Scientific enterprise refers to science-based projects developed by, or in cooperation with, private entrepreneurs. 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 of the organizations listed below, have 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
• The RAND corporation -- founded as a research corporation. Did groundbreaking work in the field of artificial intelligence
• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, founded by Theodore von Kármán
• Bell Laboratories is renowned for the quality of its scientific work.
• Xerox PARC is a research organization which has also spawned innovations such as the graphical user interface and SRI, where the computer mouse was invented, were explicitly founded with a research basis.
• IBM Research
• Hughes Research Laboratories was the location of the invention of the first working laser.
• The Howard Hughes Medical Institute

References

• The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is an open-content scientific journal. See New York Times June 26th 2004 p.A15. Other open-content journals are listed in the article.

• Andrew Joseph Galambos, Sic Itur Ad Astra (This is the way to the stars) 1998 ISBN 0-88078-002-9

• Gerald Holton, Einstein, History, and Other Passions

• John Ziman, Reliable Knowledge