Executive Summary

 

The The Institute of Venture Science (IVS) is designed to invest in the high-risk, high-reward approaches that are likely to yield important scientific breakthroughs. 

 

Acknowledging the need for scientific breakthroughs, some scientific granting agencies have begun taking measures to increase their portfolios of so-called “transformative” research. Transformative research has the potential to bring radical advances. Current agencies, however, are not set up to deal with the most critical obstacle to realization: the reluctance of the scientific community to entertain ideas that challenge their long-held views. Challenges are perceived as antithetical to the community leaders’ best interests, and hence, few transformative ideas ever ascend to realization in reasonable time frame, no matter how compelling may be the case.

 

The IVS is designed to overcome this obstacle. It does so by investing in groups of scientists who independently pursue the same unconventional approach to an entrenched way of thinking or an intractable problem. Grants are awarded following rigorous review. Challenger and orthodoxy present their arguments to a panel of disinterested scientific observers, who decide whether the challenge is meritorious. The most highly ranked proposals are funded liberally, allowing multiple laboratories to pursue the same challenge theme. This multiplicity of efforts creates a critical mass that cannot be ignored; challenge and orthodoxy compete on equal footing and if the challenge prevails, then the result is a realized paradigm shift or even a revolution in scientific thinking.

 

The workings of the Institute will be guided by a Board of Directors and run on a day-to-day basis by an Executive Director. The Director reports to the Board, whose Chair in turn reports to investors. After a ramp-up period, the Institute will operate on a $1B per year budget, drawn from a permanent endowment. With success of the Institute, that endowment could be increased.

 

The Institute’s investments are expected to bring multiple, high-level scientific breakthroughs. These breakthroughs will almost certainly lead to new technologies, which should produce a healthy return-on-investment, similar to other venture-type investments. That return will be enjoyed by all of humanity, perpetually.

 

*Revised from a version submitted to President Obama July 2010.