound unusual but I'm have been searching for a while now for a platform for collaborative research projects? The concept here is simple. Experienced researchers sign up and verify their professional and research experience. The platform is used to connect experienced scientists willing to share their knowledge and skills with other members who are seeking certain R&D skills requirements (literature review, collaborative research, proof reading. Etc). The benefit here is the possibility to remotely collaborate with other on research projects and eventually publish together, or you can use such platform to provide paid consultation.

This business model is somewhat similar to on demand experts platforms where professionals sign up and receive paid consultations from third parties using the same platform. But I'm more interested in collaborative research not consultations

The reason why I'm reaching out to this community is because a few years ago I have spoken to an economist/entrepreneur who is building a similar platform to what I described above. However, this platform only for economics and related fields. I liked the idea and I thought of reaching out to the community for more information. This guy managed to integrate AI and implemented a grading system which researchers use to evaluate the importance and significance of posted ideas and research projects.

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  • Our HPC guys run a fancy ticket system for local domain scientists to offer collaborative advice to researchers (literally called "consultants", because keeping people in science isn’t difficult enough already…). Is that something like what you are asking about? Your description has a lot more goodies that seem to hint at a national or even international scope not tied to a specific domain, but it’s not clear to me whether those are requirements for what you are looking for or rather your own ideas for such a service.
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented May 26 at 17:08
  • MisterMiyagi. Thank you for your comment. I'm afraid you might have missed my point. What I'm talking about is something larger than a local HPC system. To put it in simple words. Let's say I want someone to help me on a project related to simulating laser diodes and I want someone who is knowledgeable on this topic. I post this as a project with specifications, deadline and an end goal (paper, paid consultations. etc). Experienced people apply and I see their credentials and choose the best fit then we collaborate. Such platform is not location specific.
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 26 at 18:16
  • Well, these HPC centres operate at national scale (each centre is exclusively responsible for a select few domains) - there is no need to be physically present to use such machines. What I’m wondering is not whether the specific use case (big computers) matches yours but the generic setup. I’m afraid your comment just confuses me more: on the one hand you say I missed the point, yet none of the added features are required by the scheme I describe (the restriction to actively advertise local scientists is implementation specific due to funding, but everyone can apply).
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented May 26 at 18:54
  • I'm talking about a website that operate as a matching platform between researchers needing help and experienced researchers willing to help. Now I hope the picture is much clearer? HPC system are something different, why would I use an HPC system to do a literature review if I can do it on my PC? See the example I mentioned in my original post. That is why I said you missed the entire point and I'm afraid you did not even understand what I'm talking about in the first place?
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 27 at 6:51
  • I didn’t (mean to) write anything about using an HPC system. The HPC folks run the service (since they want to boost their attached domain scientists), but it is separate from the HPC cluster and there is no need for collaborators to actually use the HPC system. It is quite literally "a website that operate as a matching platform between researchers needing help and experienced researchers willing to help".
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented May 27 at 7:04

3 Answers 3

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Wikiversity's mission includes hosting collaborative research projects. It might be possible to use that platform for doing something like what you are proposing. Whatever the platform, the main challenge will be to convince a sufficient number of researchers to participate.

Your ideas sound very close to what Michael Nielsen was advocating in the 2011 book Reinventing Discovery. As far as I know, that vision still has to be realized.

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There are platforms like Kolabtree, which allow collaboration with freelance scientists (who are paid for their help). The collaboration may range from simply editing a research paper for publication, to making statistical analysis, to being actually involved in a research project full-time.

IMHO, these platforms are less efficient than more mainstream business platforms, like Upwork, likely because they are too restrictive sin terms of who can offer their services and who comes to seek them (e.g., Kolabtree tries to bring together researchers and people with certified research experience - having done PhD or postdoc, while on Upwork both have greater choice of options, as private companies, individuals and less education but extremely qualified experts are also present.)

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  • I know about Kolabtree and I'm actually a member. Kolabtree works as a consultation/freelancing platform. This kind of what I'm looking for except the ideal case is a platform where researchers collaborate on projects with an end goal of publishing together. Also I think you are wrong about Kolabtreee attracting only PhD /Postdoc level people. In addition, While Kolabtree has targeted a largley ignored niche market (Freelancing in STEM), it shares a lot of smiliraties with on-demand experts platforms where you can view a offered consultation oppertunities and apply according to your skills
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 29 at 11:14
  • @Mohammad in my experience, one simply gets more opportunities on Upwork, and often for better money... but it does require sifting through many unsuitable offers and building reputation. The same is probably true for the employers - I had heard more than once that the average level of Upwork freelancer is very low. Perhaps, the niche of Kolabtree is simply too narrow for me.
    – Roger V.
    Commented May 29 at 11:30
  • You could say Kolabtree is the closests to what I'm looking for but I'm still searching for more alternatives. One recent alternative is Collabwith but it looks dead and target only EU contries. collabwith.com check it out?
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 29 at 11:36
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It seems you are talking a bit more educational and professional version of fiverr/upwork and other similar gig providing platforms. There are some platforms exclusively for connecting those who seek/offer coding services such hirecoder.com. Maybe it is impossible to pinpoint a platform that checks all the bulletpoints in your checklist, but you can do talent hunting yourself on LinkedIn.

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  • Exactly Naveed, one goal is to make scientific collaboration more accessible. Also scientists in countries where there aren't enough funding can contribute and find collaborative projects to increase their research reputation.
    – Mohammad
    Commented May 29 at 6:42

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