Institutions can also help enable more independent research. I’m lucky to have found an organization, Protocol Labs, that funds research in all sorts of unusual ways. Having tried this both ways, I can say that having a steady salary (and health insurance!) allows me to do much better work than when I was worried about my next source of funding. Likewise, Harvard generously provided me with tools that an independent researcher wouldn’t otherwise get, such as access to their library and resources. Organizations can still provide this type of support, and the benefit of collaborating with likeminded peers, without requiring a formal entry into academia.