ChinaTalk R&D Renaissance with Kumar Garg
Sep 17, 2024
Kumar Garg, President of Renaissance Philanthropy and former Obama official, delves into the landscape of innovation and R&D funding. He discusses how his organization targets mid-scale, transformative ideas like carbon sequestration and neurocognition datasets. Kumar highlights the challenges that government and universities face in R&D funding, while praising entities like OpenAI for pushing progress. He also evaluates U.S.-China competition and the critical importance of managing alliances in the pursuit of strategic innovation.
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Mid-Scale Funding Gap
- Renaissance Philanthropy aims to identify and fund mid-scale, field-transforming ideas in science and technology.
- These ideas are often too big for individual research projects but too small for large university campaigns.
Field-Level Thinking
- Researchers should frame their ambitions in terms of advancing their entire field, not just their individual projects.
- Identify roadblocks and bottlenecks to accelerate the field's overall progress.
Enhanced Rock Weathering
- Early funding for enhanced rock weathering, a carbon removal technology, has significantly advanced the field.
- This shows how philanthropic funding can catalyze emerging areas.
