[lumost]

It took me far to long to realize this, but the incentive on research grants is not to deliver a final product. In many cases the individuals responsible for delivering would be rewarded by no longer having a career.

Hence, these programs tend towards infinite research proposals- the same is true in applied ml research in private corporations.

[DennisP]

First Light isn't a research program funded by grants, it's a startup company attempting to develop a product. If they actually deliver before someone else makes them obsolete, they won't lose their careers, they'll make an absurd amount of money and be quite busy improving their reactors.