Convergent_Research

Convergent Research

Convergent Research

Incubator for philanthropic ventures

Convergent Research is an incubator for philanthropic ventures founded in 2021 and funded by Eric Schmidt, Wendy Schmidt and Ken Griffin[1][2][3] as part of the Schmidt Futures Network.[4] Convergent Research is designed to identifying high-impact scientific or technological R&D fields, then launch companies to address these fields with a structure they call Focused Research Organizations (FROs).[5] As of 2023, there are 7 FROs.[6]

Focused Research Organizations (FROs)

A Focused Research Organization, or FRO, is a type of non-profit organization designed to address technical problems or perform scientific research. They differ from academic research labs in that they have medium-to-large size teams with corporate structures, embrace projects which are unlikely to yield publishable results, and frequently involve scientists and engineers collaborating across disciplines.[7] FRO projects are not profitable enough in their initial stages for them to constitute a startup company, and unlike think tanks or research institutes, tend to pursue specific technical goals rather than general research.[8] Once their technical goals are achieved, FROs may evolve into more traditional non-profits, or become backed by venture capital and transform into startups.[9]

List of FROs

References

  1. [1]
    "How a 5-minute phone call between a millennial billionaire and an economist created a $50 million grant program backed by Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg and more tech luminaries". Fortune.
  2. [2]
    Cole, Samantha (March 15, 2023). "Schmidt Futures and Ken Griffin Commit $50 Million to Support the Next Big Breakthroughs in Science". Schmidt Futures.
  3. [3]
    "ABC News".
  4. [4]
    Knapp, Alex. "Why Billionaires Ken Griffin And Eric Schmidt Are Spending $50 Million On A New Kind Of Scientific Research". Forbes.
  5. [5]
    "Philanthropy News Digest".
  6. [6]
    "FRO Portfolio". Convergent Research.
  7. [7]
    "Focused Research Organizations: A New Model for Scientific Research". Federation of American Scientists. 2023-06-15. Archived from the original on 2023-10-17.
  8. [8]
    "Unblock research bottlenecks with non-profit start-ups". Nature. 11 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. [9]
    "A New Model for Science". Tony Blair Institute. 2022-08-04. Archived from the original on 2023-10-17.
  10. [10]
    "E11 Bio | Moonshot Neuroscience". E11 Bio. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
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