Initiatives

"Research is creating new knowledge, and one experiment can change everything." -Neil Armstrong

twom white flying rockets during daytime

The Problem: Current Science and R&D Funding Is Broken

Risk Aversion and Incrementalism

Most grant agencies (like NSF, NIH, DoD, etc.) fund safe, incremental work with predictable outcomes. Truly innovative or paradigm-shifting ideas (e.g. quantum computing in 1995 or CRISPR in 2005) often look speculative early on and do not receive funding. As a result, researchers often reshape their grant proposals to sound “safe” instead of pursuing the most interesting and bold ideas.

Gatekeeping and Bureaucracy

The peer review system and funding structures favor well-established scientists at elite institutions. Young or outsider researchers with bold ideas often don’t have the institutional clout to win grants. Venture frequently does not fund R&D without a clear product roadmap and timeline.

Misaligned Incentives

Scientists are incentivized to publish papers, not build useful technologies or systems. Capitalists are incentivized to fund products now, not moonshots. The "Publish or perish" mentality promotes volume over value, often leading to salami slicing of work into minimal publishable units, a dearth of "useful" outputs and a sea of papers that never bridge academia and product development. Grant review cycles can take 6–12 months with low approval rates leading to abandoned work due to lack of funding. Venture favors the "Uber for bikes" as it fits their proven model, timeline, TAM, and LP risk preference. For true breakthroughs, the incentives between all parties must align.

"The unpredictable nature of breakthroughs, paired with systemic risk aversion, leaves a critical funding gap for high-impact technologies that fall outside established convention."

SpaceX upended legacy aerospace with their rapid "fail forward" approach

DeepMind rewrote how cutting edge research manifests in real products

Apogee Fellowship

Our fellowship initiative provides grants to innovators, researchers, scientists, engineers and tinkerers, helping to foster groundbreaking ideas in space propulsion and energy. Apogee Vision believes in empowering the next generation to explore and expand the possibilities of human flourishing amongst the stars. Tell us who you are, what you're working on and how the money will help. All that is required is a report on your research endeavor that we can share in our data repository, where you can choose to license core IP and inspire others. Funding in days, not months. Its that simple.

$5k, $10K, $50K, $100K and $250K

Apply

A large spacecraft is displayed inside a spacious museum hangar, showcasing its massive engines from a rear view. The interior architecture features a high ceiling with geometric patterns, and visitors are seen observing the exhibit.

The StarShot Prize

The worlds first capital markets backed space propulsion breakthrough prize. Apogee Vision believes that a step change in space propulsion is not only possible, but essential for long term human survival. The Starshot prize will be awarded to the first company that experimentally shows in public, a >1N non-propellant thruster in hard vacuum (10⁻⁵ torr). UAP data suggests that this technology is achievable and simply an engineering problem.

The market clearing price of this breakthrough is currently unknown. As such, the Starshot prize will increase annually until awarded, incentivizing new entrants and continued development. To be eligible to receive the prize you must agree to a conditional grant agreement and to share high level details in the data repository.

Currently $1,000,000 USD

Join

The Solution

We are forging alliances with top universities, labs, and industry sponsors to amplify impact and bring breakthroughs to fruition. Periodic "Hack-the-Vacuum" hackathons and conferences will be held to ideate, learn and share roadmaps and resources, helping to establish a clear understanding of challenges and solutions to advance breakthroughs.

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Partnerships and Incubation

Become a partner