Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 18:51
Forums
Kuril Islands Biocomplexity 08

About how much would you say that your trip cost altogether? Including everything.   

-Clara 

Wed, 09/10/2008 - 05:58

KBP Team

The official numbers from the NSF web site say that so far the project has spent $2.9 million dollars.  That's a lot of money, but keep in mind that this is a 5 year project, with 5 co-Principal Investigators and very large field crews. Travel expenses are very high, with airfare costing around $2000 per person.  For the project as a whole, two of the biggest expenses have been radiocarbon analyses (costing between $250 and $500 per sample), and ship time (which costs over $10,000 per day).
 
It is an expensive undertaking.  But when those costs are spread out over the 5-year term of the project, and when you consider how many different researchers are involved, the overall budget is actually pretty small relative to some other large projects.
 
- --Dr. E.