Radical R&D Unit

A Radical R&D (Research and Development) unit is a new type of functional unit that you can set up in a R&D Center.

It undertakes a radical approach in product research and development which aims to achieve dramatically greater results in shorter time frames. The radical approach does come with a price – the success of the research is not guaranteed and you may lose your entire investment in the R&D project without any outcome. So you are advised to use it in combination with traditional R&D units as part of a greater strategy.

Its pros and cons in a nutshell:
Pros:
A successful radical R&D project advances your technology by leaps and bounds that otherwise cannot be achieved with traditional R&D projects. In a market where product differentiation is hard to come by, being a distinctive technology leader can give you a major competitive advantage.

Cons:
A radical R&D project is less predictable than traditional R&D projects and failure is commonplace.

Gameplay Instructions 
Follow the below steps for setting up and operating a Radical R&D unit.

Set up a Chief Technical Officer’s Office in your Headquarters.

Hire a CTO (Chief Technical Officer) with a minimum Expertise value of 20 in Research and Development 
Now build a R&D Center and click the big [+] icon to set up a team of R&D units.
With the CTO at helm of your R&D center, you will see the new option of setting up a team of Radical R&D units.

Once the Radical R&D units are ready, click the Start Radical R&D button and select the product type you want to research. After you have done that, you will be prompted to select the target result of your radical research project, as shown in the following screenshot.

The success rate of a radical R&D project is affected by the aggressiveness of the project – the more aggressively it aims for the target research result, the lower the success rate will be.

For example, a Radical R&D project aiming for a 200% tech gain has a success rate of 50%, whereas aiming for a 400% tech gain will reduce the success rate to 25%.

The following screenshot shows a Radical R&D project with a 50% success rate in progress.