A Scientific Roadmap for Research Progress

A Scientific Roadmap for Research Progress

Context:

Big scientific progress often happens in “bursts” rather than linearly because of the bottleneck phenomenon. There are some problems when “unlocked” unleashes a huge flurry of progress because many lines of research had previously been blocked by the same thing. Many of these roadblocks might be solved much faster if people understood the potential gains from the unlock better. Unfortunately, even the best researchers are often trapped in their local minima, focusing on their problems at hand and rarely zooming out to see the whole picture.

The Task:

  1. Pick an area of research you’re interested in seeing rapid progress in (neurogenerative disease, obesity, cheap energy, faster travel)
  2. Read this blog from essential technology: https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/scientific-roadmapping
  3. Create the following types of roadmaps they describe:
    • Landscape analysis
    • Technical Roadmap
    • Opportunity Analysis
  4. Bonus points for India specific sections in all of these — i.e. the global landscape vs what’s happening in India, the technical roadmap and what within this is feasible in India and the opportunity analysis of what this would mean in general and for India.
  5. Send us your work (ideally in markdown or another way we can easily publish if your work is good)

Why it matters:

These roadmaps are not common as they should be in general, but especially uncommon in the Indian context. This sort of rigorous zoomed out analysis is what it will take to draw attention to all the ways India can punch above its weight and contribute meaningfully to research progress (in an area you pick and care about!)

What’s in it for you

Creating this roadmaps first and foremost will clarify to you if this is a field you want to make your life’s work—what it will take, what’s at stake and what’s likely possible.

If you decide this is for you, such an endeavor is the best way to demonstrate seriousness to anybody in the field you’re interested in, without the resources of a big lab. If your work is good, we’ll do everything in out power to get a final round interview at lab or a company or any group working on the problem you’re interested in.