Inner Circle and SOE Agree Protocol for Transfer of Project Discovery to Concord Oversight

YULAI – A protocol for transferring the Project Discovery citizen science network to CONCORD oversight has been agreed, according to a joint statement issued by the CONCORD Inner Circle and the Sisters of EVE today.

The Project Discovery research program was launched in March YC118, aiming at a comprehensive categorization and analysis of tissue samples acquired from the Drifters since their emergence in early YC117. Guided to great acclaim by Professor Emma Lundberg, Chief Scientist for the SOE advanced research division, Project Discovery achieved its goals in record time and led to a number of advances, including the synthesis of Antipharmakon boosters and notably the development of new cloning technology.

Controversially, the SOE chose to deliver the cloning advances that make possible Clone States Alpha and Omega to the four empires without consulting CONCORD, which has responsibility for strategic technology sharing under the terms of Directive Alpha Gamma 12 of the Yulai Convention. Since the exposure of the unauthorized sharing at a CONCORD Assembly summit in October YC118, rumors have swirled through interstellar diplomatic circles of retaliatory action to be taken by CONCORD.

While the joint statement avoids any language of recrimination, it noted: "Conditions in the interstellar community today are such that it is essential to place citizen science efforts relying on the liquid router network under proper oversight, so that any scientific findings and technological development may be shared evenly and without risk of bias. We have all seen in recent days the benefits of sharing in such work with the success of the Kyonoke Inquest on the Society of Conscious Thought's H4-RP4 Keepstar."

The statement went on to thank Professor Lundberg "for her vision and innovation in establishing the framework for a distributed analysis of the Drifter tissue sample library by the citizens of New Eden." The noted astrophysicist, exoplanetologist and chief of CONCORD's Deep Space Research Division, Professor Michel Mayor, has been named by CONCORD as the new Director of Citizen Science for Project Discovery.

The reorganization of Project Discovery is expected to take some months and the work of building on Drifter tissue analysis will continue until the transfer is completed.