Turning Research Into Practice

Innovation is more than invention—it is invention turned into practice, and it requires a fundamental change in operations. Innovation is a very slow process in most organizations, and it is especially slow in large institutions where continuing success can breed a risk-averse atmosphere. Furthermore, radical innovation is risky and requires real leadership, dedication, and protection from above. How does one do this consistently in an organization like DARPA that invests over 2 billion per year in advanced research and development ... 

A collaborative virtual environment for molecular electronic structure theory evolved during research into the use of Brillouin-Wigner methodology in handling the electron correlation problem in molecules. We describe all of the elements of a collaborative virtual environment that we have considered and give a brief assessment of how useful each element turned out to be in practice. Others may find different elements to be more or less useful in their own collaborative work. Others may find elements that we have not listed here to be useful. We believe that collaborative virtual environments will become increasing important in the years ahead. They will undoubtedly be at their most useful when tailored to participants research projects. We are not aware of any previous work which has examined the use of collaborative virtual environments in molecular electronic structure theory or quantum chemistry. 

---