The DHARMA (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications) Initiative is a scientific research project that has a large presence on the island in the 1970s. They recruit people and bring people to their small-time community in hopes of growing their scientific basis of 'bettering the world' and their overall residential compound and 'community on the Island. At some point in the early 1970s, the DHARMA Initiative founded a tiny community on the Island. 