- Hello everybody, my name is Angadh and I am based at Queen Mary University of London, where I lead a research group developing robotics technologies for in-space assembly of large structures- think habitats and space solar power. - Working on this vision as an atom-based one requires a different innovation ecosystem because it is not really fit for academia. Though I do not see it as a venture-backable startup idea, I have been making pitches because it needs startup-level resources and the timespans given to govt. research projects. - I have also been working on bootstrapping Space HQ as an independent researcher running other related bit-based ideas. - In other words, I am eschewing the traditional academic culture (journal article publication and grant writing) in favour of a startup mentality. - This is a risky approach in academia with anxiety-inducing moments. In one such moment, I reached out to Ben Reinhardt who thinks about similar atom-based problems. - Ben encouraged me to submit to the ARIA roundtable ideas. - If I were to make three suggestions to ARIA, it would be: - towards supporting an FRO-like institute for in-space assembly robotics development (where we would have clear plan of what we would like to do within a five-year span). - work on [[14c How to identify risk-averse researchers]] and support them (instead of prioritising the HRHR research) - [[0f What funders can do to help academic founders]] #riskywork