I worked for a small think tank for a few years recently, there are tonnes of social science and policy outlets out there. It effectively operated as a social e

I worked for a small think tank for a few years recently, there are tonnes of social science and policy outlets out there. It effectively operated as a social enterprise, it did a load of survey work for institutional clients (e.g. UN agencies) that paid the bills whilst the staff worked on their priorities on the side. The way I'd approach the problem would be to set up a non profit or social enterprise, seek to build a core business and grant portfolio to keep the lights on and work from there. From another perspective, I'm not entirely sure how OpenAI do things, but there may be insights for you in their approach. You do really need to be thinking long term, you can either burn your own cash for a couple of years and quit with little to show, or build something durable over a period of decades. Reputation isn't something that appears overnight. Germany seems a tough place to do it though. You'll need someone with a good head for paperwork.