Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone using the government's money to do luthier research/building/ etc? I would imagine that it's available, yet hard to find nd maybe restictive. Just curious...

Colin got any experience?

Have you thought of applying for some of those bail-out billions available under WARP?

Dan

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

You got a link for the grant?

One time a person came by my shop asking if I'd like some grant money. The Massachusetts state lottery was flush with cash at the time, and was required to give it out for 'cultural activities'.

I know that in the past Carleen Hutchins had tried to get grant money in NJ for scientific violin acoustics research, but fell between stools, as it were. The humanities people would fund 'violin' but not 'scientific', and the science folks had the opposite problem. I mentioned this to the person from the lottery commission, and she seemed to think it would not be an issue. Unfortunately, in that sense, that's the year I moved to New Hampshire: it's been great up here, but I really doubt they have that sort of grant money kicking around, either.

Now if we could link what we do with reducing global warming, or combatting terrorism, we'd have all the funding we could want.

Well, we do help kill fascists.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

WARP is funny, but the program is called TARP. So whats the "W" for? Or did I just answer my own question?

Mike

Guys,

In the US and Canada their are research and development tax incentives.
In Canada it is called the SR&ED (Scientific Research and Experimental Development) program.
Not sure what the US program is called, but it does exist.

Most likely the big manufacturers are taking advantage of these programs, but they are
availavle to the small companies also if they are truly doing R&D work.

Luc

I looked into this one time, because I read a really short (like 7 page) paper written by a luthier in Australia, who had received a government grant to go to Greece for a month to visit Greek bouzouki luthiers. That sounded like a plan to me. However, I could not find any US sorce of funding for this. Maybe each state handles it individually. Not sure, but certainly worth more research.

That's it. I'm moving to Australia!

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I haven't written for one yet but it's on my list of things to do this year. Being primarily a bandura maker, I'm going to go for the cultural preservation type of grants as I think that may fly. A buddy of mine was telling me about a friend of his that got a $60k grant (over 4 years I think) for some type of Ukrainian bead work (banduras originate from Ukraine as well). Seeing as there's less than 10 bandura makers on the planet, I think I have a good shot.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com