If you can clearly define the specifications for your technical project, and you are willing and able to manage the efforts closely, then outsourcing it to a local or remote technical group beats hiring technical employees.
Although it doesn't quite have the wow factor of Cornell's invisibility project, the thermal research may prove to be more practical because it also can be used to manage heat and improve cooling in components such as computer chips.
G20 got deeper into the project, they saw that it would mean a sea-change in the way that banks make payments and manage liquidity, and even in the way that central banks manage their domestic currencies.