Apply
Send us the thinking
Don’t go to uni, start building instead. No nominations, no referrals, no credentials. 2 pages on the thing you can’t stop thinking about. Excelsior checks it against everything published and patented, then a person who can judge the science reads it. 2 weeks to an answer. Told your whole life to wait your turn, this is the other direction.
Fucking accelerate.
The application
What to put in it
4 things. The idea, the view your field doesn’t hold, what changes if you’re right, and proof that you build. Nobody cares where you studied.
If you’d rather write
1 email works too
What to send
- A research proposal, 2 pages, in your own words
- What you believe is already known, and where the gap is
- Something you worked out yourself, and how you got there
- What changes in the world if you’re right
- What you’d have at month 12
Where to send it
1 email, attachments welcome, no form to fill in. We read everything and reply to everyone.
fellows@joinadastra.com51-57 Cubitt Street, Cremorne, Victoria
Selection
Who gets in, builders only, no doomers
5 things we check. No degree, half a degree, a decade in a garage, walked out of a big company that wouldn’t let you build it, all fine. Most of the people we want look like that.
Position
A view your field doesn’t hold
Something you believe that your field doesn’t, and why the evidence is on your side. How you think decides this. Credentials count for nothing. Having none counts for nothing either.
Track record
Building before anyone paid you
What you made before anyone funded it or graded it. Working when nothing makes you is the only thing that predicts 12 months here.
Target
Aimed at something that matters
Who’s affected if you’re right and by how much. Go after the big thing, the Kardashev scale doesn’t climb itself.
Unencumbered
You arrive owning your ideas
No employer, university or investor with a claim on what you make. Clean intellectual property from day 1.
Panel
You defend it in person
Your proposal, the prior art position Excelsior built on it, and a conversation with people who can judge the work. No committee, no quota.
Shortlisted candidates get every number in writing before any interview. The fee, the note, the 39 per cent it can become, the tax position it rests on. Nothing gets signed until you’ve read it and taken your own advice.
After you send it
What happens next, with dates
No step costs you anything.
01
Straight away
A person reads it
No filter, no form score. Someone who can judge the science reads every application.
No filter, no form score. Someone who can judge the science reads every application.
02
Within 2 weeks
You get an answer either way
Everyone who applies gets a decision and a rejection comes with the reason.
Everyone who applies gets a decision and a rejection comes with the reason.
03
If you’re shortlisted
Every number, in writing, before anything else
The fee, the note, the 39 per cent, the tax position. Read it and take your own advice before any interview.
The fee, the note, the 39 per cent, the tax position. Read it and take your own advice before any interview.
04
The interview
You defend the idea in person
People who can judge the work. Your proposal, what’s known, where the gap is.
People who can judge the work. Your proposal, what’s known, where the gap is.
05
If you’re offered a place
You arrive and a company is set up in your name
Bring what fits in a suitcase. The 12 months start that morning. Foot flat.
Bring what fits in a suitcase. The 12 months start that morning. Foot flat.
For parents
The case, and the risks
You’ve watched them teach themselves things nobody set and outgrow every room they’ve been put in. You’ve also watched them get told to slow down and wait their turn.
A year here costs you nothing. A building with a lab in it, fed, 400 people just as serious, and at the end a company of their own and something nobody knew. Goes badly, 12 months of real work, more than most first years of a degree. Goes well, a head start nothing else buys.
The risks, plainly. Month 9 is a real cut. Their company is invoiced for the labs it uses, pays part from its research and development refund, and Accelerate Industries settles the rest for a note it can turn into 39 per cent. They keep the majority and control. The fee is ruled eligible for the research and development tax incentive. Every number is in writing before anything is signed.
You were right about them. Send them here.