Investors lose money on innovation undertakings because they hang on to estimates of cost-to-complete and time-to-finish issued by bright-eyed overly optimistic inventors, innovators and discoverers. These geniuses would grossly underestimate the figures, and unwittingly lure the investor into a financial pit. In other cases investors use estimates issued by people with a negative agenda for the estimated project, or by estimators who place a lavish cushion on their estimate, because they really don't understand the new technology. The resultant overestimate steers the investor to dismiss  a very profitable proposition.  

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That is where the Innovation Solution Protocol comes in, offering arm's length appraisal, using means and tools designed to extract a most credible statement of what it takes to achieve the stated R&D goal. Our estimates guide the innovators on their path ahead, and at the same time we provide the underwriters of the project with a realistic picture of expected expenses before there is a product to harvest. Similarly, D&G Sciences -- Innovation Productivity Corporation, serves the expected beneficiary of the R&D project with a realistic figure of when to expect the promised result. These objective figures are an indispensable input for rational decisions by all the stakeholders of any large, ambitious innovative project, and more so for a heavily invested durable R&D program.

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Ordinary estimation techniques won't work. They are based on simple extrapolation from a similar previous project. An innovative project does not have a very similar previous project (otherwise it would not have been an innovative project). The Innovation Solution Protocol uses advanced mathematical tools to build a cost probability curve, computed through multi-variate analysis of all the relevant knowledge. This curve points to the most probable cost (and duration), for the project, and at the same time the shape of this curve expresses the credibility of the quoted estimate. The more innovative the project ahead, the poorer the credibility of the esimtate of cost-to-complete and time-to-finish. For the investor, comparing cost probability curves of several projects competing for the same funds, leads to a rational optimal allocation of investment resources. For the innovator the improvement of the credibility of the estimate as the project progresses, serves as a critical confirmation that the project is on the right track. Arm's Length objective estimate via the cost probability curve is the foundation of rational innovation management. It is the niche, the unique expertise D&G Sciences -- Innovation Productivity Corporation refined over decades and used throughout the technological landscape on all continents of the globe.