Folding Forum

Hi,
I'm relatively new to folding@home and based in the UK. I was just wondering if folding@home has any links with any of the charities for the related diseases that FOH is researching? I had a look at many of the UK websites for major disease charities such as Cancer Research UK, Alzheimers, Huntingtons etc... and there is no mention of FOH (or any other DC project for that matter). Wouldn't these organisations be ideal recruiting grounds for more participants? Perhaps this is the case in the US or other countries, but it seems some of the UK charities may be missing a trick.....Participation in FOH is clearly a great way for those affected by such diseases to feel like they are actually doing something.
Any thoughts welcome!

Welcome to foldingforum.org, rocketmama

I'm not aware of any links between disease charities and F@h. Funny, but you may be the first to suggest it. The disease charities that I'm familiar with focus on fund-raising, and in some cases, on support for the families of those with the disease. Some also provide educational seminars I'd think that even an informal partnership would be a good thing and there would be few areas where there might be a conflict of interest. (Stanford University also accepts donations for FAH, but it's not emphasized.) A simple FAH advertisement like "Donate computer time to Cancer research" might fit nicely on a website for a Cancer charity. I'm not sure how such a partnership might work or who might arrange it, but I know a few people who I might ask.

Thanks Bruce.
I would be more than happy to email some of the UK charities - if that was OK with the FOH team (just as an awareness-raising exercise).
I guess there are also organisations like Grid Republic which try to promote greater participation in DC projects.
I suspect that with a simple link to this project on charity websites, you'd have many thousands more participants. The reach of charities like Cancer Research UK is enormous.

rocketmama wrote:Thanks Bruce.
I would be more than happy to email some of the UK charities - if that was OK with the FOH team (just as an awareness-raising exercise).
I guess there are also organisations like Grid Republic which try to promote greater participation in DC projects.
I suspect that with a simple link to this project on charity websites, you'd have many thousands more participants. The reach of charities like Cancer Research UK is enormous.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with that idea.