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Big if True Science Accelerator (BiTS)

A 15-week, part-time accelerator for scientists and technologists to design and pitch ambitious R&D programs. Applications for Americas Cohort are live.

About

The internet, mRNA vaccines, self-driving cars, GPS... These technologies didn't emerge from incremental progress in industry or academia. They were the result of pre-commercial coordinated research programs (CRPs).

Essential to the CRP model is finding deeply technical leaders ("program managers/directors") with ambitious visions spanning multiple stakeholders and partners and providing them the autonomy and resources to execute on those visions. We believe that there are many leaders who can advance promising technologies if given the chance.

We also see many opportunities to promote the CRP model in government agencies and philanthropic organizations. In our view, the key missing ingredient is a program that equips such leaders with the requisite knowledge and skills, and then seeks to match them with an aligned institution or secure funding to execute their vision.

That's why we designed the Big if True Science Accelerator (BiTS): to enable ambitious scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to scope bold concepts and transform them into actionable programs.

BiTS is a 15-week, mostly virtual, part-time program designed and overseen by former DARPA program managers (PMs) Joshua Elliott and JP Chretien. It teaches participants how to turn an ambitious idea into a concrete and fundable program—via field exploration and idea refinement, program design and development, practical program execution, and tech translation.

🌎 Apply for Americas Cohort (Early bird Deadline Dec 22)

Our Cohorts

Our UK cohort powered by ARIA and our EU cohort powered by SPRIND are now underway. Our third cohort is currently open for applications. To be notified of future open calls and other opportunities, please fill in this form. For more information, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions. 

The Program

The program includes 15 weeks of intensive iteration on a prospective program with 1:1 guidance from experienced mentors, a tailored curriculum, and seasoned speakers. The cohort will conclude with a Demo Day, where fellows will be able to get feedback from a variety of funders in attendance, including ARPAs, philanthropies, and impact investors. Success is defined by the translation of an ambitious idea into a concrete and fundable program. 

Building Blocks of BiTS

  • Develop the skills necessary to surface the right questions, identify and engage the most relevant individuals and communities, and incorporate learnings into a revised thesis. Conventional scientists or entrepreneurs talk mostly with peers in a narrow subfield. Great programs must traverse disciplines and tap a diversity of talent pools. Great program managers are capable of shifting horizontally—across domains—as well as vertically—across levels of resolution.

  • Learn how to zoom out and consider what will really transform a field and impact society at large. Take a high-level idea, flesh it out, test it, and iterate to develop a concrete plan to execute in 3-5 years.

  • Develop excellence in operationalizing a program via project management, performer/people management, budgeting, and risk mitigation.

  • Plan backwards from real-world outcomes to maximize the chance of program success. Work with potential funders and partners from the beginning to ensure efforts can be scaled and implemented.

  • Learn from proven leaders of CRPs, like ARIA Programme Directors and ARPA Program Managers, along with a diverse and experienced network of creators, performers, peers, mentors, and transition partners.

  • Showcase theses, strategies, and operational plans to government agencies, philanthropic foundations, and other potential host organizations, with the goal of bringing a program to life.

The minimum weekly commitment is 10 hours (with most fellows choosing to spend additional hours), spread between:

  • Exploratory Calls: Talk to people doing relevant work on the ground in labs, companies, government agencies, and the like. Expect to schedule a few such calls per week, especially in the early phases of the program.

  • Synthesis: Your main outputs will be a condensed 3-page proposal and a 10-15 minute presentation. Expect to spend a lot of time on refining your program thesis, writing and slide design.

  • Mentoring: Work through problems, get advice, and plan for upcoming weeks during 1:1 meetings with carefully selected mentors. These meetings are scheduled at your and your mentor’s convenience.

  • Small Group Sessions: Participate in workshop-style activities, case studies, lecture discussions, and informal co-working with peers to address challenges. These will be hour-long meetings with groups of up to four fellows at a fixed weekly meeting time chosen to work with everyone’s schedule.

  • Reading: Engage with concepts, history, and tactics behind different skills required to successfully start and run CRPs. See curriculum here.

  • “Storytime” (optional, but strongly encouraged): Learn from people who have done it—experts who have designed and run successful (and unsuccessful) CRPs. These will be 1-hour virtual sessions that include lectures on specific topics, open-format Q&As, or panels.

You will also be required to attend both an in-person kickoff event and an in-person demo day at the end of the program.

Program Team

Joshua Elliott

Chief Scientist

Jean-Paul Chretien

Program Director

Aleš Flídr

Manager

Program Advisors

Tom Kalil

CEO, Renaissance Philanthropy

Brad Ringeisen

ED, innovative genomics at Berkeley

Hemai Parthasarathy

Former Head of Rapid Evaluation, Google X (general tech, science, neuroscience)

Anne Fischer

Chief Technologist, Intellectual Ventures (former DARPA DSO DD, chemistry++)

Pat McGrath

Program Director, Schmidt Family Foundation (former ARPA-E)

Andy Bamford

Director of UK NSSIF

Program Mentors

  • Joeanna C. Arthur

  • Anne Cheever

  • Mike Fiddy

  • Anne Fischer

  • Justin Gallivan

  • David A. Markowitz

  • Cheryl Martin

  • Pat McGrath

  • Sandeep Patel

  • Brad Ringeisen

  • Jane Roskams

  • Renee Wegrzyn

Our Partners

History of BiTS

The Team's DARPA Experience

2017-2024

Joshua Elliott and JP Chretien, both former Program Managers at DARPA, have collectively led nearly $1B in high-risk, high-reward research programs. Joshua oversaw $600M in initiatives over six years, shaping strategies for breakthrough innovation. JP led over $300M in programs at DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, spearheading the agency’s first biomedical Grand Challenge and advancing cutting-edge research with top institutions. Together, they bring over a decade of experience driving transformative scientific and technological advancements.

Identifying a Critical Challenge

Late 2022

In late 2022, after speaking with leaders from ARPA-like organizations (ARIA, NCADE, ARPA-H) and pioneers of new non-profit models (FROs), Joshua identified a significant challenge: how to source and train effective program leaders without the long-established history and momentum of DARPA.

Mentoring Future Leaders

2022-2023

Joshua mentored potential ARPA-H program managers through Actuate, helping them shift from traditional academic thinking to the high-risk, high-reward mindset that defines DARPA PMs. This experience demonstrated the potential to train future leaders and led him to design the Breakthrough Research Accelerator for Innovative Non-profit Science (Brains Initiative).

Building the Brains Initiative

2023-2024

Joshua partnered with Ben Reinhardt and Speculative Technologies to build out the Brains concept, demonstrating the program with the first cohort of ARIA PDs and with an open cohort of scientists in Spring 2024.

Launching BiTS

2024-Present

Building on lessons from Brains, BiTS (Big if True Science) was designed as a core program of Renaissance Philanthropy to catalyze more ambitious coordinated research programs in both government and philanthropy. In particular, the program focuses on  leveraging lessons from DARPA’s successes and failures, including the creation of a "Playbook for ARPA-PMs”. UK’s ARIA invested in the first open cohort of BiTS, making this training available to scientists and technologists in the UK and beyond.