You find you are no longer subject to artificial restrictions. You have much greater leeway to find a path forward. You can go where the evidence leads, which in the case of innovative products is quite often the deciding factor in success. This increased chance of success is just as beneficial to the giver of funds as to the recipient.

Master the compulsories and we’re willing to let you be more innovative and unconventional in how you gather your evidence. You are no longer bound by convention or convenience. This comes with the understanding that we’ll accept findings from your unconventional approaches. It also means greater risk. We expect you to take risk in how you pursue the science, but just in case we buy insurance. You know the compulsories. This means you know where the real limits are. We won’t be looking over your shoulder. Don’t ask for permission because we can’t give it; better to ask for forgiveness.

They get broader experience and become more comfortable about their own marketability. They build a deeper appreciation for the discipline of industrial R&D, rather than of any particular technical discipline. They become much more valuable as industrial researchers, since the call for useful evidence takes them to the end customer or a surrogate. They are much less tempted to have to prove themselves in social settings with an ostentatious display of some arcane nuance of their field. It’s the overall R&D pursuit that is their focus. Layers of depth or specialization can and should be pursued as part of a researcher’s personal branding, but all research must ultimately come up to a common layer and be an essential facet of a larger understanding. This common layer broadens a researcher’s views and marketability.

We fund research into broader areas of investigation. You no longer worry about losing funding based on negative results from any one study. Many more avenues of research are open. This includes the avenues for alternate sources of funding.