As some readers will know, I am developing a dynamic macroeconomic modeling tool–code-named “Minsky”–with the help of an INET Grant. The grant of US$128,000 has allowed me to hire Dr Russell Standish to develop the program. Russell is a long-time research collaborator of mine who was the Director of UNSW’s High Performance Computing Centre before it was discontinued. He is now a visiting Professor of Mathematics at UNSW and a freelance programmer specialising in high-performance numerical programming.
This grant has purchased roughly 1,000 hours of Russell’s time, and with about half that grant expended, we now have a functional if very early prototype of the program which can be downloaded from here on our Sourceforge site.
I also have a second provisional grant from INET of an equivalent sum, conditional upon me achieving some leverage of this grant via another funding source.
An obvious such source is the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Scheme, but to qualify for that Scheme I need an Australian Industry Partner who must be willing to commit a minimum of A$50,000 in cash funding over a three year period. I had two organisations who were willing to assist, but ironically the economic downturn has meant that neither can get the necessary funds approved by its Directors.
I am therefore taking the unusual approach of putting out a direct appeal for a collaborator.
The software being developed is Open Source.
If your organisation would like to assist please contact me via debunking@gmail.com. I need an answer very quickly, since first drafts of the ARC application are required by early next month (November). I would have liked to put this request out a lot earlier, but as usual overwork got in the way.
I will also be starting a Kickstarter campaign soon. More on this anon.
