The US has (amongst other things) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIRs) Grants/Contracts, that the DoD plus various other gov orgs (NIH, NSF, NASA, FBI, et

The US has (amongst other things) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIRs) Grants/Contracts, that the DoD plus various other gov orgs (NIH, NSF, NASA, FBI, etc) put out once or more a year that looks for research ideas for lots of things. I worked for a company for almost a decade and a half that dealt with them, and it lets you work on lots of fun stuff! https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/topic/current https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/topic/current There are some startups that actually launch using them, but they are relatively rare because when you are a startup you want to focus on finding your product or service, and not spend a lot of time filling out grant proposals and progress reports and going to governmental meetings. So they can be a big distraction. Still, it is an option.