A scientific enterprise is a
science-based
project developed by, or in cooperation with, a private
entrepreneur. For example, in the
Age of Exploration, leaders like
Henry the Navigator founded schools of navigation, from which stemmed voyages of exploration.
Examples of enterprising scientific organizations
Each organization listed below has the ability to conduct scientific research on an extended basis, involving multiple researchers over an extended time. Generally, the research is funded not only for the science itself, but for some application which shows promise for the enterprise. But the researchers, if left to their own choices, will tend to follow their research interest, which is essential for the long-term health of their chosen field. Note that a successful scientific enterprise is not equivalent to a successful high-tech enterprise or to a successful business enterprise, but that they form an ecology, a food chain.
The
Max Planck Institute, which supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities
Bell Laboratories, renowned for the quality of its scientific work and for inventing the operating system
Unix, and the programming languages
C and
C++