I’ve spent some time exploring institutions and their needs, universities, research labs, and applied R&D centres across Hong Kong, Nigeria, and the US. The pattern is unmistakable, and the opportunity is gaping. I’ve got spreadsheets with names, emails and points of interest:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A5xyRyoW9IGzWhJAONOIeYWUvDEjxoKG/edit?gid=444772184#gid=444772184
These institutions have consistent, structured demand for exactly what we’re building on Quiver. They run robotics programs, autonomy research, and engineering education. They build their own systems from scratch, whether they want to or not, because there’s no open, flexible platform available to them. The nexus of demand is clear. The avenues for working with them and on boarding them as nodes in Arrow’s network are very much present.
Here’s what I’ve found:
The institutions want what we’re building. Universities like HKUST and Texas A&M and all those i have listed have active robotics labs and autonomy research groups, etc. They need platforms for student projects, research validation, and field testing. Polytechnics and technical universities across Nigeria have dedicated Mechatronics departments hungry for equipment and flagship projects. one of my uncles is basically one of the people who is going to decide what universities in Nigeria do for research by launching and leading a national initiative to boost research capacity in Nigerian universities, with support from the Nigerian University Commission and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors, so I’ve had discussions with him on platforms they could use, and i presented Quiver as such. FAA-designated UAS test sites need modular, research-grade systems. These aren’t speculative needs, they’re built into institutional mandates and grant cycles that are going to churn over year on year.
They’re not looking for polish. They’re looking for capability. These people value functionality, flexibility, and documentation over consumer-grade interfaces. They want systems they can adapt, integrate, and iterate on. That’s exactly what we’re building. They were going to have to develop their own solutions anyway. We’ed be offering them a better path. Being people within RnD institutions, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be willing to give feedback, structured systematic feedback, on platform designs and deployments.
The collaboration would flow both ways. By embedding Quiver and Arrow’s platforms into these institutions, we unlock multiple feedback loops. We get real-world research data, field validation, and direct input from leading researchers. We create opportunities for joint R&D. We open doors for manufacturing partnerships and component development. And critically, we build a network of practitioners and potential contributors who understand the systems deeply and have a vested interest in seeing it develop.
The is expansive. Imagine teams and individuals in institutions worldwide posting Arrow token bonds and working on payload attachments. Imagine courses being delivered with Arrow hardware, testing and training happening with Arrow systems. Imagine test data flowing back from every deployment, informing dev kit design revisions. Imagine bounties and grants being taken up by researchers and students. And yes, crucially, imagine the purchase orders. Lots of them.
This isn’t speculative. The institutions exist. The demand is real. The pathways for partnership are open. What we need now is to decide on whether or not, and how, to move on them intentionally and systematically.
I’ve done the legwork on the research side. and I want to hear from everyone:
Should we press on to engage them ? How should we structure these engagements? What should our first moves be? What am I missing ?
Let’s discuss how we turn these opportunities into reality.