SCIENCE-BASED INDUSTRIES such as biotechnology offer the potential of high growth, but they are fraught with risk. The payoffs, if they ever come, can take many years to materialize. Amid intensifying capital market pressures for short-term financial results, even large and successful companies are finding it increasingly challenging to justify longer-term risky research and development investments. The challenge is particularly acute in research-intensive fields including biotechnology, nanotechnology, and advanced materials, which involve massive R&D investments, extended gestation lags before investments bear fruit, and high risks of failure.