Ian Mulvany

February 5, 2023

A nee way of structuring a phd

Deep science ventures opened up applications for its phd program - https://apply.workable.com/deep-science-ventures/j/58DD353058/. The idea is to embed a PhD program within a startup incubator, with a focus on transformative technologies that can help with challenges such as climate change. 
 
Their portfolio of projects is inspirational  https://deepscienceventures.com/portfolio

DSV are building a pipeline to go from research into the creation of tech focussed companies. 

There are a bunch of things that are interesting here. In terms of the PhD program - startups are most likely to be successful when the founder has a safety net. Will having a funded PhD expand the opportunity for diversity of founders? 

Long term innovation needs long bets from government, but translation is hard. Will this program help reduce the gap from research to translation? 

Innovation requires many non coordinated groups tackling problems. Can DSV maintain a sufficient diversity of bets coming in to its pipeline to avoid this kind of self reinforced confirmatory bias around solutions? 

I’m  optimistic on all of these points and will be interested in seeing where they get to. 

About Ian Mulvany

Hi, I'm Ian - I work on academic publishing systems. You can find out more about me at mulvany.net. I'm always interested in engaging with folk on these topics, if you have made your way here don't hesitate to reach out if there is anything you want to share, discuss, or ask for help with!