Convergent Research

Convergent Research is an incubator for philanthropic ventures founded in 2021 and funded by Eric Schmidt, Wendy Schmidt and Ken Griffin¹² as part of the Schmidt Sciences Network.³ Convergent Research is designed to identify high-impact scientific or technological R&D fields, then launch companies to address these fields with a structure they call Focused Research Organizations (FROs).⁴ As of 2023, there are 7 FROs.⁵

A Focused Research Organization, or FRO, is a type of non-profit organization designed to address technical problems or perform scientific research. Unlike academic research labs, 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.⁶ Unlike a startup company, a FRO project is not profitable enough in its initial stages. Unlike think tanks or research institutes, they tend to pursue specific technical goals rather than general research.⁷ Once their technical goals are achieved, FROs may evolve into more traditional non-profits, or become backed by venture capital and transform into startups.⁸

• Development for Lean (proof assistant) is supported by a FRO.
• E11 bio has a goal of creating a single-cell neural circuit mapping tool.⁹
• Cultivarium
• ParallelSq Technology Institute
• EvE Bio
• Forest Neuro
• [c]Worthy
• CHI FRO¹⁰