Canadian politicians are talking about setting up a Canadian DARPA. Tying precious research dollars to military applications is not an efficient way to innovate and will lead to obscenities like the self-healing minefield. Encourage start-ups, not the military industrial complex.
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"A clear applied goal". Agreed. How about: Climate change, energy efficiency, forest monitoring and rehabilitation, energy capture and storage, cost effective medicine and medical appliances, ... instead of, idk, click-through-ratios and killer drones
Sure, but ARPA-E has not been nearly as successful as DARPA. (And NIH . . . that’s a whole other can of worms.)