Welcome to our engine room.

Here's how it works

Ideas: We're always in the market for new ideas. These can come from anywhere. We wouldn't be called Open Lunar if they couldn't! Every June & July we engage our community in a selection process that filters all the ideas we've received down to 4-6 keepers. These ideas we call 'hunches'.

Hunches: We announce our Hunches in September and recruit fellows to develop them between September and November. Hunch fellowships run from January - August. We intend them to be about an 8 hours a week investment, and fellows are compensated for their time. Hunch fellowships must have an output, this is typically a research paper, but can also be a concept of operations, a business plan, a standard or a technical specification.

Initiatives: Some of our Hunches become Initiatives. Initiatives are Hunches that our community thinks have legs. This means that they can potentially attract enough support to run as independent entities at some point in the future. We also support Initiatives that we think have intrinsic value for our mission, even if independent support isn't yet feasible.

Our approach

We review all of our projects on an annual basis and we're always looking for partnerships that can help them grow. Whether you're an Academic institution, government, company, philanthropy or non-profit, reach out to us for a conversation!