Rather than the one initial group, let's say three announced research areas over the next three years. Parsing Sam's original post we know there's $10mil. $24mil is a good number for a roughly MIT Media Lab sized yearly budget. We can assume efforts to bring on other investors and many external partners although most will likely be providing resources and pro bono services rather than direct investment. Similarly, certain types of research will be better able to leverage YC's infrastructure without incurring the cost of building, say, a synthetic biology lab.

Also consider that this is YC in terms of overall strategy. Does this mean there is more or less likelihood to be proximal to current long-term research themes in SV? It's fascinating that multiple firms converge on things like flying networks infrastructure, VR, automotive, mapping tectonic, long-term futures on parallel lines. Will YCR be in there? Noticeably absent from the initial post (http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research) is a critique of research as it's conducted in industry. Even if the goal is to make the IP openly available, there are myriad other business models including spin-offs. Nonetheless, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I'm getting a family vibe from roll-out strategy: a 10 person start, doing diligence with Alan Kay and the like thinking of the old and highly insular (in a good way) think tanks, reference to 'projects' with 25 year horizons. So, maybe no spin-offs.

You’re pick.